A Training Needs Assessment Among Managers of Federally Subsidized Housing: Facilitating Support Service Use by Vulnerable Older Tenants

Abstract

A mail survey of 248 upstate New York subsidized-housing managers explored the issue of housing-managerfacilitation of support service use among vulnerable older tenants. Data were collected pertinent to manager knowledge or perceived ability to facilitate tenant service access and their experience in doing so during the past year. Major findings were as follows: (a) Manager knowledge across a broad range of 25 health care and social services constituting the Manager Service Knowledge Index (MSKI) was low—62.1% scored zero (not knowledgeable or familiar with gaining access to any support services). (b) Manager-facilitated tenant service use, measured across the same services (Tenant Service Utilization Index [TSUI]), was also low—64.5% scored zero (had not facilitated tenant access to any of the 25 services during the past year). (c) A strong association was found between MSKI and TSUI, r = .89. (d) Nearly half (45.9%) of the managers had no previous support service network training, and of those who had, 79.0% found it not helpful in enhancing their practical skill. (e) Manager's primary criticism of prior training experience was its lack of specificity in matching tenant-assessed needs to available services and the procedures employed to access them. Implications for training, policy, and future research are discussed