Community Housing
Community housing addresses the desires, goals, strengths, abilities, needs, health, safety, and lifespan issues of the persons served, regardless of the home in which they live and/or the scope, duration, and intensity of the services they receive. The residences in which services/supports are provided are typically owned, rented, leased, or operated directly by the organization, or may be owned, rented, or leased by a third party, such as a governmental entity. Providers exercise control over these sites in terms of having direct or indirect responsibility for the physical conditions of the facility.
Community housing is provided in partnership with individuals. These services/supports are designed to assist the persons served to achieve success in and satisfaction with community living. They may be temporary or long term in nature. The services/supports are focused on home and community integration and engagement in productive activities. Community housing enhances the independence, dignity, personal choice, and privacy of the persons served. For persons in alcohol and other drug programs, these services/supports are focused on providing sober living environments to increase the likelihood of sobriety and abstinence and to decrease the potential for relapse.
Community housing programs may be referred to as group homes, halfway houses, three-quarter way houses, recovery residences, sober housing, domestic violence or homeless shelters, and safe houses. These programs may be located in rural or urban settings and in houses, apartments, townhouses, or other residential settings owned, rented, leased, or operated by the organization. They may include congregate living facilities and clustered homes/apartments in multiple-unit settings. These residences are often physically integrated into the community, and every effort is made to ensure that they approximate other homes in their neighborhoods in terms of size and number of individuals.
Community housing may include either or both of the following:
- Transitional living that provides interim supports and services for persons who are at risk of institutional placement, persons transitioning from institutional settings, or persons who are homeless. Transitional living is typically provided for six to twenty-four months and can be offered in congregate settings that may be larger than residences typically found in the community.
- Long-term housing that provides stable, supported community living or assists the persons served to obtain and maintain safe, affordable, accessible, and stable housing.
The residences in which Community Housing services are provided must be identified in the survey application. These sites will be visited during the survey process and identified in the survey report and accreditation decision as a site at which the organization provides a Community Housing program.
Note: The term home is used in the following standards to refer to the dwelling of the person served; however, CARF accreditation is awarded based on the services/supports provided. This is not intended to be certification, licensing, or inspection of a site.
Some examples of the quality results desired by the different stakeholders of these services/supports include:
- Safe housing.
- Persons choosing where they live.
- Persons choosing with whom they will live.
- Persons having privacy in their homes.
- Persons increasing independent living skills.
- Persons having access to the benefits of community living.
- Persons having the opportunity to receive services in the most integrated setting.
- Persons' rights to privacy, dignity, respect, and freedom from coercion and restraint are ensured.
- Persons having the freedom to furnish and decorate their sleeping or living units as they choose.
- Persons having freedom and support to control their schedules and activities.
- Settings that are physically accessible to the individuals.