Providence Center Receives $1.5 million Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration Homeless Grant
Award, one of just 14 given nationwide and the only one given in Rhode Island, will provide permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals and veterans
October 18, 2011 (PROVIDENCE, RI) – The Providence Center, Rhode Island’s leading community behavioral health provider, has been awarded a $1.5 million, three-year, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant to launch the Home Base program. Home Base is a collaborative initiative between The Providence Center and Rhode Island housing providers and homeless advocates designed to combat chronic homelessness in three of Rhode Island’s largest cities: Providence; Pawtucket; and Woonsocket.
“The link between mental health and substance use disorders and chronic homelessness is well established,” said Dr. Dale Klatzker, President and CEO of The Providence Center. “By providing access to both treatment services and permanent housing opportunities, we believe that the Home Base program will be able to effectively combat the cause of homelessness while also offering an opportunity for these individuals to get off the streets and in to safe affordable units of housing.”
Under the Home Base program, Providence Center staff will outreach to 600 people over three years, with the goal of linking these individuals to a full continuum of behavioral and primary health care services. In addition, 136 individuals will be offered permanent supportive housing, through a partnership with Rhode Island Housing, the Recovery Housing Coalition, and Crossroads. The population served will include chronically homeless individuals and veterans who have a co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorder, and are currently located in the three target cities. Data from the Rhode Island Homeless Coalition states that 47.7 percent of homeless individuals in Rhode Island reside in the three target communities.
“This grant will be critically important to our efforts to facilitate better collaboration among providers thus resulting in better services for homeless individuals,” said Michelle Brophy, Director of the Corporation for Supportive Housing RI and Coordinator of the State’s
Interagency Council on Homelessness. “I am excited to begin working with The Providence Center as well as the other Home Base partners to provide housing opportunities for the chronically homeless.”
Home Base program participants will also be able to access services funded by three additional SAMSHSA grants that the Providence Center has received in the last year: a Primary and Behavioral Health Care Integration Grant (PBHCI), a health information technology grant, and a Recovery Oriented Systems of Care Grant (ROSC). The PBHCI grant will provide Home Base participants with access to primary care nurses who are embedded onsite at The Providence Center’s main treatment facility as well as the state’s first primary and behavioral health care integrated clinic which is operated by Providence Community Health Centers onsite at The Providence Center.
The ROSC grant will provide access to The Anchor Recovery Center. Located in Pawtucket, The Anchor Recovery Center is Rhode Island’s first recovery community center. Currently more than 5,000 people a month attend various services at the Anchor including peer to peer coaching, 12 step groups, trainings, vocational services, and a wide-variety of health and wellness activities in addition to music, a lending library, and special events.
“SAMSHA’s willingness to invest almost $5 million in The Providence Center over the next three years is a testament to our commitment to ensuring that we are addressing all the needs of our clients,” said Klatzker. “The head is not separated from the body, and as a result we need to make sure that clients are able to access both primary and behavioral health care if we are going to make sure that they are successful.”
The Providence Center is at the forefront of innovative approaches to behavioral health care designed to meet the changing needs of the more than 11,000 people served each year. SinceTPC opened its doors in 1969, it has been a community fixture, providing people from all walks of life with mental health and substance abuse services in their homes, schools and neighborhoods. In addition to comprehensive high quality behavioral health services, TPC gives people the tools they need to succeed. Through 39 programs and wrap around services including food and housing, job training, legal services, primary health care and wellness activities TPC helps the people we serve succeed.