PLY: A flurry of news to end the week pertaining to public health, avoiding homelessness and even flood defences…
New Program Aims To Keep Homeless Off The Street
Eric Kurhi – Santa Cruz Sentinel
In what’s being called the first program of its kind in the state, Santa Clara County is partnering with a housing nonprofit and private organizations to get 150 to 200 chronically homeless folks off the street — and will only pay for the effort if it succeeds.
The “Pay for Success” model being rolled out Friday pairs the county with Abode Services on “Project Welcome Home.” Private entities are footing an initial $6.9 million tab, with mechanisms in place for payback if progress is seen starting at the three-month mark.
Santa Clara County Board President Dave Cortese said the model guarantees taxpayers will not take a hit if the program fails.
“The Pay for Success model offers promise for governments seeking to address complex challenges while connecting payments for services to results,” said Cortese. “We are eager to test the model on chronic homelessness, by helping people with the most difficulty to stabilize their lives through supportive housing.”
Social Impact Bonds For Public Health Programs: An Overview
National Governors Association
The desire to improve health care outcomes and reduce costs has led states to rethink how they deliver health care services. One approach is to focus on the underlying social determinants of health, which is why governors are incorporating public health, community, social support, and other nonclinical services into their efforts to transform their states’ health care systems.1 Effective delivery of such services requires innovative programs.
Social impact bonds (SIB) are a financing mechanism that states can use to support such innovative programs. Governors can use a SIB model to provide funds to nonprofit organization that can successfully deliver social, health, or educational services on a small scale. The funding from a SIB is used to scale up the nonprofit’s program, a process done through an intermediary organization that private investors finance. The intermediary organization contracts with the nonprofit to cover the cost of the scaled-up activities and with investors to negotiate an appropriate rate of return. That intermediary in turn has a contract with the state government that requires the government to pay the intermediary only
Social Impact Bonds To Target Resilience (subscription)
Paul Burton – The Bond Buyer
Storm resilience could represent an ideal application for social impact bonds, some advocates say.