Welcome to the Special Needs Housing page of the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. This is intended to serve as a clearinghouse and portal of information about Florida Housing’s affordable housing funding programs and resources that serve persons and households with special needs.

Special needs households include persons who are elderly, physically disabled, at risk of being or are homeless, and/or have extremely low incomes. These special needs populations may include more specifically defined subgroups such as youth aging out of foster care, survivors of domestic violence, persons with severe and persistent mental illness, or persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

One approach to supporting these households is Permanent Supportive Housing. Permanent Supportive Housing is a highly effective strategy that combines affordable rental housing with community-based services to help residents maintain a stable home. It is a proven model to help people who are not stably housed or who are experiencing homelessness, as well as persons with disabilities who can live independently in the community with supportive services. This type of housing provides residents with housing for an indefinite length of stay as long as the tenant complies with lease requirements, and it has no limits on the length of tenancy related to the provision or participation in supportive services. Such units may be a small portion of a larger general occupancy affordable rental property or may be part of a property that specializes in supportive housing.

Florida Housing Finance Corporation finances Permanent Supportive Housing around two key tenets. First, permanent housing is provided according to “Housing First,” an approach that requires properties accept residents without prior requirements for sobriety, compliance with medications or participation in programs. Second, such housing should provide supportive services coordination that is “resident centered” – that is, expectations for residents’ optimal stability, self-sufficiency and quality of life are based on each resident’s own expectations and goals. Each funding cycle, Florida Housing Finance Corporation usually provides three funding opportunities for the development of Permanent Supportive Housing.

Florida Housing Finance Corporation's Board of Directors made $40 million in preliminary financing available to three Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) properties for a new pilot. A small portion of the units each of the new properties – 20% or a minimum of 15 units – will house “High Utilizers,” that is, persons who are high users of public behavioral health crisis services or are a high priority for diversion from acute health care services and institutional settings. The focus of this new 3-year pilot is on those High Utilizers who part of the state's behavioral healthcare system through the Managing Entities and are facing housing instability due to their behavioral health care situation.

Pilot Objective

• The long-term objective of the pilot is to create a collaborative approach to state-administered funding for both housing and services to build a replicable model for the future.
• Helping High Utilizer individuals in the behavioral healthcare system who face housing instability, but are not literally homeless, requires blending a different set of funding strategies to help them gain independence and stability in their communities.
• The three proposed developments that will be part of the pilot are:

• Village at Cedar Hills – 90 units in Duval County

• Ability Housing, Inc – housing provider
• Lutheran Services of Florida, Inc – managing entity partner

• Apollo Gardens -- 84 units in Brevard County

• Carrfour Supportive Housing – housing provider
• Central Florida Cares Health System – managing entity partner

• Jersey Commons – 68 units in Polk County

• Blue Sky Communities/Community Assisted and Supported Living/Tri-County Human Services – housing provider
• Central Florida Behavioral Health Network – managing entity partner