Denver Rescue Mission takes on housing people with complex challenges

In 2023, the Denver Rescue Mission won a contract from the City of Denver's Department of Housing Stability (HOST) to do intensive case management for those who struggle finding housing. These are people who may have medical and mental health barriers to finding and keeping housing. 

"Someone with a TBI [traumatic brain injury] is going to have a heard time going to a case manager and that case manager saying, 'Go to the DMV [Department of Motor Vehicles].' They start walking to the DMV and they get lost after 2 blocks and don't know where they are," said Madelyn St. Clair, Associate Director of the Complex Case Team at Denver Rescue Mission.

With the new funding, the Rescue Mission created its Complex Case Team. In October of 2023, the team started getting referrals from healthcare providers, law enforcement, and veterans affairs

"Our team has smaller case loads and does more in terms of transporting and advocating, really doing everything with the clients to make sure they stay housing stable," St. Clair explained. 

Since it started, the team has worked with 110 clients, and so far 50 of them have found sustainable housing. The case managers work closely with the clients, learning about their needs and wants. They help the clients run errands and make appointments. They also often coordinate care among different agencies. 

"Really what makes it successful is that hands-on collaboration, so these are people that are touching so many different systems, and are in and out of the ER's [emergency room], so instead of going to the ER every week, they're going to primary care doctors with us," St. Clair said. 

In the face of the lack of affordable housing, St. Clair says part of the job is being creative about housing, looking for family members where the client can stay until housing can becomes available. The case managers are also doing the work to make sure the clients stay housed once they're placed, that could mean getting furniture of in-home care, whatever support services the client needs. 

"So kind of serving as that connective tissue has been really successful for us and really to prove to get people into housing... and they're not impossible to house, they just needed extra support," St. Clair said. 

Maria Ricchione was among the clients for whom the Complex Case Team found an apartment. Ricchione has several medical conditions that limit her mobility and her ability to get some things done. She lost her housing in March of 2023 due to a bipolar episode. She was sleeping on the street, in shelters, and occasionally in motel rooms. 

"I was at one shelter where several of us were disabled and elderly. I mean this is Grandma," said said of the people she met while she was unhoused. 

Within a couple of months, St. Clair was able to secure a studio apartment in a subsidized housing building for Ricchione. Not only does Ricchione have her own place to call home, she and her neighbors are a tight knit community that support each other, and she has help coming in throughout the week to further support her independence. 

"The case manager that dealt with me met me here as I signed the lease, and we walked together into my apartment. It was empty just a refrigerator in my little kitchenette, and I started to cry because it was like Christmas for me," Ricchione told CBS News Colorado. "It feels incredible. I have a lot of gratitude."

"It is just the most beautiful thing. It just feels like such an honor to have a job where you get a front row seat to people moving from unhoused to full restoration and having that wrap around support to stay housed," St. Clair added. 

LINK: Spread the Warmth

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