The average length of stay for families in temporary housing is nine months. A family must cooperate with shelter staff and service providers to develop a mutually agreed upon independent living plan and meet the terms of the plan before they will be referred to permanent housing. We recognize the need to ensure that formerly homeless families possess independent living skills so that they may successfully maintain themselves in permanent housing. Therefore, aftercare programs are used to encourage the family s continued success in a permanent living situation. All homeless families are assisted in finding and relocating to permanent housing.
Permanent housing is provided through a variety of mainstream housing programs.
The Department of Housing Preservation and Development administers several permanent housing programs. In Fiscal Year 2000, DHS relocated 3,787 families to permanent housing. The other 167 families were either placed in smaller nonprofit housing programs or elected to find permanent housing on their own.