Inspired by continued requests for information about their projects, Common Ground Community, Inc. held a two-day to provide information about supportive housing. Over 100 people came from around the world to learn how to replicate the Common Ground model.
Supportive housing is defined by the Corporation for Supportive Housing as a cost-effective combination of permanent affordable housing with services that help people live with more stable, productive lives.
Common Ground was led the effort to buy and refurbish the historic Times Square Hotel and the Prince George Hotels. These hotels have many studio apartments and house a variety of tenants, including the elderly, formerly homeless, mentally ill and HIV/AIDS patients. Common Ground believes that solutions to homelessness include more than just warehousing people in shelters. Instead, they provide social services to tenants to help them adjust to the “real world.” Common Ground’s success was recognized in 2001 when its founder and president, Rosanne Haggerty, was awarded a “genius grant” by the MacArthur Foundation.
Common Ground has established a Foyer model supportive housing facility at The Chelsea in New York City. Based on programs popular in Europe, it is especially used to help kids aging out of foster care. This is only a start at feeling a huge need – there are only two city shelters, with a total of 100 beds that are dedicated to young adults. Common Ground is also working on projects at the Andrews and Prince Hotels using a program called First Step Housing, which develops single room occupancy (SROs) facilities like flophouses.
The conference featured classes on financing property development and establishing partnerships. One lesson was to consider separating property management from social services – this way there is less of an adversarial relationship with the tenants and social workers.
Finally, another important lesson is to mix types of tenants so that there are role models for residents.