What We Do

Founded in Housing First; but PCHO is so much more…

PCHO combines innovative approaches to providing housing with essential supportive services that engage individuals and families in health care, community relationships, activities that support recovery and employment; but none of this is possible without a home.

Housing First is an innovative movement to improve the way housing for the homeless works. Conventional housing options typically require that the homeless person or family resolve a number of issues before they qualify for housing. These can include treatment for addiction or mental illness, obtaining identification, beginning a job search, etc. The problem with this approach is that it can be virtually impossible to complete these requirements without a permanent place to live. As a result, many of our areas homeless cannot begin the process of finding housing.

Housing First reverses this approach and offers basic housing without conditions, before requiring a program of self-improvement. It comes from the experience that with safe, permanent housing you have a home base to begin to put a life back together. You have an address, a phone number, a safe place for your things and, perhaps most important, the very difficult daily task of finding shelter no longer takes up the majority of your time and energy.

Person Centered Housing Options (PCHO) combines this approach with intensive outreach, and care coordination services that meets every individual and family where they are at. Each person is in a different place in their lives, and PCHO wants to be there to provide them with whatever they need to survive and begin to thrive.

Check out our Programs page for more info on specific services PCHO has to offer.