Avesta’s housing-first model for homeless defies common practice: it works!

In March of 2012, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan reported that the average cost of a single homeless person in America was $40,000 a year.  The long list of services used by the homeless proves that traditional efforts to transition them to sustainable, self-sufficient living are not working.

But what if, instead of focusing on services that prepare the homeless to live off the streets, we turn that model on its head and start with housing first?

That’s exactly what Dana Trotman, president of Avesta Housing in Maine, did with his Logan Place and Florence House developments, and the results are inspiring. Over the course of the first year, Logan Place tenants who participated in a study spent 21 nights in jail as opposed to 171 the previous year, used 140 beds in emergency shelters instead of 5,163, and experienced a 70 percent reduction in medical costs.  Creating a sense of stability and safety by offering a clean and safe place first may just be the key to combating chronic homelessness.

Founded in 1972 and chartered as part of the NeighborWorks Network in 2008 (making this year its fifth anniversary), Avesta Housing shared a similar course with other successful housing non-profits as it expanded its asset portfolio as well as the breadth and depth of its services.  But in March 2005, Avesta moved in a direction that would make it an innovative leader in serving the homeless population.  The organization opened Logan Place in an effort to show the cost-effectiveness of providing chronically homeless persons safe, private housing.

Supportive services vs. housing first

The typical model of serving the homeless is based on offering nights in a shelter, nutritious meals and access to limited health care. However, while studies have shown this approach helps approximately 80 percent of participants find permanent shelter, the other 20 percent stay on the streets, perpetually gobbling up services at a high cost to the public.  These individuals rotate spending their nights in shelters with stays in the emergency room, jail or out on the streets, in a cycle without end.

Logan Place provides 30 previously chronically homeless
individuals a safe, stable place to live.

With the opening of Logan Place, however, Avesta moved toward a new model that recognizes the additional benefits that come from having a place to live.  The reduced stress and anxiety over one’s safety at night offers rest to otherwise weary and ill minds.  The opportunity to shower daily and care for personal hygiene in the comfort of a private bathroom brings a look of health and vitality to faces that had been missing for years – which in turn helps them find work.  With the accessibility of a kitchen pantry and refrigerator, combined with the security of long-term housing, they no longer have to live day to day.

That is the key to the success of Logan Place and Avesta.  By helping chronically homeless individuals achieve a lifestyle that feels safe and dependable, they can begin to focus beyond the most basic human needs.  Many individuals, who avoided psychiatric help before, not only see counselors but choose to host their sessions in their apartments, expressing pride in their new homes.  Others work to develop better general health, allowing them to focus on preventive and ongoing treatments, thus avoiding the costlier and less-effective emergency visits.  Several work as volunteers at the development’s administrative front desk, developing new skills that help them find paying work.

As should be the case with all good ideas, success begat success and in 2010, Avesta opened the women’s-only Florence House.  Developed in response to a crisis in female homelessness after the closing of the local YWCA, Florence House offers 25 apartments, as well as 15 semi-private units, a large kitchen that feeds the residents, community space and laundry facilities.

Avesta touts its Housing First approach as “a solution-oriented response to the problem of chronic homelessness -- a way to end homelessness, not manage it.” So far, the results look promising.

Texas group profiled in local newspaper for protecting homeownership through tough times

NeighborWorks America is honoring our many creative member organizations this year by featuring in our blog those that are celebrating milestone anniversaries. We were pleased to discover that we didn't have to write a testimonial for NeighborWorks Waco, because the WacoTrib did it for us. Read for yourself...

Robert Jackson expected good things from NeighborWorks Waco.

Jackson was the treasurer of the newly formed Brooks Avenue Neighborhood Association in 1993, when the group decided to contribute $10,000 to help jump start the new housing organization, believing it could help more residents buy homes in the Greater Waco area.

But he didn’t expect that he would wind up being one of those residents who would need the nonprofit group’s help to buy his first home.

Read the full article. 

Rhode Island group capitalizes on ethnic diversity to strengthen local economy

It was the late 1970s, and the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War, bringing an influx of refugees to the country. Providence, Rhode Island, was one of the early magnets for the stream of Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrants, due in part to its central coastal location, relatively affordable cost of living and accessibility of support services.  With the economy slumping and redlining rampant, however, the community struggled to adapt.

“Integrating all of these new arrivals was a challenge at a time when our local economy was in a crisis,” recalls Sharon Conard-Wells, one of a group of volunteers who organized around the need to assure that affordable housing was available to everyone. “The federal government had just begun offering a zero-down payment program for new homeowners, so we mobilized to bring some of those funds to our city.”

Thus, the group that would become West Elmwood Housing Development was born – first just a loose, volunteer effort, then an official nonprofit in 1986 and finally, a charter member of NeighborWorks America in 1998 – making 2013 its 15th anniversary as a member of the network.

“I had seen the value that being a member of NeighborWorks America brought to an organization,” recalls Conard-Wells, who later became the group’s executive director. “Knowing how politics works was enough to get us money, but NeighborWorks America affiliation offered two other benefits money can’t buy – professional development, and a national network that broadens your base. I wanted that for West Elmwood.”

Hub for immigrants

The “West End” community of Providence, which the organization primarily serves, has changed in many ways since those early years – including a slight decline in residents from 14,186 in 2000 to 13,844 in 2010. But what has continued to grow is its cultural diversity. Fifty-seven percent of its residents today are Hispanic, 18 percent are black, 11 percent are Asian and 32 percent are “other” or a combination. What is even more defining about the community is that nearly 40 percent of West End residents were born outside of the United States (compared to just 13 percent across the state and nationwide).  According to the Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island, the influx of refugees over time has shifted from Southeast Asians and Liberians to (in the last five years) a more diverse mix from Bhutan, Burma, Central Africa (Congo, Central African Republic and Burundi), East Africa (Ethiopia and Eritrea) and Iraq. Two-thirds of the residents speak a language other than English at home.

That reality about the community it serves has led West Elmwood in some innovative directions in its quest to serve its constituents. One of its current initiatives is called the Sankofa Project – named for a word from Ghana that means, literally, “go back (to the past) and get it.” For the West End community, that means capitalizing on residents’ family and cultural backgrounds to solve local problems.  

“For example, residents of the West End community currently have limited access to affordable, fresh, culturally desirable foods,” explains Rachel Newman Greene, director of partnerships and community projects. “In fact, I’d call West End a food desert. There is no full-service supermarket, and while there is a farmer’s market, it’s not affordable and doesn't cater to an ethnically diverse population.”

Food desert to cultural marketplace

The goal of the Sankofa Project is to fill that gap, while also providing a source of local income. The centerpiece of the project is the transformation of 30,000 square feet of land into a mixed-use development featuring: 

• affordable rental housing  (50 one- to three-bedroom units).

• an agricultural space that includes both community gardens and small farms/microbusinesses. 

• a “world market” with booths for selling the agricultural goods as well as crafts, tailored clothing and other locally made products.

• a community building.

Garmei Mawolo (left), originally from Liberia, and another
 gardener sell their produce at one of West Elmwood's farmers’
markets. They are selling (from left to right) sour leaf
 (red sorrel), habanero peppers, Malabar (water) spinach,
squash tendrils and leaf amaranth (m’chicha).

“I don’t know of any other organizations that have a project like this on such a large, contiguous space,” says Angie Bannerman, chair of the committee in charge of the initiative and a West End resident for 36 years. 

Identifying and acquiring that much vacant land is a challenge in the Northeast, and in the beginning of its work, the organization focused on individual lots on which it renovated old buildings for offices or lofts, converted them into community gardens or leased them out for small farmers’ markets. However, the West End community was “blessed” by stretches of formerly industrial properties, now abandoned, and over time it was able to gradually acquire the property for the ambitious Sankofa Project with the help of a state land bank. 

 “We’re designing this to be the main social focus of the community – a gathering place that will feel familiar to immigrants who come from more market-based cultures, while also improving their diets and developing entrepreneurial sources of income by attracting people from throughout the city and state,”  says Greene.  

Phase 1 of the project, a small tree farm, already is funded and complete. Phase 2, now underway, encompasses rented lots for planting, including two greenhouses, and a seasonal farmers’ market designed to begin establishing a customer base. The rest of the agricultural and market development will follow, and the final, fourth stage will be the housing (targeted for completion in the spring of 2015). 

“Of course, we offer a lot of other services, such as financial counseling and programs for youth that use hip hop to encourage self-esteem,” says Conard-Wells. “The constant is our commitment to recognizing and celebrating their diversity, and sticking with them for the long term. So, for instance, when residents complete our homebuyer education programs, we don’t give them a graduation certificate. We give them a ‘friend-for-life’ certificate.”

Idaho group demonstrates ability to change blight to bright

When you need political support and funding to continue your mission to revitalize deteriorating neighborhoods, but the people you need to influence don’t tend to visit “that side of the tracks,” how do you motivate them to care? By taking them on a “Blight to Bright Tour”!

That’s the innovative tactic employed by Pocatello Neighborhood Housing Services (PNHS).

The founding mission of the nonprofit, which is celebrating the 20th anniversary of both its creation and its membership in NeighborWorks America, is to revitalize six neighborhoods of Pocatello, located in southeastern Idaho. The homes were built primarily before 1978; not only are they simply “wearing out” with age, but they also were constructed before lead standards were set, making many unsafe both environmentally and health-wise.

Although PNHS offers rehab loans, homebuyer education and financial fitness coaching throughout the city and surrounding areas, it focuses its new construction on “infill housing” for these core neighborhoods, helping them revive and thrive. PNHS works with the city government, banks and other partners to acquire vacant lots or dilapidated houses -- often after they have been foreclosed or burnt down, and usually from absentee owners. The organization then replaces them with affordable housing that is designed to add to the community’s overall marketability, through special touches such as front porches that invite interaction with neighbors.(Read this MSN article for a discussion on when to rehab vs. demolish, in which Dahlquist is quoted.)

A vacant lot acquired by PNHS in
one of its target neighborhoods.

With the addition of a new home, the vacant
lot is transformed from blight to bright.

“The before-and-after pictures, and the stories, are dramatic,” says Mark Dahlquist, executive director. “We’ve featured them in a brochure, but there’s no better way to convert people into ‘believers’ than by bringing them there. We call it our ‘Blight to Bright’ tour.”

Dahlquist and his team have conducted two such tours so far and are planning a third, although he often gives VIPs such as legislative staff a one-on-one version. On each tour, about 35 participants, including the mayor, city councilmen and local bankers, hop in a bus and take a tour of the neighborhoods. They’re given the “before” photos, and stop to see the “afters” in person, while chatting with the families.

“The universal reaction is surprise at the vibrancy they see now,” says Dahlquist. “We don’t have to tell them we make a positive impact; they can see for themselves what their continuing funding and other support allow us to do.”

Two mobile tool libraries help
volunteers brighten up Harrison Street

To date, PNHS has constructed and sold 140 affordable homes. Their success has meant that the degree of “blight” that needs brightening is so reduced that Dahlquist sees a shift to a greater focus on rehabs. His organization already has distributed 350 rehab loans across the city and surrounding areas, which has nurtured the growing popularity of another program of which Dahlquist is particularly proud: a tool library.  The original idea for the library, he says, was born when a team from PNHS attended a NeighborWorks America Community Leadership Institute. However, it wasn’t until about five years ago that it really took off.

Today, about 200 community residents a year check out the library’s lawn mowers, weed whackers and other tools for a minimal $1 or $2 a day. Then there’s the library’s two mobile units, which allow the full collection to travel to the site of major community-improvement projects. For example, in an event called Re-Ignite the Pride, several service groups accessed the mobile units to spruce up eight blocks along Harrison Street, a major community artery that had fallen into poor condition along the railroad tracks.

“Neighborhood revitalization is our core mission,” says Dahlquist, “and we’ll change with the community’s needs to keep it vibrant.”

Rochester, NY, group works to keep city from going the way of Detroit

When the news first broke that the city of Detroit had filed for bankruptcy, Kim Brumber, CEO of NeighborWorks Rochester, shuddered. Rochester, NY, may not be Detroit, but there are some parallels that hit very close to home.

“Like Detroit, a core of industrial giants fueled Rochester’s early growth,” recalls Brumber, a longtime resident of the area. “For Detroit, it was the Big Three automakers. For Rochester, it was Xerox, Kodak and (just in August) Bausch & Lomb.  And just as the declining competitiveness of the auto industry was a trigger of Detroit’s economic downfall, Rochester experienced its own spiral when one by one, our big employers downsized or left the scene.”

Brumber believes the days of “mega-employers” are over, and that smaller-scale entrepreneurship is what will eventually revitalize Rochester as well as other cities like Detroit. That takes, time, however, and NeighborWorks Rochester is focused on doing its part to prevent the population flight witnessed by its larger counterpart. A key element in that struggle is making sure that residents are able to stay in or access safe, quality, affordable housing.

The family who lives in this house was unable
to pay to keep their home in good repair.

With the help of NeighborWorks
Rochester, the home is now transformed.

“People just don’t have the equity in their homes anymore to spend what it takes to keep them in good condition,” explains Brumber. “Our approach is to make it financially feasible for residents to maintain their houses, and recently, we began offering help with energy-efficiency improvements that reduce their energy costs as well. Much of the housing stock here is very old, so the energy costs are high. We can often save them $100 a month – that’s $1,200 a year, which is significant for the people who live here.”

Over the years, NeighborWorks Rochester has adjusted its philosophy and services to match the changing nature of the city’s needs. The nonprofit was one of the original NeighborWorks organizations, focusing on rehab loans at a time when redlining in the largely African-American communities resulted in disinvestment. Gradually, the organization expanded its scope and services -- including a new focus on neighborhood stabilization and marketing.

“The traditional model for neighborhood re-investment is to demolish drug houses, etc. in the most blighted neighborhoods, thinking that change would follow. But this strategy doesn't work in cities that have a soft real estate market," says Brumber. "We've learned that turning neighborhoods around requires a market-based approach that draws in private investment of time and resources -- ideally before they start to rapidly decline, the typical time to intervene.” 

Through its Healthy Blocks initiative, NeighborWorks Rochester

targets neighborhoods that are showing signs of social and economic disinvestment, but where residents are still trying to tread water. Through a combination of neighborhood “branding,” social gatherings and community-wide improvement activities, residents are encouraged and supported in their efforts to maintain the value of their property and nurture a sense of “belonging” that attracts and retains homeowners. For example, NeighborWorks Rochester partnered with the Realtors Charitable Foundation (an arm of the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors), the city’s police department, local businesses and others to energize the neighborhood called The Pocket. Monthly resident meetings are held in an area recreation center, and spring/fall clean-ups, ice cream socials and leadership workshops are among the results. An overgrown, vacant lot was transformed into the Emmighausen Garden, which produces an array of flowers and vegetables. Since 2008, sales prices in the neighborhood have increased 20 percent per square foot. What’s up next? A new logo soon will appear on street banners and crosswalks will feature “BoulevArt.”

In 2012, NeighborWorks Rochester reported re-investing $4 million into the city’s neighborhoods. The organization trained 365 individuals in how to be smart homeowners, helped 64 families become new homebuyers,  conducted 97 tests for lead in older homes and distributed 82 home-improvement loans and grants, totaling $1.2 million.

In a recent article in the Rochester City newspaper, a member of the editorial team wrote, “What the Greater Rochester community does will determine whether we’ll survive the impact of the changes in our own major industries, our suburban sprawl, our racial isolation. Rochester hasn’t reached Detroit’s depths yet. Maybe we never will. But the warning signs are there.”

NeighborWorks Rochester is among the mainstay organizations working to make sure the city never will.