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Rapid Re-Housing

Rapid re-housing is a program that ends homelessness by helping households re-enter permanent housing as quickly as possible after they enter homelessness.

What is Rapid Rehousing?

Rapid rehousing (RRH) is a homelessness prevention program designed to help individuals and families exit homelessness and return to permanent housing as quickly as possible. RRH has three components: housing identification, financial assistance, and case management. RRH rent assistance and case management are short-term: they are intended to quickly stabilize the household and help address barriers to maintaining housing. Because RRH provides limited assistance, it is a good fit for households that need a little help to get back into housing, but do not need long-term supportive services. Rapid rehousing is generally implemented with a housing first philosophy, meaning that households do not have to meet preconditions like sobriety or being employed in order to enter the RRH program. 

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Core characteristics and nuances

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.

Rapid re-housing vs. permanent supportive housing

• Intended client: rapid rehousing tends to serve clients with less intense service needs, while PSH serves clients with more intense and/or ongoing service needs
• Supportive services: in RRH, supportive services are focused on housing and financial hardships. If the household wants more support, the case manager connects them with community based resources. In PSH, supportive services do address housing stability, but also address other needs the tenant may have. Additionally, more services are provided by the PSH provider/care team. (?)
• Time span: RRH is very explicitly short term, usually lasting less than 6 months. Permanent housing, though not always permanent, lasts longer than that.

Helpful definitions!

HUD Exchange

HUD: Rapid Re-housing Brief

National Alliance to End Homelessness (definitions)

National Alliance to End Homelessness (brief)

Subtopics

Basic Definitions

Implementation and Assessment Tools

Racial Equity in RRH

Making the Case for RRH