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.”

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.”