Adult Mental Health Housing

There are programs available to help people with mental illness who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless find and keep housing.

Types of Housing and Eligibility

Permanent Supportive Housing Program

This program helps people 18 and older who are at high risk of becoming homeless find safe, affordable housing. It also helps them learn skills to keep housing and live independently. You must be eligible for services by the local mental health authority or local behavioral health authority.

Supportive Housing Rental Assistance Program

Twenty agencies in Texas help people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless with temporary rent subsidies, utility payments and move-in costs. They also work on homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing to keep people housed or move them quickly into housing. This includes deposits as well as rental and utility expenses.

This program is for people who are eligible to receive mental health services at the LMHA or LBHA and are homeless and willing to apply for Section 8 public housing.

To find out if your LMHA or LBHA provides this service, please contact them.

Section 811 Project Rental Assistance Program

This program helps people with very low incomes who also have a disability and are linked with long-term services with rental assistance, although it does not require participation in services. This program is a partnership between the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, Texas Health and Human Services Commission, and eligible multifamily properties.

This program is for people who:

  • Are between 18 to 61 at the time of admission.
  • Have a member of the household eligible for services at the LMHA or LBHA.
  • Are eligible for community-based, long-term care services.

For more information please visit the TDHCA website.

Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness

This outreach program helps people with mental illness or substance use disorder and their families if they are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. PATH works to find housing, help people find jobs, provide education support and connect people to primary healthcare.

PATH services are in Amarillo, Austin, Beaumont, Conroe, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Galveston, Harlingen, Houston, Laredo, Lubbock, San Antonio and Waco.

The Healthy Community Collaborative

This program was started in the largest cities in Texas to create a community network of support programs for the chronically homeless. Healthy Community Collaborative’s goal is to help people get out of an unstable situation and back into housing by providing them with all available community resources.

This program is for adults 18 and older who are homeless and have a mental illness or who may also have co-occurring substance use or primary care health issues.

The Project Access Pilot Program

This program provides people who are leaving a psychiatric hospital with housing rental assistance. The goal is to help people with disabilities pay for a place to live while they recover and reconnect with family, friends and the community following a stay in a psychiatric hospital. Once the person is established in a residence they can receive ongoing housing supports from their LMHA or LBHA. The Project Access Pilot program is part of the larger Project Access program. Qualifying applicants are also eligible for and placed on the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, Project Access program wait list.

You must apply for this program and get a housing voucher from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs to participate. To apply for a voucher online, visit the TDHCA website.

There are three ways to complete and submit a Project Access Pilot program application:

  1. If you or someone you know is in a state-funded psychiatric hospital, contact the social worker at the hospital and ask them to help you complete the application.
  2. If you or someone you know was in a state-funded psychiatric hospital within the past 60 days, contact your LMHA or LBHA to schedule an appointment. Mention your interest in Project Access Pilot vouchers.
  3. Complete the online application packet yourself or on behalf of someone and submit directly to TDHCA through the link above.

How Do I Get Help Finding Housing?