The National Association of Counties (NACo) held a webinar “County Strategies to Provide Supportive Housing for Familiar Faces” as part of their Familiar Faces Initiative.  The NACo program, available for viewing here, offered a panel discussion with experts and county leaders who have developed innovative funding models to support housing programs and facilities for familiar faces within their communities.

Familiar faces are individuals who frequently cycle through jails, homeless shelters, emergency departments and other crisis services. Familiar faces often have complex health and behavioral health conditions that can result in overuse of these costly services without improving their situations, leaving communities paying for poor outcomes. In response, many counties are developing coordinated continuums of care to address the systemic and individual challenges associated with multiple systems involvement. One of the most important tools for counties to effectively improve long-term outcomes is housing, and in particular supportive housing.

NACo’s Familiar Faces Initiative, with support from Arnold Ventures, empowers communities to share data and integrate care options between health and justice systems so they can intervene earlier, improve outcomes and reduce incarceration and hospitalization rates.

Last year, NACo invited up to 10 county and city leaders with an interest in creating or expanding cross-system data-sharing efforts to apply to the Familiar Faces Leadership Network. The Leadership Network aims to strengthen the capacity of county and city leaders to collect and share data across local departments and providers so that jurisdictions can identify their familiar faces and align these systems to improve outcomes for their highest-needs residents

To get more information about the Familiar Faces Initiative visit familiarfaces.naco.org or read case studies from Adams County, Colorado and Bexar County, Texas.