Veterans in trouble need more than ceremonies and discounts

My father and mother at my daughter's
wedding -- his last public event before
he died.

When my father died in August, the funeral home director suggested to my mother that a military honor guard attend his memorial service, in recognition of his deployment with the Army in World War II. The two young men did not treat the assignment as routine or strange, as I would imagine it would be, to “intrude” on such a private event for someone you never knew. After the trumpet was sounded and the flag folded, one of them knelt in front of my frail, aging mother, looked her directly in the eye, and in a soft voice, thanked her – and my father – for his service. It was beautiful, and touching, and I was thankful for the recognition of a life well-lived.

Veterans and soldiers still in active duty are frequently honored in ceremonies such as this, and with special discounts at restaurants and theaters. But those small, albeit appreciated, gestures don’t quite seem to synch with the statistics I come across in my position at NeighborWorks America. Consider:

• An estimated 13-17 percent of homeless individuals are veterans (a statistic hard to come by, since they are difficult to find, and thus count). No matter what number you choose, it’s far more than their 7-9.5 percent share of the overall adult population. When the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) conducted its last “point-in-time” survey (one night in January, repeated ever year, in more than 3,000 cities and counties), it found 62,619 homeless veterans.

• Many veterans who are not homeless are nonetheless “precarious.” Among the estimated 21.8 million veterans in this country, more than 1.5 million spend over half of their income on housing – well above the recommended maximum threshold of 30 percent. A similar number live in poverty.

• Among the most recent veterans – 18-24-year-olds returning from Iraq or Afghanistan – unemployment was 30.2 percent in 2011 (compared to 16.1 percent for non-veterans the same age).

According to a recent survey conducted by NeighborWorks America of 1,000 adults, veterans are like the rest of us; 92 percent regard homeownership to be an integral part of what the “American dream” means to them.  To help them (and others) achieve that goal, many members of our network -- as well as the 3,000+ organizations that turn to us for training -- are staffed with counselors that offer coaching on financial management, navigating the home buying process and – for those who find themselves in trouble – mitigating foreclosure. For those 2 million-plus veterans who are struggling to merely survive, however, more focused, “aggressive” assistance is needed.

First challenge: tracking them down

“We spend a lot of time just trying to find these individuals,” explains Jamie Ebaugh, a social worker and director of supportive housing for NeighborWorks member Southwest Solutions in Detroit. “In the military culture, asking for help is often perceived as weakness. In addition, the traditional VA way of operating is for veterans to come to them. And then, in some cases – such as women who have been sexually assaulted during their service [estimated at one in three] – there is a lack of trust.”

Ronnie, who served in the Army for eight
 years and found help adjustingto life at
home again, from Primavera Foundation.
He remains at home with hiswife Denise.

Paul Andrew, director of the Project Action for Vets at Tucson’s Primavera Foundation, another NeighborWorks member, describes similar challenges. To find these often “invisible” individuals, his organization posts ads in bus stops, liquor stores, laundromats and public parks, and deploys outreach workers to look under bridges and comb the “washes” (dry river beds).

Women (about 10 percent of veterans) are a different story, however. “We don’t find them in the washes,” explains Andrew, who was raised by an uncle in the military and whose son was posted to Iraq while in the National Guard. “Women are more likely to live in cars (often with their children) or ‘garage hop,’ sheltering with friends until their welcome is worn out. They are harder to find.”

The root causes of increased homelessness among veterans are complicated as well. Some enter the military from troubled or rootless backgrounds, turning to the service to escape dysfunctional families, find a “direction in life” or as a last resort to finance school or job training. They may not have experience in living and managing their affairs on their own. As reported by Stars and Stripes last month, a new report in the American Journal of Public Health concluded that members of the military are more likely to be targets for predatory lenders as a result.

“Many of them, when they first come out of the service, aren’t good at managing a checkbook, paying bills, negotiating with a landlord…they’ve never had to do that. They enlisted right out of high school,” explains Ebaugh, whose organization – like many other NeighborWorks members – provides coaching in financial management among its services.

Others become physically or mentally disabled during their service, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse.

Ebaugh’s own niece is a case in point. “She served in Iraq for four years,” he says. “She came back, got her own place to live in and started a dog-training business. But then the Fourth of July came, with all of the fireworks. The noise triggered her PTSD and she ‘crashed.’ She lost her house. I asked her, ‘why didn’t you call somebody?’ She said she thought she could handle it. I got her into professional help, and now she is doing better. She is seeing a therapist and living out of her business.”

For many veterans, their problems are exacerbated by weak social-support networks, broken down during extended periods of duty, and the fact that military training is not always perceived as transferable to the civilian workforce.

Second challenge: bridging to stability

Among the programs offered by Southwest Solutions is Piquette Square, an apartment project with 150

Joe Roth, a formerly homeless vet now
living and volunteering at Piquette Square.

affordable units where formerly homeless veterans can live as long as they want, as well as receive mental-health counseling, treatment for substance abuse, job training and other support services.

“The need is huge,” says Ebaugh. “Piquette Square was filled the day it opened (in 2010), and if we opened up another one we could fill it again. We estimate there are probably at least 3,000 homeless vets just in the Detroit area.”

Most of the vets Ebaugh and his team serve are from the Vietnam era, in part because there often is a “lag” before serious problems develop.  “At first, returning soldiers turn to family members,” he explains. “It can take a while before PTSD begins to manifest itself, as well as for the vets to exhaust their known resources – including the goodwill of their family and friends. A place like Piquette improves family dynamics significantly, by taking the pressure off. Once they have a home of their own, their families are more willing to re-engage.”

Over the next few years, Ebaugh anticipates seeing more vets from the more recent wars, as those conflicts wind down and more and more of those soldiers try to integrate back in. “We expect to 10,000 returning vets in Michigan alone during the next year,” he says. “The key will be to provide them with supportive services right away, along with the tools they need to find jobs. Employment is the key to preventing homelessness.”

Both Southwest Solutions and Primavera are able to do their work thanks to an escalating commitment by the VA to ending homelessness among veterans, including partnerships with nonprofits at the grassroots level. Three years ago, it launched the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program, in which grants are awarded to private cooperatives and nonprofits such as Primavera and Southwest Solutions to seek out very-low-income veterans to help them and their families transition to permanent housing.

“There are a lot of services available to veterans,” says Andrew. “They just have trouble connecting with them. Navigation can be a nightmare.”

The challenges are daunting, and although Andrew estimates about 15 percent of veterans in the Primavera “system” drop out for reasons that are not always known, dramatic successes are possible. He tells the story of one female veteran who came to Primavera while living with her three children in her car, after seeing one of the organization’s bus stop ads. She had recently lost both her job and home, and was in “deep crisis mode. When you’re in crisis, your ability to plan is nil to none. You have to approach your situation in little pieces, one step at a time.” After a thorough screening, Primavera matched her to stable housing and placed her in a job with a large call center in Tucson. The children were back in school within three months.

Ebaugh agrees, and adds his own keys to successfully helping veterans in perpetual crisis:

• Remember that they won’t usually come to you. You have to develop a plan to find and engage them. It’s particularly effective to involve the veterans themselves:  “One vet can take you to 10 other vets.”
• Treat them with dignity. Veterans are very proud. Play to that, rather than making them feel belittled. Seeking help is not a weakness; it’s merely getting the “leg up” you need.
• Allow vets to teach you too. When they feel comfortable enough with you, they will open up to you with stories that may be heartbreaking, but often very inspiring. 

“Families who know someone who served in the military ‘get it.’ But many others don’t realize how life-changing the experience is. War, and serving in the military itself, changes people in really deep ways, both good and bad.”

Ebaugh is right. I am very fortunate that two years before my father died, I took the time to record an interview with him (using a “home kit” from StoryCorps), in which I asked my dad at length about his stint overseas during the war – why he enlisted, how it changed him, whether he would encourage young people today to join the military. I had never really taken the time before to listen to tales that seemed, as a child, to be “ancient stories that didn’t relate to me.” But once I asked, and listened, I was amazed at his resilience, his insight into the dynamics shaping the world today, and the person who was also my father.

Veterans in trouble deserve more than a day in their honor, or a discount at the movie theater. They need our focused attention and commitment, every day of the year.

Written by Pam Bailey, communications writer for NeighborWorks America. She would love for you to post your own stories and comments!

Pathfinder Services evolves in surprising directions to meet Indiana’s changing needs

Of all of the organizations we have researched for this anniversary series, Pathfinder Services of Huntington, IN, has evolved the most dramatically over its 47-year history (the last five as a charter member of NeighborWorks America). And it is among the most diverse as it reaches across sectors – housing, education and job creation to name just a few – to serve its community and fund its programs. Its story is a tale of flexibility, nimbleness and a willingness to take calculated risks.

The roots of the organizations extend back to 1966, when it began as a local affiliate of the Indiana Association for Retarded Children. At the time, a movement was sweeping the country to de-institutionalize people with developmental disabilities – allowing them to live at home, instead of being warehoused in “asylums.” A group of parents in Huntington recruited supporters and funding, then opened a school (“mainstreaming” had not yet arrived to public education) and a sheltered workshop that offered training and employment.

The organization grew rapidly in the following years, including its first foray into housing, when it opened a halfway house for individuals transitioning to independence. But it wasn’t until the early ‘80s that the organization began to widen its focus to serve the community at large – first, persons with all types of disabilities, and then the broader “collective.”

Transitioning from a focus on disability to broader community development 

John Niederman (light green jacket) mixes with local residents.

“The change in orientation began when the ‘movement’ (for disability rights) began focusing more on integration,” explains John Niederman, who has served as president of the organization since 1985. “Inclusion became a core value, and research showed that too often, people in the community thought of us as ‘that place down the street.’ One of the best ways to integrate is to develop assets – to plug ‘service gaps,’ if you will – that benefit the community as a whole.”

Just before Niederman’s arrival, the organization changed its name to Pathfinder Services, reflecting that broader mission. “We see ourselves as providing the pathways to improve residents’ lives,” he explains. Today, its services include:

• Affordable child care.

• Employment generation, including interview coaching, job training and placement assistance.  In fact, through its “outsource manufacturing” division, individuals with disabilities and others in need of a stable working environment provide businesses with services ranging from assembly to packaging. It’s a win-win-win for all involved: Businesses receive quality work at reasonable cost, Pathfinder earns revenue that funds its programs and employees are able to support themselves while gaining valuable skills. (Pathfinder is a bit of a trailblazer when it comes to creatively leveraging its core competencies to generate income – including product sales and consulting. A future blog post will focus on this topic; sign up in the field to the right of this feature to receive articles in your inbox!)

• Training in personal financial management, including educational courses and assistance in setting up individual development accounts (IDAs) to encourage savings. Reflecting its highly responsive organizational culture, it offers a tailored version of its IDA program customized for newly re-settled refugees, to help them buy a home, start a business or go to school. (Surprisingly, nearby Fort Wayne is thought to have the largest number of Burmese refugees in the United States!)

• Housing-related services ranging from development of low-income housing, homebuyer training (including a recent session offered in Burmese) and assistance with home rehab.

Niederman is proud of the fact that in 1996, Pathfinder became the first and only organization in Indiana to receive funding for its housing initiatives from the newly established rural component of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and is one of the USDA’s highest-volume partners when it comes to assisting low- to moderate-income individuals apply for rural-oriented "502 direct mortgage loans."

Building social connectedness

A sign promotes one of the
block parties organized by
Pathfinder staff

One of Pathfinder’s more recent community-development initiatives is an outreach program to foster “social connectedness” in targeted neighborhoods. The organization started in an urban neighborhood of Fort Wayne, with the help of a grant from the Indiana Association for Community Economic Development, funded by JP Morgan Chase Bank.

Pathfinder focused on one particular zip code with a population of 17,000, where residents broke into small groups to identify quality-of-life goals on which they most wanted to focus; those that attracted the most support were selected. A strategic plan was drafted to guide the democratically chosen steering committee, which meets every other week. The committee decided that it will not run its own activities, but will instead support and promote existing neighborhood groups and associations through mini-grants and a Facebook page that keeps everyone informed, connected and involved. Pathfinder provides staff to help coordinate the effort and acts as a fiscal agent, working to help identify funding sources.

With “aging in place” a growing trend for older communities, the organization is now moving into the Drover Town neighborhood of rural Huntington, with the encouragement of the town's mayor..

“We received a planning grant from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority to develop ‘communities for a lifetime,’ which means making it possible for residents to stay there as long as they want, regardless of age or disability,” explains Jan Baumgartner, community connections director and recipient of a professional certificate in neighborhood revitalization from NeighborWorks America. Increasingly, research is showing that resiliency through social connections is as important as factors such as affordable housing when it comes to the feasibility of aging in place. Consider, for example, a new study from the University of Michigan that found that people who felt connected to their neighbors suffered significantly fewer strokes.

Each community must be approached differently, says Baumgartner, with residents choosing what to focus on and how to operate.

“We’re a facilitator…an enabler,” says Baumgartner. “We’re here to help the people who live in our service areas tap into the resources they need to fully exploit their own strengths.”

Written by Pam Bailey, communications writer for NeighborWorks America. She would love for you to post your own stories and comments!

Toledo group generates goodwill – and funds – with ‘buy a shingle, save a home’ campaign

How do you raise money quickly for a pressing community need, while at the same time building public awareness and buy-in? (Isn’t that all nonprofits’ “holy grail”?) William Farnsel, executive director of NeighborWorks Toledo Region in Ohio, has developed a winning formula to do just that.

Farnsel’s organization, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year as a member of the NeighborWorks network, serves a majority African-American community with higher-than-average unemployment (8.9 percent). Many of the houses are in need of the organization’s weatherization-assistance program for low-income families, which it administers with funds from the federal government, Columbia Gas and Toledo Edison. (To date, NTR has installed more than $23.7 million in insulation and other materials for 15,000-plus customers in Toledo and the broader Lucas County.)

However, if a house has a leaky roof, weatherization isn’t going to do much good. One of the city’s anchor businesses, Owens Corning, donated the necessary shingles (along with a lifetime warranty for the resulting roofs), but a lot more money for time and materials needed to be raised, and quickly, in order for the weatherization program to continue before cold weather arrived.

“It’s a chronic problem we face,” Farnsel says. “Government funding comes with processes and forms that take time to sort out. Plus, it requires bringing the entire house up to code – an even more expensive, time-consuming endeavor. So, we decided to seek private funds.”

Farnsel didn’t want the typical meal or golf outing, however. He wanted his donors to feel a more visceral connection to the impact of their giving. That’s when he hit upon his theme: “Buy a shingle; save a home.” The goal: to raise enough money to finance the replacement of four roofs – one in each of four targeted neighborhoods. The CEO of the local hospital was recruited as chair of the planning committee, which helped attract representatives of local businesses, organizations and affluent families in the community to the fundraising dinner. Attendees were invited to “purchase” a shingle (or a bundle of them, or a box of nails, depending on the amount given) – with an onsite exhibit showing exactly what is needed to tear off an existing roof, complete structural repairs and install a new one.

The next challenge was how to choose which roofs to replace first, when there were so many low-income families who could benefit. Farnsel also wanted residents in the targeted communities to feel like they were active participants and partners in the campaign. His solution: a lottery. Tickets were sold to residents for $3 each at local churches, banks and other community locations. If your roof didn’t need replacement, or you knew someone else more in need, you could buy the ticket to “gift it” to someone else.

“One woman was so desperate for a new roof that she borrowed $100 from friends and family to buy as many lottery tickets as she could,” says Farnsel. “Her roof was so bad she literally had skylights, and she was forced to use kiddy pools to catch the water when it rained.”

Joanne Born (middle) weeps with joy when she learns
she has won the "lottery."

On the day of the drawing in that neighborhood – during NeighborWorks Week of 2013 -- a young couple was seen hanging out by the street corner where the winner would be announced. Farnsel later learned that the couple was the daughter and son-in-law of Joanne Born, who had bought all those lottery tickets. She was too nervous to watch the drawing in person, and sat instead in a car at the curb. And yes, she did win that drawing. Today, she is the relieved owner of a new roof – at the cost $12,000, which she could never have afforded on her own.

NTR raised $37,000 through this event, including $900 from resident-purchased raffle tickets. The second annual event already is scheduled, for May 3, 2014.

If you’re thinking of holding a similar fundraising/public-awareness campaign, Farnsel has a few tips to offer:

• Recruit supporters from the business community. In 2013, the CEO of the local hospital was enlisted as the fundraising chair, which generated both a good-sized contribution from that institution and those of his friends. In 2014, Farnsel plans to reach out to the local utility industry.

Joanne Born in front of her house, with
a new roof. (Habitat for Humanity is
set now to help refurbish her porch.)

• Don’t be discouraged when the unexpected occurs. Farnsel’s campaign was very creative, and would normally have been a great local media hook. But on the same day as the drawing, an 18-month-old girl was reported missing in the neighborhood. It was a tragedy, and understandably, the event got almost zero media coverage as a result. (Note from the writer: As a veteran PR professional, I can attest to that reality; if a bigger, competing news story occurs in the same timeframe as your event, you can pretty much forget any hope of attracting media coverage. That’s why it is so important to build in other ways to measure success. And Farnsel and his team did – both in terms of money raised and partners/residents engaged. In 2014, he is planning to incorporate “impact stories” from this year’s winners as well as a “tell-a-friend” campaign.)

• When developing goals and budgets, make sure you know the real costs. Don’t low-ball! The roofs that NHS ended up replacing were significantly more expensive than anticipated. Farnsel’s team had estimated $8,000 to $9,000, and Born’s, for instance, cost $12,000.

• Don’t under-estimate the effort and expertise needed. NTR hired a consultant to assist with messaging, outreach and event logistics, and Farnsel says it was one of his best decisions. “There are lots of day-to-day activities required to pull a campaign and event like this off, but at the same time, we still had our ‘real’ work to do. Consider hiring outside help,” he says.

• Don’t lose sight of your end goal. “You have to give something to get something,” Farnsel cautions. “Make community impact and goodwill the principal goal – not general fundraising for your organization.” About 82 cents of every dollar raised by NTR for the “Buy a Shingle, Save a Home” campaign went to the roof-replacement program. Over time, he says, events like these will help “nourish” the organization’s coffers, but that’s not the focus of the events. “The goodwill pays off over time,” Farnsel promises.

Written by Pam Bailey, communications writer for NeighborWorks America. She would love for you to post your own stories and comments!

Continuing need for foreclosure counseling is sign of still-ailing economy

There’s good news and bad news in the report to Congress this week on the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) program, which NeighborWorks America launched in 2008.
First, the good news: Nearly 1.6 million homeowners have received help to date from the NFMC program -- 124,512 in just the 12-month period ending on May 31, 2013. (We know the counseling helps. A 2011 Urban Institute analysis showed that individuals who take advantage of the program are more successful in obtaining mortgage modifications, and are able to negotiate larger monthly savings, than those who do not.)

Pam Bailey, new
blogger for
NeighborWorks
America

It’s also an improvement that in the last year, the ratio of people seeking help who have mortgages with fixed interest rates of 8 percent or less increased to nearly two-thirds (59 percent) – up from just 30 percent in October 2008. Clearly, the disastrous era of destructive “sub-prime” loans – with interest rates that soar higher over time – is on the wane.

The Great Recession and ‘jobless recovery’ take their toll

Why, then, are so many individuals still needing help to avoid foreclosure? An answer can be found in a couple of other statistics in the NFMC report: For example, when they first entered the program, nearly 37 percent of the individuals counseled in the last year were spending half of their income or more on mortgage-related costs – well above the maximum recommended 31 percent. Nearly one in five were spending more than 75 percent of their income on principal, interest, taxes and insurance – a rate that has held steady since 2008.

Housing costs have grown to be such a drag on household budgets primarily due to loss of – or a significant reduction in – employment income (reported by 64 percent of persons seeking NFMC services).   As noted in The New York Times recently, “the consequences of job loss go far beyond the spell of joblessness. Research shows that layoffs can worsen earnings, health and even mortality rates for up to 20 years after the initial displacement. Not to mention home ownership.”

This chart from the NFMC report shows that most
"Level Four" individuals (who have a debt-to-income
ratio of 55%) who seek counseling are aged 45-64.

There are two groups of people who seem to be struggling the most: recent graduates and older workers. A report from The Opportunity Nation released just this week documented that almost 15 percent of individuals between the ages of 16 and 24 (that’s almost 6 million young people) cannot find jobs once they have completed school. However, according to the U.S. Labor Department, while unemployment rates for newly graduated students are higher, older workers who have been laid off have a much harder time finding work. Over the last year, the average duration of unemployment for older people was 53 weeks, compared with 19 weeks for teenagers and young adults. (The NFMC report reflects this trend. Slightly more than half – 53.9 percent – of individuals seeking counseling through the program who have debt-to-income ratios of 55 percent or higher are between the ages of 45 and 64.)

This is a subject that hits close to home for me. After living overseas for three years, I returned home in late 2011 to the Great Recession and a forbidding job market.  I found my way to several LinkedIn forums and discovered large communities of mostly over-50 professionals who had been laid off and just could not find new positions. And the longer they were out of work, the harder it seemed to be to get interviews – a discrimination against the long-term unemployed confirmed by recent research.

Chronic unemployment becomes vicious cycle

A study conducted by Rand Ghayad, a visiting scholar at the Boston Fed, and William Dickens, a professor of economics at Northeastern University, found that as long as you've been out of work for less than six months, you can get called by companies for interviews even if you don't have experience. But after you've been unemployed for six months, it doesn't matter what experience you have. Quite literally.

“There's a new cliff in town, and it's much scarier than the fiscal cliff,” wrote Matthew O’Brien in The Atlantic in December. “It doesn't have anything to do with expiring tax cuts or sequesters. It has to do with people who have been out of work for six months or longer. It's the worst cliff of them all: the Unemployment Cliff.”

My new LinkedIn connections soon got to the point when they felt lucky to be offered any job, even at administrative levels and salaries far below what they once earned. Many a story was posted about having to give up homes and move in with others, whether friends or adult children. And those were perhaps the lucky ones; they had people who would take them in. I didn’t have a house to pay for, fortunately, but rents are high in the DC area, and as I started my job search, I felt their fear. (You can read some of their gut-wrenching stories on the website, "Over 50 and Out of Work.")

Indeed, says Vivien King, a senior manager at NeighborWorks America who works with the NFMC program, although the service has been able to help thousands of families stay in their homes, it is not always possible. “Sometimes a successful outcome is transition out of their home,” she says.

Mr. Chavez (far left)and his daughter with Gerber DeLeón -- a
homeownership preservation specialist with
NeighborWorks member Select Milwaukee.

Consider the Chavez family, who like 19 percent of NFMC clients, are Hispanic (a segment that is just 8 percent of the overall U.S. population and thus is over-represented among those seeking help from the program, along with African-Americans). In 2001, the couple and their four children had moved into a small duplex, followed by purchase of their first single-family home in 2007. They held onto their duplex, renting it out for additional income. Then their world turned upside down. In November of 2011, Ms. Chavez was let go from her full-time job, and the loss of the second income strained the family’s finances so much that they fell behind on their mortgage.  They tried to re-negotiate the terms, but by that time their financial condition was too shaky to allow them to qualify.

Their lender referred them to a NeighborWorks organization, where a Spanish-speaking counselor was able to provide the trusted advice they so desperately needed.  With Ms. Chavez still out of work and no offers on their house after several months on the market, the organization’s counselor helped guide the couple through a deed-in-lieu agreement with the lender, avoiding foreclosure.  Fortunately for the Chavez family, they had a fall-back -- the duplex they had rented out. Today, they live in the duplex, and although they had to give up both their single-family home and the down payment they had invested, they report an overwhelming sense of relief, free of the burden of struggling to make ends meet – and losing.

The Chavez family is relatively fortunate. They had a back-up option. Many others do not, and need assistance in finding new housing that is more affordable. This is why I am so glad to have joined the staff of NeighborWorks America. I can’t find jobs that pay a decent salary for all of those hard-working individuals I met on LinkedIn. But now I can do my part to help make sure they at least can find or keep an affordable place in a good community to call home.

Written by Pam Bailey, communications writer for NeighborWorks America. She would love for you to post your own stories and comments!

Baltimore group serves community through ‘matchmaking’

Match.com and eHarmony could learn a thing or two from the homesharing service offered by St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center in Baltimore: Even the most sophisticated computer algorithms can’t replace good old-fashioned matchmaking, in which professionals get to know clients one-on-one to decide who would make a good “fit.”

It’s a simple concept: There are homeowners who need help paying their mortgage or other expenses, or just want the company. And there are other people who need an affordable place to call home. Why not match them up?

“The idea of homesharing was ‘born’ in the 1970s as a product of the Gray Panthers movement, and St. Ambrose was among the first housing organizations to join, in 1988,” comments Rebecca Burrett Sheppard, director of the program for St. Ambrose and president of the national association for professionals in this arena. “‘The U.S. census had just shown that more than 35,000 widows and widowers were living alone in single-family dwellings in Baltimore, and homesharing was a way of allowing these older individuals to ‘age in place’ – helping them with both chores and income.”  

St. Ambrose, a NeighborWorks organization that is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year, has seen its homesharing program grow exponentially since those early years, fueled since the 2008 housing crisis by homeowners of all ages who need extra income and seekers who are desperate for an affordable rental option.  To date, the organization has made 1,651 matches, about 65-80 annually.

Odd couples can make good matches

Increasing diversity in the neighborhoods
is often a side benefit of homesharing

Currently, slightly more than half of the participants are earning just 30 percent or less of the area median income, with 43 percent between the ages of 40 and 60 and 44 percent between 60 and 80. More than a third (37 percent) of the matches are intergenerational (with the provider and seeker more than 15 years apart in age). The largest age difference the program has seen so far is 37 years.

One such match is Austin Jones, 86, who now has a 28-year-old housemate.

“I moved to West Baltimore in 1982,” explains Jones. “I bought into a co-op and shared it with my cousin. When he died, it was ok, because I was working. But then I had to retire five or six years ago and my Social Security payments aren’t enough to pay all of my expenses. I’ve been in the St. Ambrose homesharing program ever since.”

Jones has had about five housemates over the course of the years, including two currently. John Pittman, the 28-year-old, moved in about a month ago when his roommate moved out and he couldn't afford to live on his own. Pittman says Jones offers both the affordable rent and privacy he needs, and plans to stay at least until he can pay off his debts.

“All of my housemates have worked out pretty well,” says Jones, adding that his most important criteria are tidiness, a history clean of serious crime and good health. (“I’m too old to be able to take care of anyone,” he explains.) “I give Annette (his St. Ambrose “matchmaker”) an A+. She always finds me good people.”

St. Ambrose staff personally interview every applicant for the program, conduct home visits, check criminal records, verify income and contact four personal references for each potential participant. After the counselor identifies a match, the homeowner and house-seeker meet and decide whether they have good chemistry. If it’s a go, the “matchmaker” helps the two structure a written agreement, stipulating the rent to be paid, how chores will be divided, the policy on guests, etc. Arrangements are always month-to-month, to allow maximum flexibility, and the staff keeps in touch for the first year to help work out any problems. (That’s another feature dating sites could benefit from – follow-up “troubleshooting”!) Although the average duration is 18-24 months, Sheppard says three St. Ambrose matches have been together since the 1990s. There are others, however, that last only a couple of months by design.

“It’s not a requirement, but we do see a lot of diverse pairings work out quite well,” says Sheppard, recalling a quadriplegic widower who welcomed an under-employed IT professional, and a chronically homeless 30-year-old who moved in with a 50-something social worker. “The possibilities are infinite.”

Lessons learned for others

Sheppard has become something of national expert on homesharing, and often consults with other organizations considering starting their own program. In fact, she recently returned from New Jersey, where another NeighborWorks organization is initiating one to help people still struggling to make ends meet following the devastation of Superstorm Sandy.

If you’re intrigued by the homesharing concept, here are a few tips from Sheppard:

1. Dedicate sufficient staff to the effort. To get the program off the ground properly, she recommends one full-time employee.
2. Learn from others when it comes to policies and procedures. Expertise and thoughtfulness are required to develop a success record.
3. Don’t skimp on marketing and outreach. Remember, Sheppard says, you have to identify and “cultivate” two separate customer segments: homeowners and seekers. St. Ambrose relies on tactics such as Craig’s List, public service announcements on local media and outreach to other organizations.
4. Don’t expect huge success in the first year. “These programs start slow, but grow exponentially,” she cautions. “Cultivating a client base can take a number of years, but if you’re successful, you’ll eventually be self-sustaining – a very good place to be.”