Finding safe, stable, and affordable housing is a major challenge for people experiencing homelessness and extreme poverty. That is why The Mustard Seed offers Housing Support Programs, with the help of Homeward Trust, which allow us to immediately help people from all walks of life and connects those in need to housing and community supports.
To do this, The Mustard Seed has case management teams that work with participants in order to support them through the housing process.
“Our Intensive Case Management team is broken into two teams, we have a team of 4 housing workers and 4 follow-up support workers. The housing workers connect with participants who are on the By Names List. This list is provided by Coordinated Access at Homeward Trust, and lists all of the participants who are experiencing homelessness in Edmonton,” says Annette, a Housing Plus Manager at The Mustard Seed.
“Once the housing worker connects with participants, they focus on housing them in a community [they want]. Once housed, the participant is transferred to the follow-up support worker. The follow-up support worker supports the participant for up to one year.”
By working with participants for up to a year, follow-up support workers are able to provide critical supports, such as “… [helping them] with budgeting, stable income, managing their tenancy, [and] connecting to professional supports such as counselling and a family doctor.”
This year long support helps set up participants for positive, long-term success, and “by the end of the year, [participants] should be able to maintain their own housing, have stable income and be connected to all the community resources they need.”
With the Mustard Seed journeying alongside them, participants are not only able to overcome the challenge of finding housing; but they are able to begin learning crucial life skills and create lasting positive change.
“This program helps them with basic day to day living such as how to cook, do laundry and connecting them to all the supports they need. This way when the worker graduates them for the program, the participant will be fully independent to live on their own and manage their own home.”
