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| Photo: Michael Rosenberg |
More than 300 cities and counties have recently adopted plans to end chronic homelessness within ten years, generating new momentum for efforts to provide housing for all Americans. Many of these plans promote supportive housing as a strategy and make new commitments to fund and coordinate services linked to housing for people with special needs.
 Housing Credit Policies in 2007 that Promote Supportive Housing (PDF, 828K) The Supportive Housing Investment Partnership has updated its compressive look at the innovative policies states have adopted to foster and encourage supportive housing development within qualified allocation plans for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, analyzing each of the 50 states’ 2007 Housing Credit allocation plans.
See also the 2005 report, "Using the Housing Credit for Supportive Housing: An Analysis of 2005 State Policies" and other supportive housing publications.
Enterprise has launched a Supportive Housing initiative to help communities take advantage of this new willingness to act on behalf of the most vulnerable Americans. The initiative will:
- Generate more than $400 million in investment to produce over 9,000 homes linked to services for people with special needs by 2009.
- Provide consulting services, grants, low-interest loans and tax credit equity investments to developers for projects that serve people in need of intense support services, including: people struggling with physical, psychological or developmental disabilities; homeless or emancipated youth; the formerly incarcerated; and homeless families with children.
- Train and support developers and government agencies in the production, finance and management of supportive housing; and
- Encourage government agencies at all levels to increase and streamline funding for supportive services linked to housing.
- Supportive housing works. Approximately 80 percent of homeless people with disabilities who are given the opportunity to move into supportive housing stay for a year or more, and many who leave move to independent settings.
- Supportive housing saves money. A study of 5,000 homeless people with mental illness shows that supportive housing saves taxpayers more than $16,000 a year per person in the use of public health services, hospitals, shelters and jails.
- Pioneered the financing of supportive housing through the Low- Income Housing Tax Credit in 1991, overturning the conventional wisdom that investors would not embrace these projects.
- Partnered with Fannie Mae on a $100 million fund to help
increase the supply of permanent supportive housing nationally.
- Launched the Supportive Housing Investment Partnership in 2004 with the Corporation for Supportive
Housing (CSH), which coordinates the expertise, resources and advocacy efforts of Enterprise and CSH.
- Enterprise is partnering with the Corporation for Supportive Housing to leverage the strengths of each organization toward the goal of increasing investments in supportive housing at the local, state and national level. Together we have formed the Supportive Housing Investment Partnership (SHIP).
Vista Nueva Apartments is an award-winning project in Los Angeles that helps adult residents focus on rehabilitation and self sufficiency.
For more on supportive housing issues, fundamentals, development and services strategies and models, funding, policy advocacy and to find additional links to expertise and guidance:
Enterprise Community Partners
80 Fifth Avenue, Sixth Floor
New York, NY 10011
Phone: 212.262.9575
Fax: 212.262.9635
Patricia Magnuson
Director, Supportive Housing
Email Patricia
Donate now through Network for Good or learn about other ways to become involved with Enterprise.
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