End Homelessness | Housing Resources

Missouri Housing Resources

Coordinated Entry

Coordinated entry is, per HUD's description, a "process developed to ensure that all people experiencing a housing crisis have fair and equal access and are quickly identified, assessed for, referred, and connected to housing and assistance based on their strengths and needs." Instead of calling multiple numbers seeking assistance, every region and community has access to centralized phone or walk-in procedures for persons experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness to be assessed for housing services. Staff use standardized assessment tools to ensure fair and equal access to homeless assistance. Once an assessment is completed, a household is either connected directly with housing services or placed on a prioritization list based on vulnerability and severity of service needs. A household may also be connected with other community housing and service options while waiting for housing assistance.

The Missouri Department of Mental Health (DMH) maintains an online directory of all coordinated entry processes in the state. View or download the directory at the main page of the MICH web site.

DMH also has a Housing Resources web page at https://dmh.mo.gov/housing/unit/housing-resources.

MICH Emergency Weather Shelter Toolkit

On any given night, approximately 5,880 individuals are experiencing homelessness in Missouri, and approximately 1,210 (21%) of those individuals are literally unsheltered, according to the 2019 Missouri Statewide Homelessness Study. Despite the fact that homelessness overall across the state has been decreasing, Missouri saw a 38% increase in unsheltered homelessness from 2014 to 2018 (2019 Missouri Statewide Homelessness Study).

A sub-committee of the Missouri Interagency Council on Homelessness was formed in January of 2019 to better understand how warming and cooling centers across the state function and to develop a toolkit for communities interested in developing or improving a weather response program. Our goal is that this toolkit can serve as an educational resource to guide deeper conversations about warming and cooling shelter needs in local communities across the state. The sub-committee was comprised of representatives from:

A Common Sense for an (un)Common Bond (Jefferson City
Community Council of St. Charles County
Community Partnership of the Ozarks (Springfield)
FCC Behavioral health (Kennett)
Salvation Army (St. Louis)
Veterans Administration (Columbia)

Warming and cooling centers across the state vary greatly based on local capacity and engagement from
different sectors. Many centers are operated by grassroots groups. Consequently, the toolkit that the
Warming and Cooling Sub-Committee developed covers several aspects of launching and maintaining a
weather response program. Topic areas include:

Overview of Emergency Weather Shelters/Programs
How to develop an Emergency Weather Response System
Marketing and Communications
Policies and Procedures
Staffing and Training
Transportation and Pets
Engaging and Retaining Stakeholders

Please visit this link to see the Toolkit.

Affordable Housing

Missouri Affordable Housing Locator is a service to help find quality affordable rental housing in the state of Missouri. The site lists properties that are visited periodically by the Missouri Housing Development Commission for quality purposes because they participate in state and federally funded programs. Use it to search for affordable rental housing and to contact these properties.

Low-rent Apartment Search by HUD provides apartment listings for elderly persons, persons with disabilities, families, and individuals.

USDA Multi-family Apartment Complexes are located throughout the 50 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. Properties are classified as elderly or family, and provide unit sizes from studio to 4-bedroom. The properties are serviced by approved management agencies who provide required annual tenant certification processing for their residents.

Listing of PHAs: each Public Housing Authority (PHA) is responsible for the management and operation of its local public housing program. Many PHAs operate other types of subsidized housing as well. Click the link to find a local PHA.

Socialserve.com is a non-profit organization that maintains comprehensive nationwide information about the availability of affordable rental properties. It powers numerous state- and city-wide Web sites devoted to rental housing location, including kcmetrohousing.org. As of April 2019, socialserve.com only maintains Missouri data for Jackson and parts of Clay counties, but may soon be expanding to cover all of the state of Missouri, pending the availability of funding.

Housing Resources by Category

Homelessness: If you are homeless, at risk of becoming homeless, or know someone that is homeless, help is available. HUD, along with many other federal agencies, funds programs to help persons who are homeless. Local homeless assistance agencies provide a range of services and assistance, including emergency shelter, food, housing counseling, and job training and placement assistance. To locate an emergency shelter in your area, please view the Homeless Shelter Directory.

Domestic Violence: Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (MCADSV) is a statewide membership coalition of organizations and individuals working to end violence against women and their children through direct services and social and systemic change. MCADSV offers a member program services search to find housing and other resources.

Veterans: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is taking decisive action to end Veteran homelessness. All Veterans at risk for homelessness or attempting to exit homelessness must have easy access to programs and services. VA offers a variety of resources, programs, and benefits available to homeless Veterans.

Disaster survivors: The FEMA has made available resource for individual disaster assistance which can be viewed here.

Fair Housing

Housing discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, family status, or disability is illegal under federal statute. If you have tried to buy or rent a home or apartment and you believe your rights have been violated, you can file a fair housing complaint.

There are several ways to file a complaint. You can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by phone, by mail, or online. You may also file a fair housing complaint with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights.

You may also wish to obtain further guidance and advice from Legal Services of Missouri.