August Newsletter – 2020

Your support made Terrace at Oak Springs a Home

A lot has happened since we all met at Terrace at Oak Springs for the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and Community Celebration.
Individually and as a community, our residents have made tremendous progress since making the transition from the streets to a home. We are pleased to share some initial data that shows the impact of the Housing First model. 
You also can watch this video of Stephen, a resident, telling our Director of Adult Behavioral Health Systems what having a place to call home means to him.

The beauty of the Housing First model is that, along with housing, residents receive the supports they need to begin a path towards health and well-being. In the graph below, you can see the comparison of utilization of health and justice services for individuals who live at Terrace – 6 months prior to moving in compared with 6 months after moving into a home. We know from experience that this is just the beginning of the journey for Terrace residents and that they will continue to reduce utilization of emergency health services and engagement with law enforcement the longer they are in housing.

Homelessness is expensive for the community. The table below shows the cost of homelessness prior to housing and post housing. An average unit cost was used to estimate reduced cost by category. 

  

We also compared the individuals living in Terrace with the next 50 individuals who are waiting for permanent supportive housing. In the graph below, the individuals waiting for housing are purple and the people living in Terrace are green.

We are truly grateful for your support of this endeavor, and we thank you for following our journey, from groundbreaking through construction to our ribbon cutting to supporting our residents. The opening of Terrace at Oak Springs is the culmination of years of tireless work and advocacy – from Integral Care staff, elected officials, community foundations, business leaders, and neighbors. 
We know that Terrace is just the first apartment community of its kind in Central Texas and will be a catalyst in our efforts to create and improve access to affordable housing.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected many clients that Integral Care currently serves, including individuals experiencing homelessness. Over the past several months, Integral Care Foundation has worked in collaboration with our housing and outreach teams to provide basic needs such as food and hygiene kits to individuals in our care. By making a donation today, you can help us continue to provide these essentials.