During Mental Health Awareness Month, we are reminded that healing and stability rarely follow a straight line. The same is true for the journey out of homelessness. While receiving the keys to a home is a significant milestone worth celebrating, housing is not the finish line. For many individuals and families, it marks the beginning of rebuilding their health, restoring their confidence, strengthening relationships, and creating a path toward self-sufficiency.
Transitioning into permanent housing after months or years of displacement frequently triggers unexpected emotional and mental health challenges – challenges we witness daily with the clients served by Hope Atlanta. As sector leaders, we are constantly assessing our approach to look beyond housing and broaden our lens to see the full scope of the journey ahead of our clients.
Once the keys are turned, we have to ask ourselves: how do we equip our neighbors to navigate the complex pathway to stability?
The Challenges of Adaptation and Integration
Housing is a positive step, but it can also present challenges as individuals try to adapt and integrate. A key recurring barrier is lack of consistent engagement and support, often tied to untreated behavioral health needs. Without ongoing connection to services, clients may struggle with stability, decision-making, and maintaining progress.
Our clinicians and case managers see this unfold in different ways including:
- Establishing daily routines and maintaining a household
- Managing finances and paying rent consistently
- Navigating social isolation after leaving street-based communities
- Addressing untreated mental health or substance use concerns
- Learning to trust systems and providers after past negative experiences
As one study suggests, the transition from unhoused to housed for an individual can manifest in 4 stages: Survival, Adaptation, Integration, and Precarity (Marshal et al., 2020). The housing-first model allows our unhoused neighbors to combat the initial stage of Survival. However, the latter stages, Adaptation, Integration, and Precarity, are where support along the path is most necessary to keep our neighbors motivated and encouraged to stay the course.
Support Along the Way
Many share the joy of moving off the streets and into the comforts of a place they can call home. However, for those navigating mental health challenges, this new beginning can trigger post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms connected to previous evictions, fears of not being able to maintain their fresh start, and a whirlwind of other emotions. We have to keep these factors at the forefront when supporting our unhoused neighbors in their transition – to avoid omitting barriers and repetitive behavioral patterns that can detour their progress.
This is why wraparound services are essential in permanent housing. Through comprehensive support, including case management, behavioral health services, substance use treatment, and economic mobility support, we address the full scope of a client’s needs – significantly increasing the likelihood of long-term housing stability and self-sufficiency.
At Hope Atlanta, we know the pathway to stability isn’t linear and our wraparound services allow us to walk the pathway to stability, hand and hand, with each of our clients’ unique needs – fully aware of the curves and rerouting necessary along the way.
Stay tuned for our next article highlighting the journeys of two of our clients who are walking the pathway to stability and the hope that’s keeping them on course.
To support Hope Atlanta’s mission to prevent and end homelessness by empowering clients to achieve stability and self-sufficiency, donate here: https://hopeatlanta.org/ways-to-give/
Sources:
Marshall, C., Gewurtz, R., Barbic, S., Roy, L., Lysaght, R., Ross, C., Becker, A., Cooke, A. & Kirsh, B. (2020). Bridging the Transition from Homeless to Housed: A Social Justice Framework to Guide the Practice of Occupational Therapists. Accessed at behavioralhealthnews.org
Dionne, J. N. (2024, January 22). The impact of housing on mental health issues and substance misuse. Behavioral Health News. https://behavioralhealthnews.org/the-impact-of-housing-on-mental-health-issues-and-substance-misuse/
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