Mo Department of Mental Health

Shelter Plus Care

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Missouri Department of Mental Health
Housing Team

Shelter Plus Care Rental Assistance

What is Shelter Plus Care?

Who Is Eligible for Shelter Plus Care?

Applying for Shelter Plus Care/Obtaining an Application

DMH Housing Manual

What Is Shelter Plus Care?

Shelter Plus Care (SPC) is a HUD-funded rental assistance program that brings together permanent housing and mental health services for people who are both homeless and disabled. SPC is rental assistance; program participants pay 30% of their income toward rent while SPC funds pay the balance. If a program participant has zero income, SPC funds pay 100% of the rent. SPC funds can also be used to pay for a security deposit up to the value of one month's rent. SPC funds may not be used for tenancy application fees, furniture or other start-up costs. While participating in Shelter Plus Care, program partcipants are expected to work on increasing their incomes through employment or by accessing mainstream resources such as Social Security or SSDI. Program participants must have some form of case management while in Shelter Plus Care.

The Missouri Department of Mental Health Housing Unit manages 23 separate HUD grants that fund SPC programs in many counties in the state, including the urban counties of Jackson, St. Louis City, and St. Louis County as well as many rural counties. DMH Housing also has also received awards from HUD for three additional Shelter Plus Care grants to house chronically homeless persons in St. Louis City and Kansas City; these grants will commence operation during 2008.

The table below gives information about all of DMH's current SPC grants:

*Grant Name*	*Area Covered*	*Year Grant Began*	*Households Assisted as of August 1, 2008*	*Housing Unit Staff Contact*
KANSAS CITY REGION
Kansas City Metro (3 grants)	Jackson and Clay Counties	1994	389	Dirk Cable or Pat Brown
Independence (3 grants)	Cities of Independence, Lee’s Summit and Blue Springs	2001	70	Dirk Cable or Pat Brown
Chronic Homelessness grants (2 grants)	Kansas City	2004	56	Dirk Cable or Pat Brown
ST. LOUIS REGION
St. Louis City (2 grants)	City of St. Louis	1994	228	Judy Johnson or Edwin Cooper
St. Louis City ADA grant	City of St. Louis	1994	54	Judy Johnson or Edwin Cooper
St. Louis County	St. Louis County	2002	44	Judy Johnson or Edwin Cooper
SPRINGFIELD REGION
Springfield	Greene, Christian and Webster Counties	2004	16	Edwin Cooper
JOPLIN REGION
Joplin	Jasper and Newton Counties	2002	28	Dirk Cable
ST. JOSEPH REGION
St. Joseph	Buchanan, Andrew and DeKalb Counties	2001	34	Dirk Cable
BALANCE OF STATE (RURAL COUNTIES)
Farmington	St. Francois County	2001	29	Liz Hagar-Mace
Kirksville	Adair County	2001	15	Liz Hagar-Mace
Bootheel	Stoddard, Scott, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot and Dunklin Counties	2001	23	Liz Hagar-Mace
Branson	Stone and Taney Counties	2002	19	Liz Hagar-Mace
Poplar Bluff	Butler and Wayne Counties	2002	27	Liz Hagar-Mace
West Plains	Texas, Howell , Douglas and Ozark Counties	2002	24	Liz Hagar-Mace
Hannibal	Ralls and Marion Counties	2002	21	Liz Hagar-Mace
Rolla	Phelps, Pulaski, Laclede, Miller, Gasconade and Camden Counties	2005	18	Liz Hagar-Mace
TOTALS	36 counties containing 57% of Missouri's population (2000 US Census)		1095 households

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Who Is Eligible for Shelter Plus Care?

Applicants for SPC assistance must meet four requirements to be considered eligible. Applicants must:

Be receiving mental health services directly from the Department of Mental Health or from an agency contracted with DMH to provide such services;

Have a serious mental illness; chronic substance abuse or alcohol abuse disorder; severe and chronic developmental disability (such as mental retardation); or a physical or mental disability caused by HIV/AIDS or related diseases;

Have an income no greater than 50% of the area median income (i.e., “very low income”) as defined by HUD (see Attachment #8 to the DMH Housing Manual); and

Be homeless, as defined by HUD, at the time of application (see below for definition).

Some DMH SPC grants target only persons who are chronically homeless according to HUD's definition of that term (see below for definition).

HUD defines homelessness as a person who is living on the street or in an emergency shelter, or who would be living on the street or in an emergency shelter without HUD's homelessness assistance. A person is considered homeless when he or she:

Is living in places not meant for human habitation, such as cars, parks, sidewalks, abandoned buildings, or on the street;

Is living in an emergency shelter;

Is living in transitional or supportive housing for homeless persons who originally came from the streets or emergency shelters; or

Is living in any of the above places but is spending a short time (up to 30 consecutive days) in a hospital or other institution.

HUD defines chronic homelessness as either (1) an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition who has been continuously homeless for a year or more, OR (2) an unaccompanied individual with a disabling condition who has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years. "Homeless" in this case refers exclusively to a person staying in emergency shelters or sleeping in places not meant for human habitation.

Once received, the application is entered on a wait list. Each geographic area has one or more wait lists depending on how many grants are established in the area. Availability of SPC funds varies around the state, so time spent on a wait list will vary also.

When an applicant is approved for SPC assistance, the case manager and the applicant must attend a briefing at a local housing agency that acts as a client processing center for DMH. During the briefing, the applicant is given information about the rules of the SPC program; where and how to look for a rental unit; and their responsibilities as a future tenant. When the applicant locates a suitable unit, the unit is inspected to ensure that it meets HUD's housing quality standards.

Once the participant is housed, they pay 30% of their household's income toward rent, and SPC funds pay the remaining amount. A participant’s income includes, but is not limited to, employment income, assistance payments from SSI, SSDI, TANF or other mainstream resources, and any income from other adults living in the rental unit. If the household has no income at all, SPC pays 100% of that household's rent.

Shelter Plus Care participants must remain in case management while they receive Shelter Plus Care assistance. Another long-term duty of case managers is to assist the participant in developing their own income through employment, where possible, or through enabling access to mainstream assistance programs like Social Security. Increased income not only helps the participant, but also allows DMH Housing to house more people using SPC funds.

For a detailed overview of DMH’s Shelter Plus Care grants and how they are operated, see the DMH Housing Manual, below.

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Applying for Shelter Plus Care

You can download a copy of the DMH Application for Shelter Plus Care by clicking the link below. The application is in PDF format; if you need a PDF reader application, see the link at the bottom of this page to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat.

If you need help, email housing@dmh.mo.gov or call 573-526-3125.

Download the Missouri Department of Mental Health Application for Shelter Plus Care.

Applications for Shelter Plus Care rental assistance may only be submitted to DMH by case managers on behalf of clients receiving services from DMH or from DMH-contracted agencies. Applications are also accepted from the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) or agencies contracted with DHSS to provide services to people with disabilities related to AIDS/HIV and related diseases. DMH cannot accept or process applications from non-DMH or non-DHSS agencies, nor can we accept applications directly from persons in need of assistance.

An applicant’s case manager should fill out the SPC Application jointly with the applicant, using information provided by both the applicant and by third parties documenting the applicant's status. Applications for Shelter Plus Care are generally accepted by fax. Please contact the appropriate Housing Team member to obtain the correct fax number or to obtain alternative information about submitting an application:

>> For the Kansas City Metropolitan area, Joplin area and St. Joseph area, contact Dirk.cable@dmh.mo.gov

>> For St. Louis City and St. Louis County, contact Edwin.cooper@dmh.mo.gov

>> For the following regions, contact Liz.hagar-mace@dmh.mo.gov:

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DMH Housing Manual

DMH Housing finished a complete revision and update of its Housing Manual in August 2006. The Housing Manual describes in detail the policies and procedures followed by DMH Housing in its administration of 23 Shelter Plus Care grants, as well as DMH’s own housing assistance programs (Rental Assistance Program (RAP) and Supportive Community Living Program (SCL)).

The Housing Manual is written for case managers and processing center staff. However, members of the public and potential applicants for Shelter Plus Care may find portions of it useful as well. The text portion of the Manual is divided into five chapters, including a glossary of housing terminology at the end. There are 28 Attachments to the Manual containing information and forms chosen for the use of case managers and processing center staff, but some Attachments contain housing information of interest to the public as well—especially those concerning fair housing laws.

Download the DMH Housing Manual (Microsoft Word, read-only, 564 kb).

Attachments to the DMH Housing Manual are downloaded separately or accessed from other agency web sites through the list below. Where web links to other agencies are listed, clicking the link will take the user out of DMH's web site to the other agency's web site; otherwise, all links download files from the DMH web site.

Most of the Attachments are intended for the use of DMH's SPC processing centers. Those files are intended to be samples that may be adapted as needed. Each Attachment indicates whether or not a file may be altered for use.