Permanent supportive housing (PSH) is long-term affordable housing with support services. On a given night, HSH houses over 9,000 individuals in PSH. Some PSH is site-based in specific buildings, while other PSH units are located in scattered sites across the city. Get more information about HSH’s housing programs and access an inventory broken out by housing and household type.
Vacancies happen when tenant leaves a PSH unit or when a new unit comes online. Tenants may move to other housing options, pass away, or, in rare cases, abandon their unit. HSH works with providers to minimize the number of vacancies and length of time that units are vacant.
Vacancy Data
The first dashboard shows details about the number and status of vacant units in site-based PSH for the most recently reported month.
- Some of these units are online and available for referral.
- Some units are online and have a referral pending – a client is on the path to move in.
- Other units are held offline for maintenance, inspection, or other reasons and are not available for referrals.
When sites are opening units, we count these buildings as being in lease-up phase for the first four months after tenant move-ins start.
The second dashboard shows how many units have been vacant each month since January 2022. Use the “Reporting Period” slider to explore vacancy data in different time frames.
- The vacancy percentage is calculated by dividing the number of vacant site-based units by the total number of site-based PSH units in HSH’s portfolio. Use the toggle in the top right corner to switch between vacancy numbers and the vacancy percentage.
- The vacancy percentage does not include new buildings that are in the process of leasing up. Newly opened buildings typically take a few months to fully lease up and for new tenants to move in. By excluding these buildings from our vacancy percentage calculations, we are able to more accurately monitor vacancies that result from turning over units and referring new clients.
- Use the expand arrow on the bottom right bar to make the dashboard full screen.
Reducing Vacancies
HSH has set a goal vacancy rate of 7%. We are working to overcome the challenges that create vacancies in our system to meet that goal:
- We implemented a policy to lower requirements for the documents clients need to move into housing.
- We added new Access Points to increase services that support clients to navigate the housing process.
- We implemented a policy outlining the length of time units can be offline for repairs.
- We are working to better monitor the length of time units are vacant by improving vacancy tracking in our data systems.
- We continue to improve the quality of our PSH buildings to help increase the rate at which clients accept referrals to vacant units.