Approach

EHM provides a Case Management Sensitive (CMS) approach to property development and management.

CMS Development pays special attention to unit accessibility including handrails, ramps, elevators and ADA construction when necessary. Access to service providers, public transportation and other basic amenities groceries, laundry are also considered.

CMS Property management involves quarterly property inspections where proactive property maintenance issues are addressed and the living conditions of the resident are accessed. Inspection reports are generated and provided to the case manager of the resident. Experience has shown that these reports often serve as warnings to case managers that a client intervention may be necessary.

Our Housing

Through a single intake coordinator, approximately 70 individuals are assessed and assisted each month. If they are deemed eligible for housing, they are placed in permanent scattered site apartments, clustered apartments and single family homes for families or the Don Miller House (if they are in the end-stage of HIV/AIDS and require assistance). Clients enter into occupancy agreements with EHM that states the terms of maintaining housing. Among those terms is mandatory participation in the supportive services offered by AIRS or the referring AIDS Service Organization (ASO). The services accessed by clients vary and are determined based on the individual needs of the client. An individual service plan is created for each client and accompanies the occupancy agreement as a sole agreement. The individual service plan is reviewed annually but is established with five years set as the target time period for returning clients to self-sufficiency. EHM believes that the housing, absent the supportive services, is a recipe for failure. EHM requires that residents be under the active supervision of the referring case manager to be eligible for housing in most cases.

Our Clients

Individuals and families come to EHM by referral from AIRS as well as other supportive service providers throughout Baltimore City and County . The backgrounds, demographics and daily struggles of our residents are resoundingly similar. They are all very low-income and living with HIV/AIDS. Ninety percent of our residents are formerly homeless. Most of our residents are long-term residents of Baltimore City. Ninety-eight percent of our residents are African American. Many have experienced crises related to addiction; they struggle financially; and suffer as a result of inadequate education (the heads of household as well as the children) which, in combination with HIV-related fatigue and illness, makes earning a living wage very difficult. Three-fourths of our heads of household are now taking Protease Inhibitors and are living longer. Most of our residents lack the skills necessary to negotiate the often complicated bureaucracies of DSS, public schools, managed care, SSDI and others in order to live to the fullest and improve the lives of their children. Most of our residents have incomes that are less than 30% of the area median income.