Rebecca*, an older woman known to the Coordinated Access team for many years was recently housed into a subsidized and age appropriate stable housing option at the beginning of January 2020. Rebecca has been chronically homeless and was often placed in vulnerable housing circumstances due to her limited income and lack of natural supports. In February 2019, Rebecca was provided an opportunity to move into a single bedroom option in Aberdeen. HCAA’s stabilization plan and commitment to her was to not only provide her a rental option but to pay her first month’s rent and security deposit to move in under our Rapid Re-Housing program.  Since Rebecca is currently on limited income with Social Security, HCAA also offered to pay half her rent ongoing until she could be assisted with her rental arrears by a local senior housing provider in Harford County. This was an ongoing housing barrier for Rebecca until HCAA stepped in.  Not even two months after paying this off Rebecca began completing rental applications for places that met her preferences, and she was approved to move into housing in Havre de Grace that was designed to meet her needs! Rapid-Rehousing is designed to remove initial barriers to housing and to get a household properly housed until it can meet its own needs. This system worked perfectly in this situation.

*The name of this customer has been changed to protect her privacy.