Providing Frontline Support to Some of the Community’s Most Vulnerable

Housing Support and Services encompasses both the Housing Outreach Team and Palm 2 PSH who both utilize permanent supportive housing grants and programs to provide individuals and families with rental subsidies and supportive services if they are, or have been, homeless — sleeping outside or in a place that is not meant for habitation, or in an emergency shelter — and have a mental health challenge.

These two programs provide home and community-based services such as searching for and securing housing, retaining housing, and mental health services encompassing case management, skills training, counseling, medication services, and crisis intervention services.

Housing Support and Services includes mental health providers such as counselors, case managers, and peer wellness staff who work to provide consistent and immediate assistance, and help individuals and families in accessing healthcare and permanent housing. The team is made up of mobile, highly trained, and skilled workers who care about the community’s most vulnerable members. This work is personal to them; Cascadia team members know that these individuals that they are caring for are someone’s mother, father, daughter, son, sister, brother, or friend.

Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare has nearly 40 years of experience providing direct mental and behavioral health services to the Portland community, and housing plays a key role in our mission to provide whole health care. Cascadia’s services are based on the “Housing First” program model, which works to provide housing to people first without precondition and then support participants to move forward on other goals they have once they have housing and a safe space to heal.

“To us, housing is healthcare,” says Housing Outreach Director Katherine Moore. “With housing, our clients are able to find stability and security in an environment where they can heal and improve their health away from the risks and trauma that come with living on the street.”