About the Project

The Charlotte County “Home 2 Recovery” Project is a collaborative effort between Coastal Behavioral Healthcare, the Charlotte County Homeless Coalition, the Florida Peer Network, and USF-Florida Mental Health Institute’s Department of Mental Health, Law and Policy. The five-year project was funded by a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to implement a comprehensive and integrated system of evidenced-based mental health and substance abuse recovery services that are tailored to the unique needs of the chronically homeless population in Charlotte County, Florida.

As the grantee, Coastal will utilize an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team with an emphasis on “Housing First” to help individuals achieve recovery from homelessness and co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorders. Coastal, in collaboration with the Charlotte Homeless Coalition, Charlotte Community Mental Health, Southwest Florida Addiction Services, and other community organizations will offer individualized treatment, rehabilitation, and support services to assist persons who are chronically homeless move into permanent housing, achieve recovery from mental illnesses and co-occurring substance use disorders, and increase self-reliance and self-sufficiency. The grant will include persons who are homeless with co-occurring disorders that were displaced from Hurricane Charley and exiting FEMA trailers.

MHLP will evaluate this “Housing First” approach to homelessness by tracking access to immediate housing, supportive housing over five years, co-occurring mental health and substance abuse treatment interventions, fidelity to the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) model, peer-directed recovery services and a process evaluation that will include a community-wide approach to serving persons who are chronically homeless in Charlotte County. It is anticipated that the impact of these findings will provide evidence that a “Housing First” approach, coupled with an assertive community-wide effort, will yield better outcomes for persons who would otherwise lack available housing and intensive co-occurring supports.

Principal Investigator	Mark A. Engelhardt, MS, MSW, ACSW
Co-PI	Kathleen Moore, PhD
Co-PI	M. Scott Young, PhD
Funding Agency	SAMSHA
Award Amount	$220,000
Dates	10/01/2006 - 09/30/2010