Fostering Inclusion Around Housing Transitions

Abstract

This qualitative research project was designed to determine how Community Connectors can best support neurodiverse residents when they move into new housing. The research team also sought to generate greater awareness of the Connector role and support for a pilot. Team members collected and analyzed a range of perspectives, including lived experience, by running focus groups, conducting key informant interviews, and consulting with a diverse advisory panel. A Community Connector assisting neurodiverse residents as they transition to more independent housing can have an outsized impact, on housing success, housing stability, and quality of life. The Social Finance for Social Inclusion Solutions Lab has developed an outcomes-based pilot model to increase access to Community Connectors. Connectors help residents form relationships and over time, develop a new network of support. Housing providers may also be more willing to welcome these tenants, knowing they have adequate support. Connectors can also facilitate volunteer or employment opportunities, further integrating residents as full and valued members of the community. We found a social impact bond could be a novel way of increasing access to Community Connectors. Both impact investors and government funders are interested in the outcomes a pilot would likely achieve. Social impact bonds are just one idea though. Any funding model that could pay for an outcomes-based pilot with independent evaluation, would generate the evidence required to scale and increase access to this important resource.