The following stories were submitted with permission to the SOAR Technical Assistance Center in response to a call for examples of how Social Security disability benefits have changed the lives of people who were experiencing or at risk for homelessness.
Increasing income through employment and Social Security disability benefits is critical for maintaining housing stability. However, for individuals utilizing housing vouchers, fear of losing their vouchers often prevents them from exploring employment. To encourage work, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has numerous incentives to protect those returning to work from immediate rent increases and voucher loss.
Tracking SOAR outcomes is a critical way to document successes and to target technical assistance needs. Using the SOAR Online Application Tracking (OAT) program, case workers can easily enter application outcome data and generate reports to use for local sustainability efforts.
On this webinar, held on May 25, 2021, the SAMHSA SOAR TA Center addressed barriers to equity in SOAR implementation and presented strategies to overcome them.