From Housing to Homes
Why does housing matter?
A key to breaking the cycle of poverty is addressing the need for stable, decent, and affordable housing. About 75% of the lowest income earners put more than half their income towards the cost of housing. Time and time again, research has shown that increasing access to affordable housing is the most cost-effective way to increase economic mobility, reduce childhood poverty, and improve outcomes for children as they enter adulthood. When that affordable housing is provided by local organizations, money spent on rent is recycled in the local economy through the purchase of goods and services, further empowering the community. Beyond even all of that, the quality of the housing and the community experience correlates strongly with personal health! (Further Reading: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5])
The short version?
Those with stable and affordable housing in a good community environment can pursue their dreams, have better health, and see their children grow up with a better life!
SO WHAT IS 441 Ministries Doing?
We are launching our HOMES initiative: Housing Opportunities for Mentoring and community Engagement to improve Social determinants of health. It’s a mouthful, but the idea is to wrap around our tenants with an approach to their health and their future that acknowledges that there are many facets to human flourishing.
What will change?
We have always seen our apartments as an incredible opportunity for ministry. They have provided spaces for folks to stabilize and grow with low-cost rent and a friendly atmosphere.
But we want to take them one step further and be as proactive as possible in the selection of our tenants and in building a personalized process for helping people take their appropriate next steps. Whether our apartments serve as a temporary stop to another living arrangement or as the long-term housing option that is best for the individual, we believe all of us have another step we can take for our own good and the good of others.
Check out Denise’s story and hear how community and stable housing have impacted her life:
WHAT ARE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH?
We received a $50,000 grant from the Greater Rochester Health Foundation* to address health outcomes with our tenants. We know that health is a holistic endeavor and when we ignore one part of our health, it can impact other parts. For example, poor nutrition and a lack of exercise can play a negative role in our mental health. Financial instability and a lack of resources can make it difficult to eat well consistently. Few strong relationships or a lack of real community can impact our ability to find resources and opportunities. These dimensions of our health are all inter-connected.
Social determinants of health (SDOH) are those factors in our environment that can dramatically impact our health and our quality of life. In our approach, we’ll directly dialogue with our tenants about five key SDOH areas: education and resource access, healthcare and physical health, neighborhood and environment, relationships and community, and economic and financial stability. We believe that by intentionally addressing these five areas and connecting our tenants with our network of resources, we will see improvement in the outcomes our tenants experience!
What will this program look like?
At the core, we believe poverty is about broken relationships. We see this brokenness at play all around us and in each of our lives. Reconciling the brokenness between each of us and God is ultimately why Jesus came. But we see this vertical brokenness spilling into our other relationships: with others (e.g. conflict, violence, etc), ourselves (e.g. shame or pride), and the rest of creation (e.g. the toil and labor of work).
So this program will begin with a relationship. Our Property Manager will connect regularly with each tenant for a conversation about their circumstances. This will include a survey of their SDOH. Next, we will help our tenants find the appropriate resources and connections to meet the gaps in their personal and unique story and we will walk alongside them as they participate. The cycle begins again as we continue to connect.
But the relationship-building will not be confined to these formal check-ins with tenants. We will also be hosting regular social gatherings to build community between the tenants and others in our area. We have also recruited one of our tenants to serve as our Tenant Liaison, providing every tenant with multiple people who have their good in mind.
HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?
We think the three main ways you can get involved are to PRAY, GIVE, and SERVE. We have some tangible actions steps for each of these areas below:
Pray
We always start with prayer, not because it is the easiest, but because it is the most important. We’d love to have you pray with and for us in this work and for the tenants we are serving.
We’ve built a prayer guide with 30 days of scripture and prayer requests so you can be praying for the work in the neighborhood. There’s also a portable version (the size of a postcard) that you can print and put somewhere visible to remind you to pray with and for us daily!
Give
The grant from the Greater Rochester Health Foundation pays for the additional hours required of our Property Manager to build these relationships, as well as the tools necessary to support improvement in the SDOH for our tenants.
But if we are going to do housing right, we need additional funds. Our properties are tired and some major updates and renovations will reduce the ongoing operating expenses and make our program more sustainable. Because of financial constraints, we tend to be a little reactive (i.e. fixing things when they break), rather than proactive in updating to prevent future issues.
There are a number of repairs we need to make sooner than later:
Updating our Certificates of Occupancy for all rentals
Renovating two of our apartments for future tenants
Foundation and roof masonry, pointing, and repairs
Repaving some of our driveways
Tree removals
Mold/Moisture Remediation
HVAC/AC updates
Part of this process will include reassessing what “below market value” looks like for properties and running electrical splits so tenants pay their own utilities on all units, while never losing sight of the need for truly affordable housing in our community!
A gift of any amount can go a long way to help us achieve some level of self-sufficiency with our housing ministry.
Serve
Offering targeted services to our tenants, while maintaining below market-value rent prices, means we don’t have significant funds on hand for all the repairs and maintenance necessary. It is expensive to contract out all the work required to make our properties work.
This is where you come in!
We are hoping to further build out volunteer teams focused on cleaning, maintenance, updates, and properties. Our team is lean and program focused, so volunteers can really expand our effectiveness and keep costs low.
We need team leaders willing to schedule other volunteers in those areas and coordinate the work. We need the hands and feet of this work willing to work monthly or weekly. If you are available to serve, we’d love to get to know you and see where you might fit. It’s our dream to see volunteers from the larger community and from our neighborhood working hand-in-hand to see Beechwood flourish!
*Funding for this project was provided by Greater Rochester Health Foundation is to pursue and invest in solutions that build a healthier region where all people can thrive.