housing first ACT team

You can reach our ACT Team at: 604.675.2390

In response to the growing challenge of homelessness in Canada, the Mental Health Commission of Canada has sponsored the research development project At Home/Chez Soi.  This is taking place in five cities across Canada, including Vancouver, and service began in September 2009 and will be ending on March 31, 2013.

Each project was designed to answer questions about what services and supports best achieve housing stability and improved health and well-being for persons who are homeless and living with a serious mental illness.

In Vancouver, the research is focusing on people with a concurrent substance addiction. It is conducted on four service models:

  • An Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team with rent supplements
  • An Intensive Case Management team with rent supplements
  • A staffed building with clinical and support services
  • The usual care provided in the community

RainCity Housing’s ACT team

RainCity Housing’s role in the Vancouver Project Team has been to develop and implement the ACT team. The ACT team is based on the Pathways to Housing model from New York which incorporates a ‘housing first’ approach into the Assertive Community Treatment model.

Housing first is a recovery-oriented supportive housing approach that offers homeless people living with a mental illness immediate access to rent supplements so they can live in the same kinds of apartments that are typically available to people that don’t have a mental illness.

The rent supplements are provided without requiring participation in psychiatric or substance use treatment and are available to clients throughout the course of the project. Self-determination, choice and harm reduction are at the centre of all considerations with respect to the provision of housing and ACT services.

ACT is a well researched evidence-based transdisciplinary model that includes a broad array of clinical and support services. The team supports 100 clients at a client-staff ratio of 10:1. 80% of the work occurs in the community and crisis support is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Program staff are closely involved in hospital admissions and discharges. Clients are randomly assigned to the ACT team by the research team.

The ACT offices, when staff are there.