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.”

Top 10 Grant Highlights of 2015 in Hampton Roads

The end of a year lends itself to Top 10 lists. Here are  accomplishments that grants from Hampton Roads Community Foundation donors helped make possible in southeastern Virginia in 2015:

• A marvelous library. The Slover Memorial Library opened in January 2015 in downtown

  

  Slover Memorial Library

  Norfolk as far more than a place for books. It is a gathering spot, a place for ideas and one of the most technologically advanced libraries in the countries. Thanks Munro Black, Taylor sisters, Bradley family and Kathrina Powell for loving libraries and making funds possible for this marvelous library.
• No summer slide for vulnerable children.  Fun  learning through the United for Children Summer Academy  helped 143 elementary school children from Norfolk's Tidewater Park neighborhood stay on track academically during summer months. The children live in one of the city's poorest neighborhoods.  Some students returned to school last fall with big gains in reading and math. Thanks, Ethel Jones for caring for Norfolk's children and making us your partner in philanthropy.
• More homes for the homeless. Virginia Supportive Housing opened  Crescent Square apartments in Virginia Beach with apartments for 42 formerly homeless citizens and 38 units for other low-income residents. This is its fifth supportive housing community in the region with one more breaking ground in Norfolk in January 2016. During the year Judeo-Christian Outreach Center placed 31 homeless individuals into permanent housing and supported them with case managers and helpful classes. Volunteers of America gave another 21 formerly homeless folks permanent homes. Thanks, Perry and Bunny Morgan and Jane and Bill Charters for your generosity and ideas for helping people have better lives. 
• A college education. This year 391 students are attending 77 different colleges and universities to learn and prepare for bright futures. We appreciate the many scholarship donors who provided more than $1.2 million in scholarships in 2014-15.
• Happy, well-trained pets (and owners). The Chesapeake Humane Society, Norfolk

  

  Happy Paws Animal Training Center

  SPCA and Virginia Beach SPCA's banded together to open the Happy Paws Animal Training Center in Virginia Beach. Since April 2015 more than 280 classes, 100+ private sessions and dozens of in-home sessions have helped train pets and their owners. Thanks, Capt. Alfred Nicholson for your caring heart and generosity.     
•  A more secure financial future . A new Urban League Financial Empowerment Center helped183 low-income Hampton Roads citizens raise their credit scores. Thirty-six participants got jobs, and 114 start their first savings accounts. Thanks go to unrestricted fund donors for giving people to have more secure futures.
•  Hope for abused children. It's sad to think that staff at the Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters Child Abuse Program had to treat 169 area children who are victims of child abuse. But grant funding helped support 551 forensic interviews that led to the prosecution of 27 adults. Thanks go to donor Guy Winfrey for starting a fund to help abused children and adults. 
• Better health care for citizens in need. Nearly 4,000 low-income residents with health issues and little or no insurance received treatment with help from multi-year grants to Access Partnership, the Beach Health Clinic and the Chesapeake Care Clinic and its Hampton Roads Dental Clinic. Thanks go to donors Bill and Jane Charters and their concern for basic human needs
• An appreciation for the arts. Since 2012 more than 2,350 children from low-income

  

  Mosaic Steel Orchestra

  families learned to dance, sing or play instruments through the Crispus Attucks Cultural Center, Mosaic Steel Orchestra, the Salvation Army and the Virginia Symphony. Thanks go to the Ashinoff family, Lee and Helen Gifford, William Goldback, Lee Kanter and Mabel Tyler for supporting the arts.
• Children gain their own families. This year eight area children who needed parents have become part of families. Thanks to The Up Center's foster-to-adopt program, the children connected with new families and have been adopted. Thanks go to donor Guy Winfrey for caring about children.

 (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. )

Three Blocks to Home

It's hard to be homeless, and it's wonderful to have a home as Robert Johnson will tell you. 

This video called 3 Blocks to Home shows what good things are happening in southeastern Virginia for homeless people because philanthropy and nonprofits work together. 

 Portsmouth Volunteers for the Homeless and Virginia Supportive Housing teamed up with the Hampton Roads Community Foundation so Robert no longer has to live under an interstate highway bridge in Portsmouth, Virginia. Take a look at what life is like for him now.