Helping End Homelessness: Housing First Grants

Housing First looks to alter the traditional practice of moving homeless people into crowded

James Lewis is helped by Fatima Tomlin of JCOC.

shelters and transitional housing before locating permanent housing.

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.”

Three Elected to Hampton Roads Community Foundation Board

Three community leaders were elected in June 2015 to the Hampton Roads Community Foundation board of directors. They are Susan R. Colpitts of Norfolk, Sharon S. Goodwyn of Chesapeake and Suzanne Puryear of Norfolk.
Susan Colpitts is founder and chief of client experience

Susan Colpitts

at Signature Family Wealth Advisors. She is a trustee of Eastern Virginia Medical School Foundation and serves on the boards of the United Way of South Hampton Roads and Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. She is a member of the Planned Giving Advisory Board at the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a bachelor's degree in English and a master's degree in accounting with a concentration in taxation.

Sharon Goodwyn

Sharon Goodwyn is a member of Hunton & Williams LLP. She is board secretary for the St. Mary's Home and serves on the Eastern Virginia Medical School board of visitors. She also serves on the boards of the United Way of South Hampton Roads Foundation and Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and is a trustee of the University of Virginia Law School Foundation. She is a member of the  University of Virginia Tidewater Jefferson Scholars Selection Committee and the Harvard University Schools Committee. She earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in economics and a J.D. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.  

Suzanne Puryear, president of of The Planning

Suzanne Puryear

Council, chairs the Norfolk Interagency Consortium for At-Risk Children and Youth board. She is Tidewater Pastoral Counseling board vice chair and Westminster-Canterbury on Chesapeake Bay board secretary. She serves on the boards of the Hampton Roads Center for Civic Engagement, Together We Can Foundation and YMCA of South Hampton Roads. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in public administration from Old Dominion University.
 

Click here for a list of all 17 Hampton Roads Community Foundation board members.

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $210 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )