It takes a lot of talk, and planning and consensus-building to achieve any kind of forward momentum in the fight against societal problems, particularly when there are multiple moving factions and program partners. So although this kind of program has been discussed for more than a decade, the successful launch – and continuing growth – of New Lease for Homeless Families stands out as an achievement in the fight against homelessness.
Originally the brainchild of Howard Cohen, CEO of Beacon Communities, and a coalition of multifamily property owners including Winn Development, Schochet Companies, Peabody Properties, Trinity Management, the Preservation of Affordable Housing, the Planning Office for Urban Affairs and The Community Builders, the nonprofit evolved into a partnership with state agencies and shelter providers. With the ongoing support of the Office of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Housing and Community Development, it became a reality at the beginning of 2013.
“What makes us different – and, I think, ultimately successful – is that we were started by the owners,” said Thomas Plihcik, executive director of New Lease. “It’s been tried in the past – the state ran on an ad hoc basis, with one person or one department; there was no organization. And it’s not a mandate [for owners]; it’s strictly volunteer.”
There are, at any time, 4,600 families living in shelters, hotels and motels in Massachusetts. Homelessness is “a crisis in the commonwealth,” said Karen Fish-Will, co-founder and board member of New Lease, president and CEO of Peabody Properties, and past president of the Rental Housing Association. “It costs $40 million per year to house them in hotels and motels. And through this wonderful program, we can help them.”
Streamlining The Housing Process
The goal is to offer 200 or more units per year to homeless families, and get them out of shelters. Families who wish to enter the program are preapproved and placed on a waiting list, so that when a unit becomes available, there are a number of families ready and able to move in. The final step is completing the onsite housing application, which varies from site to site.
“The wait list involves a lot of outreach,” Plihcik said. “It’s constantly updated and we’re constantly in contact with shelter providers. Because the families are prequalified, we always have a bullpen of families ready when there’s a vacancy. There are always families ready to refer at a moment’s notice.”
The streamlining of the preapproval process – of all the forms, information and education necessary to get a family into housing, and keep them there – was a vital part of all that talking and planning, and a vital part of the program’s success, he said, because the “ownership, shelter communities and state are on the same page, creating this model together.”
“We went back and forth on the standardization services, to maximize efficiencies in the application process, to put together a plan to support tenancies,” said Fish-Will. “A lot of time and effort went into putting it in motion and making it successful.”
Consisting of four regions – Boston, Springfield/Berkshire, the North Shore and the South Shore – with several partner organizations in each, the program has grown to include eight owners and 33 properties, governed by a board of owners and shelter providers The properties have a variety of support services nearby, ranging from state agencies to transportation to jobs, a vital component in helping families remain in their new homes. Each family also receives a year of ongoing support and in-home case management from the state.
The families are “coming from shelters to apartments, and they need tools, they need resources, which we provide – that’s why it’s been successful,” Fish-Will said. “There have been issues, but there are issues with a lot of tenancies. New Lease is there to support the families and the owners for the duration of the tenancy.”
During the preapproval process, applicants receive counseling to help mitigate some of the situations that have prevented such families from participating in housing programs in the past.
“A Section 8 screening looks at credit and landlord history, and one or both usually pretty poor,” Plihcik said. “There are a lot of barriers, a lot of unfortunate situations – these families are not easy to house. We have standardized the mitigation, and we provide training and technical assistance to providers on how to effectively mitigate barriers families may have.”
For owners, the system allows greater speed and flexibility, as well as an efficiency of process in submittals to state agencies and shelter organizations. Renters are subsidized, but the buildings remain privately owned. The final decision to house a family is made by the owners or their property managers, and the decision can be reached much more quickly because of the preapproval and mitigation process.
“The speed and transparency of the process is very important,” Plihcik said. “You can get to approval in 21 business days. There are tight timelines and tight turnarounds. It’s fast, and it’s reliable” – and it results in a family, currently living in a shelter or a hotel, getting into a new home that much more quickly, as well as saving taxpayers the cost of sheltering the family.
“We get families into housing; families that might have been denied, families that have nowhere else to go,” he said. “That was the goal, and that’s what we’re achieving with the system that we have put in place.”
This article originally appeared in the second quarter 2014 issue of Bay State Apartment Owner.
Email: cmurphy@thewarrengroup.com
