OUR IMPACT
improving outcomes for people, systems, and communities.
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 close partnership with community organizations across Maine to prevent and end homelessness, with a focus on people experiencing chronic and long-term homelessness. Since April 2015, CHOM has led a targeted, collaborative initiative in Portland known as FUSE Greater Portland.
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This initiative uses a by-name, data-driven approach to identify, house, and support people who are chronically homeless or unsheltered, frequent users of emergency systems, and individuals who need permanent supportive housing to achieve stability. More than 20 organizations have collaborated through this effort for over a decade, resulting in more than 538 people housed and an average housing retention rate of 90 percent since the initiative began.
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A core group of providers—including shelters, outreach teams, housing providers, jail and court system partners, service providers, and healthcare representatives—meet biweekly to coordinate care for a small group of individuals who interact repeatedly with multiple parts of Portland’s emergency systems. This coordinated case approach allows partners to align roles, share responsibility, and focus on clear, outcome-driven strategies to support people with complex needs in achieving and maintaining housing stability.
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The initiative also tracks and analyzes jail and hospital utilization data, comparing outcomes for individuals while unhoused versus after being housed. The findings are stark: people experiencing homelessness are up to 29 times more likely to be hospitalized and up to 57 times more likely to be incarcerated than when they are housed. Over four years of data, individuals on the housed list rarely had any jail involvement, while at least one in ten people on the much smaller unhoused list consistently experienced incarceration. From a cost perspective, jail stays cost roughly four times more than housing, and hospitalizations cost nearly 28 times more.
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The evidence is clear: housing paired with services matched to individual need leads to stability, improved outcomes, and dramatically reduced reliance on costly emergency systems. Permanent supportive housing enables sustained engagement, helps people build long-term stability, and breaks the cycle of crisis and system involvement. This is the goal for every person identified through the FUSE 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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