Transitional housing is temporary housing for certain segments of the
homeless
Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...
population, including
working homeless people who are earning too little money to afford long-term housing. Transitional housing is set up to transition residents into permanent,
affordable housing
Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median, as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on ...
. It is not in an
emergency homeless shelter, but usually a room or apartment in a residence with support services.
Description
The transitional time can be short, for example one or two years, and in that time the person must file for and get permanent housing and usually some gainful employment or income, even if
Social Security
Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...
or assistance. The cost of transitional housing is the same or less expensive than emergency shelters. But, due to the on site services, transitional tends to be more expensive than permanent
supportive housing
Supportive housing is a combination of housing and services intended as a cost-effective way to help people live more stable, productive lives, and is an active "community services and funding" stream across the United States. It was developed by ...
.
In the USA, federal funding for transitional housing programs was originally allocated in the McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1986. In 2022, the Transitional Housing Program, awarded 72 recipients, spending over $35.6 million in the program. In Hong Kong, as part of the
Chief Executive of Hong Kong
The chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is the representative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and head of the Government of Hong Kong.
The position was created to replace the office of Governor of ...
’s policy address in 2018, a Task Force on Transitional Housing was set up under the then
Transport and Housing Bureau
The Transport and Housing Bureau (THB) was a policy bureau of the Government of Hong Kong between 2007 and 2022, responsible for a range of policies such as the internal and external transportation, including air transport, land transport, ...
to actively assist and facilitate various short-term initiatives proposed and implemented by the community to increase the supply of transitional housing.
An example of Transitional Housing designed specifically for youth is the
Foyer model. Providers generally provide a combination of affordable accommodation with vocational, work, and counseling opportunities.
See also
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Boarding house
A boarding house is a house (frequently a family home) in which lodging, lodgers renting, rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and ...
– residence that provides meals and a room to live in, with some communal areas
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Rooming house
A rooming house, also called a "multi-tenant house", is a "dwelling with multiple Lease-by-room, rooms rented out individually", in which the tenants share kitchen and often bathroom facilities. Rooming houses are often used as housing for low-i ...
– residence that provides a room to live in, but not meals
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Single room occupancy
Single-room occupancy (SRO) is a type of low-cost housing typically aimed at residents with low or minimal incomes, or single adults who like a minimalist lifestyle, who rent small, furnished single rooms with a bed, chair, and sometimes a smal ...
– residence that rents rooms to individuals
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Youth intervention
References
Homelessness
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