This booklet provides an introduction for people working in organizations concerned with housing and homelessness about basic skills. It provides background on the link between poor basic skills and poor housing and information about ways in which people use basic skills in their daily lives. Two reasons for housing organizations to be involved with basic skills are set forth: a person's competence with basic skills has a direct bearing on the way he or she is able to use housing organizations and agencies and improving the basic skills of staff working in housing organizations will improve the effectiveness of the organization. The next section discusses what housing organizations can do and describes three approaches: contracting, buying in, and integrating. Britain's Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Unit (ALBSU) Standards for basic skills are discussed. The following ways in which the ALBSU can help the housing organization are then described: advice and consultancy, development projects, staff training, and material. An appendix outlines steps to ensure that written communications are easy to understand. These elements of design are addressed: white space, leading, typeface, type size, upper and lower case, illustrations/overprinting, page layout/page breaks, and paper choice/color. These elements of readability are then discussed: sentence length and choice of words/repetition. The ALBSU Standards Maps at the end of the booklet illustrate the communication skill and numeracy standards and what each element means. (YLB)