Key Facts & Figures About SAVE Inc.
• SAVE Inc. provides housing services to more than 700 individuals and families every month.
• In 2013, SAVE served 804 households – for a total of 1,326 people.
• SAVE was founded by volunteers in 1986 as the first AIDS-specific hospice in Missouri. It expanded services to those with mental illness and substance abuse issues in 1998.
• SAVE owns and operates seven properties, totaling 66 units of housing, ranging from studio apartments to three-bedroom family homes.
• Most of SAVE’s programs are for permanent housing.
• 88 percent of SAVE’s funding goes toward client services.
• In 2013, 51 percent of SAVE’s clients were living with HIV/AIDS.
• 46 percent of SAVE’s clients are female.
• 50 percent of its clients are African American.
• 13 percent of its clients are ages 18-30; 59 percent are 31-50 years old.
• About 28 percent of the households that SAVE serves are family units (in other words, not single adults).
• 100 percent of SAVE’s clients are living at or below the poverty line.
• SAVE spends around $300,000 every month to private landlords in the community in rental assistance.
• SAVE has invested over $3.1 million in capital improvements in Midtown Kansas City.
• SAVE provides housing services to those living in a 15-county metro area that includes both Kansas and Missouri.
Anchor Statements
SAVE Inc. believes that access to housing and health-care services is a basic human right. To this end, we have spent the better part of three decades ensuring that the most vulnerable people in Kansas City have access to permanent housing and to the support systems they need to rebuild their health and their dignity.
SAVE provides a home – the most basic of human rights – to the most vulnerable in Kansas City. We all deserve a safe place to call home. We all deserve a place to feel safe and a chance to live with dignity.
SAVE provides home, hope and dignity to those battling the dual crises of homelessness and a disability. We serve those who are homeless, with little to no income, battling HIV/AIDS, mental illness or substance abuse issues. By providing housing stability, SAVE Inc. helps clients access and maintain vital health-care services.
Key Points
SAVE Inc. has recently expanded its mission statement and, as a result, we are growing rapidly and being asked by multiple service partners to do more for their clients.
• With an ever-increasing need in our community for permanent, supported housing, SAVE Inc. anticipates a 30 percent increase in the number of clients served over the next 12 months.
• Our expanded mission statement highlights the fact that we serve low-income individuals and families with mental health and substance abuse issues – in addition to our traditional HIV/AIDS population.
• Most SAVE clients are battling at least two physical and/or mental health issues, making traditional subsidized housing ineffective – thus the need to ensure that we have partnerships with service providers who can address these multiple issues.
• Providers such as Truman Behavioral Health and ReDiscover Mental Health are asking us to manage housing programs specifically to help their clients dealing with complex issues.
• SAVE Inc. is transitioning into more intensive housing programs to ensure that clients with complex issues have the support to succeed with permanent housing.
SAVE Inc. is at the forefront of providing innovative housing solutions to clients who are facing increasingly complex issues.
• Growth centers on creating a continuum of supported housing, so that regardless of individual circumstances, SAVE can always provide a home.
• SAVE is on the front lines, recognizing the barriers that our clients face in maintaining their health and their housing. We are constantly seeking new ways to make our clients successful in health and housing.
Helping the most vulnerable in our community through permanent, supportive housing programs – like SAVE’s – is not only the right thing to do, it is the affordable thing to do.
• Permanent, supportive housing is among the most cost-efficient ways to help those in need.
• Without access to safe, decent affordable housing, many individuals would likely find themselves cycling through other public systems such as jails, shelters, emergency rooms and mental hospitals. These systems, while assisting in the moment, are not designed to provide long-term support.
• Permanent, supportive housing programs like those offered by SAVE are focused on helping clients find stability, access to consistent primary care and breaking the continuous usage of public emergency services. This stability and access to services results in a significant cost savings to communities.
• For example, supporting a vulnerable person through permanent supportive housing costs around $30 per day. Compare that to the cost of a one-time ambulance service ($750) … or one night in jail ($78) … or even a night in a homeless shelter ($50).
• The costs for these public services fall on the taxpayer and often occur multiple times for each individual.
• A good example is to think of the health-care cost of treating a common cold in a primary care setting vs. treating pneumonia in the emergency room. That is the difference that stable housing for the most vulnerable among us makes.
SAVE is the largest private provider of permanent, supportive housing for those with a disability in Kansas City.
• SAVE Inc. has been pioneering innovative, individualized housing solutions for those most in need by mixing government and private dollars.
• SAVE has funding partnerships with the Kansas City, Mo., Health Department, the Missouri Department of Mental Health, the Kansas City Continuum of Care, the Johnson County, Kan., Continuum of Care, and the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development – all to provide various housing options for low-income folks battling HIV/AIDS, mental illness or substance abuse.
• SAVE has service partnerships with various agencies throughout the region, including:
• Ryan White Case Management System – KC CARE Clinic, Good Samaritan Project, Kansas City, Mo., Health Department, Truman Medical Center, Guadalupe Center
• Behavioral and mental health agencies – Truman Behavioral Health, ReDiscover Mental Health, Missouri. Department of Mental Health, Tri-County Mental Health