Core Characteristics & Nuances of Rapid Rehousing

Core Characteristics and Nuances of Rapid Rehousing

Rapid re-housing has three core components:

  • Housing Identification

    • The RRH provider helps the household identify and secure housing that works for them. This could include:

      • Helping clients find a housing unit. If possible, the household gets a say in where they live. Generally, housing is on the private market.

      • Communicating with landlords. The RRH provider can help work around barriers like landlord concerns about tenant qualifications or tenant eviction history.

      • Helping clients understand and sign a lease.

        • Clients should sign a standard lease agreement.

    • The household should be able to afford the unit after rental assistance ends

      • In high-cost markets, households might be rent burdened after their RRH subsidy ends.
  • Rent and Move-in Assistance

    • Rent assistance is time-limited (usually less than 6 months, though it may go as long as two years).

    • Rent assistance can pay for a deposit, moving costs, and some/all of the household’s rent. RRH rent assistance sometimes serves as a “bridge” until the household secures long term rent assistance (like Section 8).

    • Clients receive the minimum rent assistance required to keep their housing.

  • Case Management

    • RRH case management is focused on resolving the household’s immediate crisis (homelessness) and helping the household achieve long-term housing stability.

      • Because RRH case management is so focused on housing, case managers typically do not address all the service needs they might identify in a household. Instead, they focus specifically on barriers to housing stability.

      • If desired, the case manager connects the household to community-based resources that the household can keep using after RRH assistance ends.

    • Unless a monthly check-in with a case manager is required by law/funding requirements, all case management services are voluntary. The client sets their own goals and chooses which services to use.