Housing First looks to alter the traditional practice of
moving homeless people into crowded
shelters and transitional housing before
locating permanent housing.
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| James Lewis is helped by Fatima Tomlin of JCOC. |
Since 2009, an effort in southeastern Virginia and the rest of the United States has focused on making
“homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring,” stays Suzanne Puryear, president
of The Planning Council and a Hampton Roads Community Foundation board member.
The shift benefits both clients and shelters. Quickly
securing permanent housing and providing services to help clients settle into stable lives, frees space in homeless shelters for emergency cases and lets
agencies help more people. The average stay in Judeo- Christian OutreachCenter’s shelter in Virginia Beach has dropped from six months to 66 days, says Todd A.J. Walker, executive director of JCOC. This allows the nonprofit
to serve 100 more people a year.
Samaritan House reports similar trends at its
Virginia Beach family shelter, which like the JCOC has received Hampton Roads Community Foundation
grants to help implement Housing First strategies.
“Our clients are moving out of our shelters in 40 days now instead of
60. It’s about 30 percent less expensive for us,” says Angela Kellam, Samaritan House executive
director.
Long-term success has improved with 86 percent of clients placed in
permanent housing “still doing well after 24 months.” Community foundation
funding has helped nonprofits leverage other resources. Samaritan House recently
parlayed a $175,000 foundation grant into six national and state awards
totaling $450,000, Kellam says.
Hampton Road Community Foundation grants have also helped
boost the region’s supply of low-rent housing. Virginia Supportive Housing has
built five studio apartment complexes in Hampton Roads that provide homes for
formerly homeless citizens. The Richmond-based nonprofit is planning a sixth
complex in the region.
“We couldn’t have done it without the foundation,” says
Allison Bogdanovic, executive director. “We never had a partner with such a commitment
to our work.”
“In all aspects, the foundation has been a critical player,”
observes Andrew M. Friedman, director of Virginia Beach’s Department of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation. A foundation grant paid for a 2013 Virginia
Beach housing crisis response study that led to positive changes. James Lewis, a former Judeo Christian Outreach Center client,
knows personally the results of such efforts. The formerly homeless man now lives in a comfortable home and says: “The oars are there for me, and
there are no holes in the boat,” he says. “Now I can get across the river.”
