Programs

Opening Doors

Dave’s House provides permanent supportive housing for men and women with serious mental illness (SMI), giving them a solid foundation so they can manage life obstacles, and succeed. It was founded in 2008 by Lin and Ron Wilensky, to help others in the world like Lin’s brother, Dave, who had schizophrenia.

Dave’s House has developed permanent supportive housing for over 100 individuals who are living productive lives in an atmosphere of mental wellness, stability, autonomy and safety. Nine single family homes are located in Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and Fairfax, Virginia.

» Click here for our Fact Sheet

We are developing our first Dave's House Residential Community for 24-36 men and women with serious mental illness in Orlando. This permanent supportive housing community will have private apartment homes, common spaces and facilities, on-site amenities and services and be near public transportation and other services. For details or a personal presentation, contact Ellen O'Connor via email ellen@daveshouse.org or phone 407-457-1282.

» Click here for details on the Residential Community

Working with partners at the local, state and federal levels, Dave’s House develops homes based upon best practice PSH models. These models combine a solid foundation of affordable and stable housing, accompanied by managed mental health care provided by our behavioral health service partners. We also coordinate with other well-being service providers to assist residents.

Our homes have a 90% retention rate for residents. All our residents participate daily in a productive activity including continuing education, volunteering and working. Through PSH, residents can more easily manage life obstacles, live in recovery and achieve their dreams. Our homes provide independence, a sense of security and a support network of acceptance and caring.

At Dave’s House, being Somebody’s Someone is about people helping people with serious mental illness rebuild their lives, escaping homelessness and living in a supportive home. We are continuing our work:

Developing more permanent supportive housing
Offering a variety of options for our residents to improve their personal and professional life skills through our Dave’s House 360° Resident Development Programs
Supporting community initiatives with our Dave's House Volunteers program

ENHANCED SERVICES

Dave’s House 360°

Working with community partners, other non-profits and behavioral health care providers, Dave’s House 360° provides Resident Development Programs to enhance resident services. Programs focus on the personal and professional betterment and life-long wellness of residents. They include day programs, volunteering and interactive workshops that offer new social, career, health and daily life skill training opportunities.

Mentorship Program

The Dave’s House Champions Mentorship Program connects trained volunteer mentors with residents at our Central Florida homes. Our mentors volunteer their time to help our residents face daily life challenges better and develop new skills.

They help residents overcome their feelings of isolation and seclusion, learn skills for social interaction and connection and learn how to build personal relationships. The program focuses on a more holistic recovery process and ongoing wellness to provide improved health, independence and life skills for success. It emphasizes individual personal interests in hobbies, talents and leisure pursuits.

We also celebrate resident birthdays, personal achievement milestones and holidays throughout the years with our residents.

Permanent supportive housing breaks the cycle of chronic crisis care, reducing the financial and social costs of homelessness and building healthier communities.

Key to the success of PSH is ongoing mental health support services. Through our behavioral health services partners, case managers work with residents on life skills training; medication management; mental health/substance abuse treatment; 24-hour/365-days-a-year crisis intervention and stabilization services; daily support programming and vocational services; and coordination with primary health care and dental services.

PSH lowers the community costs by 68% per individual housed. The yearly cost of Dave’s House residency is $10,051. The annual cost of a homeless person living with SMI – including prison, ER visits and hospital stays – is $31,065. (Central Florida Commission on Homelessness, The Cost of Long-term Homelessness in Central Florida 2014).

In Central Florida’s Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties, there are over 7,300 homeless individuals. Nearly 20% of the adults have serious mental illness (Florida Council on Homelessness, 2019).

These are the men and women we are working to help.

The nine homes we have established are based on the scattered site single family home model. This Traditional Home Model keeps individuals from the streets – creating a single family home residence for typically four individuals who are graduating from transitional care or are on the verge of homelessness and back into the cycle of instability.

Individuals who have demonstrated stability and have the life skills to live independently with support typically succeed in this model. Often, residents form a modern family, developing friendships that generally elude people with SMI, who often live in isolation because of their illness. They look out for one another, share housekeeping responsibilities and socialize together. The home provides a sense of family, community and stability.

This model is designed to break even financially. Residents pay rent equating to approximately one-third of their monthly SSDI (Social Security Disability Income) or SSI (Supplemental Security Income). This covers ongoing utility and maintenance expenses.

We have also funded Housing First Model apartment homes that provide apartment homes for those with SMI alongside co-occurring disabilities. These individuals require a much greater intensity of case management and services.

New Model Initiative

Dave’s House is developing our first Dave’s House Residential Community, a permanent supportive housing community with 30 one-bedroom and studio apartment homes in the City of Orlando. We have evolved to this model because:

We can serve more people in a more cost-effective manner
More ongoing services can be provided on-site, avoiding transportation and meeting space issues
This model can be scaled to land/existing construction available to us for additional developments
This model can be expanded to include transitional supportive housing in a larger facility

The Residential Community Model expands resident benefits and increases their journey of self-actualization.

Private units with separate bedrooms and bathrooms
On-site case management for better ongoing behavioral healthcare
On-site self-improvement activities and educational sessions
Decreased sense of isolation, with more residents and staff in centralized location
Increased peer support
On-site services that do not require travel to access
Economies of scale in service provision
Centralized service provision by partners

This multi-unit complex will

Reduce the number of homeless adults with SMI in the City of Orlando through permanent supportive housing
Save $630,420 in community costs annually
Provide residents with affordable housing, with centralized ongoing case management support; peer support; and personal and professional development programs

Creating Homes

Opening Doors

2023 Initiatives

Community Impact

Provider Partners

Aspire Health Partners | Central Florida Commission on Homelessness | Community Resource Network | Healthcare Center for the Homeless | Henderson Behavioral Health | Homeless Services Network | HOPE South Florida

Housing Models

Resources

If you or a loved one need permanent supportive housing, contact us.