CSL Announces Major Housing Expansion
CSL Acquires 75 Additional Housing Units; Evalyn Duffy and Lauren Worley Promoted to Housing Leadership Roles
August 29, 2024 | By: Doug Cowan, President & CEO
Evalyn Duffy, left, serves as Sr. Vice President of Housing Services, and Lauren Worley, right, serves as Vice President of Housing Services
It is my pleasure to share a major programmatic expansion with you, along with corresponding staff announcements. Since 2010, CSL has been operating the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH). In 2010-2011, which was my first year with CSL, we received an award of $144,000 from HUD to operate PSH in the Kansas City area. That funded a year’s worth of rent payments, along with supportive services, for about 12 households. After steady growth from 2010-2023, CSL had about $1,000,000 in HUD contracts to permanently house about 75 individuals or families.
Who participates in PSH? Individuals and families who have been chronically-homeless can, first, be screened to assess their level of housing vulnerability, and, second, depending on their score, they may move quickly into a PSH program. CSL operates PSH as part of a regional strategy with other organizations, and we keep a list of screened individuals and families, whose priority for housing is based on their assessment score. The most vulnerable families are housed first, and we move down our regional list as units become available. HUD’s investment in Kansas City’s Continuum of Care is spread among many organizations, who split, approximately, $15,000,000 annually to house thousands of formerly-homeless individual and families.
Annually, our region hosts a review of the PSH programs, and organizations are scored on their performance. CSL, for the last 15 years, has consistently been one of the highest-ranked programs. In fact, there have been many years when we have held the top ranking.
While in the program, PSH families receive intense staff support. Highly-skilled case managers work to develop stability for individuals and families, whose lives have been, largely, anything but stable. Addressing issues related to health, education, identification, employment, transportation, finances, disability or Veteran status, basic needs, finances, and overall wellbeing are paramount to success.
In 2024, CSL has doubled our number of units from 75 to 150, and our total awards from HUD are approximately $2,500,000. A regional partner, who was also operating PSH, asked CSL to take over a majority of their housing portfolio. We are honored to be entrusted with their housing stock, and to be trusted to care for our neighbors living in those units. The transfer of the units is officially complete, and CSL is the organization of record for all our new units. After a review of the portfolio, and learning that some neighbors had moved on from their units, we have a few openings, and are working within our regional system to fill our openings.
In the long-term, CSL will work with our PSH households to improve their stability. Some families may have a reasonable expectation of living independently someday, and we look forward to helping all families reach their brightest future. You can read about the Creed family, who was one of our first families in PSH in 2010, who are now homeowners.
In concert with this major program expansion, I am pleased to announce two new staff promotions. Evalyn Duffy has been promoted to Sr. Vice President of Housing Services, and Lauren Worley has been promoted to Vice President of Housing Services. In their new roles, Evalyn and Lauren will provide strategic guidance and direction for our housing work, alignment with our mission, vision, core values, and strategic plan, ensuring best-in-class service and support of PSH households, and compliance with our local Continuum of Care and HUD. Outside of PSH, CSL maintains other housing investments to provide for housing stability and upward mobility for local residents. Under their leadership, 16 housing professionals provide ongoing services for local neighbors. This announcement is highly-aligned with our 2023-2027 Strategic Plan, which calls for CSL to aspire to have control of 400 units of affordable housing.
While much of this work is funded by HUD, donor philanthropy provides critical funding to amplify our impact. Thank you for supporting our work, like housing services!
