Housing Options began in 1990, when a group of past and present mental health peers recognized the need to advocate for better and safer housing for individuals being discharged from the hospitals.  By the time of the agency’s 10th anniversary, the agency went from 30 crisis beds to 180 beds covering four counties - Erie, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, and Allegany.

In celebrating our 25th anniversary, Housing Options Made Easy expanded services into Niagara, Monroe, Genesee, Livingston and Wyoming counties. We now have over 400 scattered site apartments. In addition, Housing Options Made Easy also provides the following peer services:

• Southern Tier Recovery Activities Without Walls, (STRAWW), one of two state funded, multi-county Recovery Centers in the southern tier,  
• Transitional Youth Program serving 16 to 24 year olds
• Peer Bridger program
• Community training program
• Warm lines: One serving the Southern Tier and the other serving Erie County
• Short term Respite Programs: one in the southern tier (Eagles Nest) and one in Erie County (Refreshing Waters)
• Transitional apartments
• Subcontracts for mobile transition teams and peers working for providers
• Consulting to assist counties, organizations and other providers in establishing peer support services including the recovery center model.  

The Housing Options workforce is 95% peers. The agency has a main office and five satellite locations.  Our budget grew from approximately $1.8 million to approximately $5.5 million.

Housing Options Made Easy is involved with many county, New York State, federal and other states’ recovery and peer initiatives. We have become nationally recognized for the quality and effectiveness of our peer services and how we operate our peer-run agency.