OUR IMPACT
CHOM is committed to creating positive, lasting impact within communities and for the people who call them home. Through meaningful partnerships, thoughtful projects, and a focus on empowerment, CHOM works to strengthen connections, uplift voices, and support sustainable growth so that communities can thrive today and for generations to come.
JUST THE NUMBERS
UNITS OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING CREATED
PEOPLE HOUSED SINCE CHOM'S INCEPTION
PEOPLE WHO NOW HAVE THEIR OWN HOME
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OF PEOPLE IN CHOM HOUSING WITH A DISABILITY
GOALS
IMPROVE HEALTH & WELLNESS
Housing is a key social determinant of health
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ACHIEVE COMMUNITY INCLUSION
Everyone deserves to be part of their community.
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UNITE
FAMILIES​
Families adequately supported and brought together create a reduction in state custody and foster care costs
INCREASE SELF ESTEEM & SELF WORTH
People feel secure, healthy, and feel best when they belong, and have a safe and stable place to call home
REDUCE
COSTS
Smart policies create system-wide cost savings in emergency services, shelter, and healthcare costs
GENERATE
ACCESS
People thrive when we remove barriers and create access to jobs, social interaction, and education
RECOVERY RESIDENCES
CHOM also focuses on creating recovery residences. This type of supportive housing offers a balance of comprehensive support, structure, accountability, and real-world flexibility in encountering relapse.
CHOM’s recovery residences are MARR certified and include MAT. These very structured programs help people successfully rebuild their lives.
CHOM helps individuals integrate into mainstream society, obtain employment, establish more permanent residences, and live life to their optimal potential.
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The people and families who have lived in CHOM's recovery residences have experienced great success with recovery and long-term stability. Data from two of CHOM's recovery residences is below.
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PEOPLE HOUSED
IN TWO PORTLAND-AREA RECOVERY RESIDENCES TO DATE
PEOPLE REUNITED WITH THIER FAMILY, INCLUDING THEIR CHILDREN
PEOPLE HAVE COMPLETELY
SUSTAINED FROM
USING OPIODS
PEOPLE ARE PERMANENTLY
HOUSED IN THE COMMUNITY
FUSE INITIATIVE
CHOM works in tandem with community organizations throughout Maine to end and prevent homelessness for people experiencing chronic and long-term homelessness. Since April 2015, CHOM has led a focused effort in Portland called the Portland Frequent Users System Engagement (FUSE) Committee.
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The FUSE Committee is focused on a by-name list effort to house and keep housed people who are chronically homeless, people who are unsheltered, people who are frequent users of emergency systems, and people who are in need of permanent supportive housing interventions in Portland. The group of more than 20 organizations has been working collaboratively for more than ten years and has now housed more than 538 people through this effort with an average success rate of 90% since its inception.
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A select group of providers, including shelter providers, outreach providers, housing professionals, service providers for jails, professionals in the court and criminal justice system, and representatives from the healthcare system, meet biweekly to coordinate who is doing what to stabilize the small group of people who are touching multiple parts of Portland’s Emergency System redundantly. The basic case coordination allows for outcome-based discussions regarding people with complex presentations who require a permanent housing intervention to end their homelessness. The focus is on who is doing what to assist each person in achieving and maintaining stability.
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The initiative tracks and analyzes jail and hospital utilization data, comparing people who were unhoused versus people who had been housed through the initiative. Beyond the trauma and negative effects of ricocheting through emergency systems, this analysis has demonstrated that members of this population are up to 29 times more likely to be in the hospital and up to 57 times more likely to be in jail when unhoused than when housed. Where frequently not a single person housed on the housed list touches jail, consistently in four years of data, at least 1 in 10 people on our much smaller unhoused list touch the jail. Jail cost 4x more than housing. It is similar with hospital use, and hospitals cost 28x more than housing.
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We know that housing, paired with service commensurate with need, allows stability for this population and dramatically improves outcomes. And housing costs many times less than any of the emergency systems. Housing enriched with services allows for continued engagement as people attain stability so that the pattern of instability and frequent interactions with emergency systems can be broken permanently. This is the goal for each person on the by-name list.
PEOPLE HOUSED THROUGH THE FUSE INITIATIVE
TO DATE
SUCCESS RATE IN HOUSING THROUGH THIS INITIATIVE SINCE IT BEGAN
MORE LIKELY TO BE
IN JAIL WHEN
UNHOUSED
VS HOUSED
MORE LIKELY TO BE
IN THE HOSPITAL WHEN UNHOUSED
VS HOUSED
SYSTEM-WIDE COST SAVINGS
It is widely documented through research that permanent supportive housing lowers overall system-wide costs. When unhoused, certain people tend to ricochet through emergency rooms, hospitals, homeless shelters, jails, and police and rescue systems. Permanent supportive housing stabilizes lives and stops this cycle of expensive crises.
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CHOM's Inclusive Housing Model embeds permanent supportive housing into larger, multi-family housing projects. This allows housing to effectively include people with the longest histories of homelessness and most acute needs.
The data below, from a research study conducted in 2015, demonstrates the efficacy of this housing model, pioneered at CHOM's Danforth on High project in Portland.
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