Opening New Doors: Scattered Site Expands — January 18, 2024

When Clare Housing was founded in 1987 to serve people living with HIV, the needs of our residents were all very similar: a safe space to receive care while in the final stages of what was then a fatal disease. Over the years as treatments improved along with the prognosis for the disease, our services changed too. The 2008 creation of our scattered site program was a turning point for the organization, broadening our offerings to include an option for people living with HIV who are more independent but still need some supports. We are very proud that this year, thanks to an increase in funding from Hennepin County through HUD’s Housing Opportunity for People with AIDS (HOPWA) program, we will be adding ten new units of scattered site housing specifically for people with HIV transitioning out of homelessness.

When selecting residents for scattered site housing, we try to select people for whom our apartment buildings might not be the right fit or people “that might be ready to leave the apartments – about half are people who’ve been living in the buildings and are ready to live more independently; they’ve stabilized,” says Clare Housing Scattered Site Manager Michele Boyer. Residents in the scattered site program pay 30% of their income for rent directly to the landlord and Clare Housing covers the rest. Every resident in our scattered site program has a case manager that helps support them and helps ensure a stable home. Case managers might help residents with everything from getting furniture and setting up utilities to signing their lease and dealing with neighbor issues.

When considering the changing needs of individuals, Michele stresses the value of the continuum of care Clare Housing offers. “We just had a resident move from scattered site into one of our apartment buildings with home care because he’s dealing with leukemia, long term HIV, and a double knee replacement. He’s feeling a lot safer and more secure. It’s been a great transition.”

An important piece of the puzzle for the scattered site program is working with landlords who understand the needs of our residents. “We can’t do any of our magic in scattered site without really awesome landlords. It’s a tri partnership of the client, us, and the landlords,” Michele says. “We’re looking for landlords that will give our people a second chance,” as about half of our scattered site residents have a criminal background. Shanelle Kentfield, a property manager for Wellington Management who’s worked closely with Clare Housing for several years with residents living at Blue Line Flats in Minneapolis says the Clare Housing staff has been “phenomenal”, emphasizing that we’ve been good partners. “You listen to our needs, we listen to your needs, we really meet each other halfway,” she says.

We’re so proud of the work we’ve been able to do with the scattered site program, broadening the options available to our community. Unfortunately HOPWA, one of our primary funding sources, has been under serious threat. This past fall the US House of Representatives voted on an amendment to the congressional budget that would have eliminated HOPWA funding. While this failed in the House, as of this writing, Congress still has not passed a FY24 funding bill, which would include money for HOPWA and HUD alongside many other important programs, and the current budget expires on February 2nd, 2024.

Thankfully, our local community remains committed to creating and maintaining safe, supportive housing for people living with HIV. “If you don’t have a good team, it’s so hard… But with Clare Housing everything has been supported, and that’s really important” property manager Shanelle says. “We have the same thing we want to see happen: end homelessness and change peoples’ lives.”