Community Access's transitional housing model helps people with psychiatric disabilities move from shelters and hospitals into the community. This portion of our program is built around three separate, but inter-linked settings:
Libby House, Manhattan
at 347 East 4th Street, provides temporary, service-enriched housing to 12 men and women in a communal setting. Tenants plan and share meals together, organize weekly activities and sleep in dorm-like rooms. The focus of the work at Libby House is to help people regain basic skills such as negotiating the public transportation system, budgeting and organizing their time around activities they enjoy, and help them adjust to a community setting.
An emphasis is also placed on "self-help," or learning to support and be supported by peers. This aspect of the program is especially important for people struggling to overcome problems of substance abuse, symptoms of mental illness, and the effects of psychotropic drugs that "non-consumers" can never fully appreciate.
On average, tenants stay less than six months in this setting before moving on to more independent housing.
Access House, Manhattan
at 220 East 7th Street, is also a communal-type residence with the distinction that each tenant has his or her own room. Bathrooms are shared on each floor. Like Libby House, tenants share tasks in the residence and meet frequently as a community to discuss issues related to their recovery and growth.
Both Libby House and Access House provide on-site staffing 24 hours a day as well as individual counseling, goal planning and linkage to outside programs and services. Tenants are encouraged to take advantage of free and low-cost cultural, recreational and educational programs. Both offer separate lounge areas for watching television, reading and socialization activities.
Treatment Apartment Program
(TAP) In many ways, TAP is an extension of Libby House and Access House. However, instead of a single-site residence, tenants are provided with apartments in privately-owned buildings in the East Village, Lower East Side, and now in Washington Heights. Most tenants share two-bedroom units, although we have some studios and three-bedroom units as well. Community Access is licensed to provide 70 people with services in this program.
While services in Libby House and Access House might place more emphasis on developing basic skills and medication management, TAP assists people returning to a full-time schedule of daily activities, which usually include a mix of job training, volunteer and/or part-time work, education and ongoing mental health services. Stay in this program is also time-limited to less than two years on average.