The longer households spend in a state of homelessness or imminent homelessness, the greater the trauma they experience. The use of Diversion techniques helps households limit this trauma, decreases the number of households entering the homeless service system and increases the number of households quickly exiting the system.

 

FPWC will integrate Homelessness Diversion housing problem-solving techniques into our existing homelessness prevention and rapid exit programs to quickly establish stable housing options and reduce the time and trauma associated with housing instability or homelessness. Diversion techniques are recognized as a best practice in the prevention of homelessness. Households engage in Diversion services to identify all available supports to prevent or exit homelessness. Outcomes may include maintaining a temporary sub-optimal housing arrangement until a more appropriate permanent solution can be found, relocating, or arranging to be ‘doubled-up’ while awaiting a more suitable housing setting. Diversion is a holistic approach that incorporates Housing First, Harm Reduction, Trauma-Informed Service Delivery, and Racial Equity practices in creating a housing action plan to stabilize housing and, if possible, move the household toward a permanent housing solution.

 

FPWC will work with various existing homelessness prevention and rapid exit programs and partnerships, including our own programming, to arrive at the intended outcomes (the prevention of, diversion from, and rapid exits from homelessness). We are routinely assessed for our ability to achieve these outcomes, and our success will be comparably and inversely calculated on the number of households that return to seek housing assistance from New Jersey’s housing services programs at the three-month, six-month, nine-month mark, and twelve-month mark.

 

In all situations, the FPWC Homelessness Diversion Specialist works with the landlord / legal tenant/property manager to return to housing or assist households to remain housed. Alternatively, the Diversion Specialist can help the consumer (with or without Direct Client Assistance funds) to be added to the lease, to determine what other natural supports are available, to secure a unit of their own, or relocate. Our grantor and partner at the Office of Homelessness Prevention understands the intricate causes of homelessness and encourage Diversion Specialist to be flexible in their perceptions of such reasons and prompt in removing barriers to housing.