Supportive Housing
Permanent housing and long-term support
for people rebuilding their lives after homelessness.
Bethesda Cares helps individuals move into permanent housing and remain stably housed through ongoing case management, home visits, and connections to essential services.
Not a stepping stone.
A destination.
Supportive Housing is a long-term solution that pairs stable, permanent housing with ongoing case management and wraparound support. It is not transitional. It is not temporary. It is a home — with the individualized care needed to stay in it.
For people experiencing chronic homelessness, a roof alone is rarely enough. Supportive Housing addresses the conditions that make sustained stability so difficult: disabling health conditions, behavioral health needs, limited income, and fractured social supports.
Bethesda Cares helps people obtain housing, stay housed, and build stability through consistent, individualized support — for as long as it takes.
Permanent housing paired with case management, care coordination, and wraparound services — provided on the client's timeline, not ours.
housing focused. People do not need to earn their way into housing. A home is the foundation from which everything else — health, employment, community — becomes possible.
Long-term, sustained support. We stay with clients through the difficult, nonlinear work of rebuilding a life.
What makes supportive
housing work?
Helping clients obtain permanent housing quickly through landlord partnerships and a housing focused approach — no preconditions, no waiting to "earn" a home.
Frequent home visits and ongoing support from dedicated case managers who meet clients where they live and stay with them through the slow, nonlinear work of rebuilding stability.
Benefits access, care coordination, and crisis intervention to keep people housed — addressing the health, financial, and social barriers that make sustained stability so difficult.
Housing focused is not just compassionate. It's the smarter investment.
Leaving someone without stable housing doesn't save money — it shifts costs to the most expensive systems we have. The research is clear: permanent supportive housing costs taxpayers less than the alternatives.
People experiencing chronic homelessness use emergency rooms at dramatically higher rates than housed individuals. A single ER visit can cost thousands of dollars — costs borne by hospitals and taxpayers. Stable housing reduces emergency medical visits significantly.
The cost to incarcerate one person for a year far exceeds the cost of supportive housing. Homelessness and incarceration form a revolving cycle — one that permanent housing breaks. Studies consistently show that a housing focused approach reduces involvement with the criminal justice system.
Emergency shelters cost more per person per night than permanent supportive housing — and they don't solve homelessness, they manage it. A housing focused model invests in a permanent solution rather than cycling people through expensive temporary systems indefinitely.
Two specialized programs.
One commitment.
When a veteran is found homeless,
we move immediately.
Bethesda Cares is fully committed to ensuring that all homeless veterans are placed into housing without delay. When an outreach worker uncovers a homeless veteran, we expedite their case — providing their first month's rent, an ongoing monthly subsidy, and the full support of our case management team.
We help veterans access government benefits, pursue career opportunities, and receive counseling. In 2015, we partnered with Montgomery County on the Zero:2016 campaign — and by the end of that year, our county had achieved a virtual end to veteran homelessness. As new veterans experiencing homelessness enter our county, we continue to prioritize their placement above all else.
Staying housed is as important
as getting housed.
The Housing Initiative Program is designed to keep formerly homeless clients in permanent supportive housing. These individuals — once chronically homeless and now living in permanent housing — receive home visits from our staff as often as six times a month.
We help them access medical care, social services, and counseling, guiding them through the transition of leaving homelessness behind and becoming fully connected community members.
Housing is the beginning
of healing.
Our mission is to prevent, ease and end homelessness in our community. Our vision is that we all have the security of housing to live with dignity, purpose, and community connection.
Your support keeps
people housed.
Every donation sustains the case managers, home visits, landlord relationships, and wraparound care that make long-term stability possible for people who have been without a home for years.
Bethesda Cares is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. We have been working to end homelessness in Montgomery County, Maryland since 1988. Supportive Housing is one of five programs we operate.