FUSE?
(really?) Really!
Many of us have been curious about the FUSE project since its initiation in Washtenaw county about a year ago.The RAAH board recently heard an update from Carol McCabe of Avalon Housing, who kindly visited the monthly meeting. She expressed enthusiasm for the program, coupled with some frustration at the difficulties that she and her co-workers have encountered in trying to implement the visionary program.
FUSE stands for Frequent Users Systems Engagement; not a project name that McCabe is fond of; it could equally describe a dating service for video gamers, but there is prestige for AnnArbor and for Avalon in being chosen as one of only 4 or 5 cities in the country to be a site for the national pilot program. FUSE focuses on those100 homeless persons who most frequently turn up in local hospitals' emergency rooms. Administered locally by Avalon and Catholic Social Services, the project will be working with local landlords and housing agencies to provide living space and supportive services for these 100 clients. Funding comes from national sources through the Corporation for Supportive Housing, supplemented by locally raised matching funds from groups such as RAAH. Also participating are U of M and St. Joe's hospitals and Huron Valley Ambulance. Social scientists from New York University will monitor the whole thing in hopes of measuring its effectiveness. Matching the requirements of a program designed to work in San Francisco and New York to the peculiarities of Washtenaw County is very challenging. The effort is demanding "intensive " work by the local case workers and program managers as they coordinate the services of local landlords and hospitals with the changing demands of the federal funding agencies, as well as the requirements of the social scientists and the needs and limitations of the clients being served. In addition parts of the program had depended on funding from HUD homeless assistance and Housing Choice voucher programs, money that the famous sequestration deal has held up or possibly eliminated.
Still, McCabe reported that there have already been good outcomes, such as the following, contributed by a case manager in the Ann Arbor FUSE project and lifted from the web site of the Corporation for Supportive Housing:
Success Story
The success story that comes to mind is with a client who is well known among service providers and the criminal justice system in our community due to his long standing history of chronic homelessness and complex medical needs. His frequent hospitalizations and lack of attendance to necessary specialty care appointments/dialysis have only worsened his condition. Since working with him, he has been stably housed, engages with me, reaches out to me when he needs help managing his guest issues, is attending specialty care appointments, allows me to play a role in his care coordination, and attends his dialysis more regularly. Most of all, he chooses to be honest with me. He chooses to work with me, opens up to me, and allows me to support him. As a result, I believe the therapeutic rapport we’ve established and the work of FUSE has led to his housing success and overall improvement in his quality of life. Most importantly, he’s not fighting multiple complex medical challenges on the streets. He has the dignity that supportive housing lends by having a place to call home.
- See more at: the Corporation for Supportive Housing web site
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