Monarch Housing’s Blog!

Construction on the long awaited Lily Mae project in Wildwood, New Jersey in now complete. The project Sponsor, Cape Counseling Services, Inc., will be holding a grand opening/ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, May 22, 2008, beginning at 1:00pm at the property.

The Lily Mae is a two-story building in Wildwood, New Jersey that has undergone substantial renovations over the past year. The project will provide supportive housing for twelve homeless individuals with chronic disabilities. The building was originally operated as a motel and most recently as a boarding home for low-income persons with disabilities until Cape Counseling Services acquired it in 2004.

These are some of the latest photos of the construction.

You can click on any photo to see it full size or click here to view all of the photos. To save a photo right click on the photo.

To view a slide show click here.

The building now contains twelve (12) efficiency apartments for homeless individuals and one (1) one-bedroom resident manager’s apartment. The building design incorporates sustainable features that promote energy efficiency and overall building performance through innovative sustainable design. Every unit has its own kitchen and bathroom. Four fully handicapped units are located on the first floor and eight units Read the rest of this entry »

We have posted several important articles about hunger on the Moanrch Housing Blog! over the last year. This Monday we published Perfect storm leaves cupboards bare at NJ food pantries! Obviously hunger is an important issue, which with rising food prices is being exacerbated.

Bill Moyer’s April 11th Journal - Hunger in America - on PBS gives great insight on how rising food prices and the deteriorating state of the economy has caused the number of people going to food pantries to increase substantially. At the same time, the number of donations to the pantry and the quality of food has decreased. The video features guests of one pantry. To the surprise of many, these includes more than the elderly and low-income - but also people who have earned high school degrees, full time jobs and many families. You can watch the video on our site. To read a transcript click here.

 

 Bill Moyers Journal: Hunger in America [13:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Which state was 14th in the number of foreclosures in 2007? Yes it is New Jersey. According to a new report from the National Coalition for the Homeless entitled Foreclosure to Homelessness: the Forgotten Victims of the Subprime Crisis, on page 28 we find New Jersey listed with a total of 53,652 filings in 2007. This is up 234.06% from 2006 and 52.75% from 2005.

In addition, according to the Star-Ledger “New Jersey had the nation’s 16th-highest state foreclosure rate during the first quarter, with one in every 265 households receiving a foreclosure filing, according to RealtyTrac. Foreclosure filings were reported on 13,104 New Jersey properties during the quarter, up 66 percent from the first quarter of 2007 and nearly 34 percent from the previous quarter. ”

The Monarch Housing Blog! Had posted a request to participate in the survey by the National Coalition for the Homeless on foreclosure and homelessness. This report is a result of that survey and related research. To read the full report click here.

Foreclosure to Homelessness: the Forgotten Victims of the Subprime Crisis summarizes the findings of that survey. Some of the most salient findings were:

61 percent of survey respondents reported an increase in homelessness in their communities since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007.

Respondents reported a variety of living arrangements among the newly homeless victims of the foreclosure crisis, including stays with family and friends, in emergency shelters, and on the streets.

Among the recommendations were “rather than create a new homeless prevention program, at least a $300 million in new appropriations should be immediately allocated to the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP). EFSP would provide an effective rent and mortgage relief mechanism, which are among the eligible uses of EFSP. These additional funds would be targeted to rent relief and other expenses related to housing. Funds would be used to supplement but not supplant existing public funding for homeless prevention. It is imperative that the distribution formula for this new allocation not be based solely on unemployment figures, but also includes foreclosure data and other measures of poverty in the locality receiving these funds.

To read the full report click here.

It is always a pleasure to have New Jersey’s successful initiatives highlighted in a national magazine. Thus it was with real pleasure to read “Foster Kids No More
The youth housing revolution takes off” in the May 2008 issue of Affordable Housing Finance. The article mentions the first two permanent housing for aging out youth projects in new Jersey - Life Link Homes developed by Robins’ Nest and Camden DREAMS by the Center for Family Services.

The article notes “From coast to coast, dozens of new communities like Life Link are being built to provide supportive housing to kids aging out of foster care, usually when they turn 18. A few years ago, these communities were rare, but now several states have put funds behind the developments. At the same time, the oldest projects have been operating long enough to show developers planning new ones how it’s done and what to watch out for.” According to the Government Accountability Office “Between 25 percent and 40 percent of the young people who leave foster care become homeless within a year”.

To read the full article click here.

The following is the opening of the article.

Foster Kids No More: The youth housing revolution takes off

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE - May 2008

BY BENDIX ANDERSON

GRASSBORO, N.J. — Fire trucks have been called to the Life Link Homes here seven times since construction finished last October. No one has been hurt, and the fires caused no damage to Life Link’s 30 apartments, which provide permanent housing with services to young people just out of foster care. The tenants are old enough to sign apartment leases, but for the most part, they have little cooking experience. So they regularly set off smoke detectors with minor accidental fires, which automatically summon the firefighters.

“Serving aging-out youth can be challenging,” said Ruth London, chief operating officer of Robins’ Nest, Inc., a nonprofit developer and service provider that helps more than 4,500 children and young adults a year in New Jersey’s foster care system. “It can also be tremendously rewarding.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Aging-Out-Youth, Camden DREAMS, Ending Homelessness, Robins-Nest, Supportive Housing

For more information click here.

For more information click here.

KnowledgePlex will hold an expert chat on Thursday May 15 and Thursday May 22 at 2:00 P.M. ET on Housing First. Please note that these are new dates. This will be a two part series. Click here for details.

This is the description provided by KnowledgePlex.

“Helping Chronically Homeless Individuals Access and Stabilize in Housing”

Thursday, May 15 at 2:00 p.m. ET

Increasingly, communities and programs are adopting a Housing First approach to respond to homelessness. By helping individuals and families move rapidly into housing and providing services on a voluntary basis primarily following the placement into housing, communities are stabilizing the lives of individuals with mental illnesses who have experienced chronic homelessness and reducing the number of families residing in shelter.

Some people who experience homelessness remain in shelters or outdoors for years at a time or have recurrent episodes of homelessness. Typically, these individuals have mental health or substance use disorders and often are in poor health. Sam Tsemberis, with Pathways to Housing, helps people with mental illness move straight from the streets to apartments. Once the individuals are in stable housing, services are offered to make progress toward recovery and self sufficiency. The panelists will describe how to implement a Housing First approach, including the types of funding that can be used, challenges in working with private sector landlords, and the remarkable impact Housing First is having on communities and the lives of individuals who have experienced chronic homelessness.

Panelists

Sam Tsemberis, Pathways to Housing, New York City, NY
Norm Suchar, National Alliance to End Homelessness, Washington, DC (Moderator)

For more information and to join this chat, click here.

Chat Two
“Rapidly Re-housing Families Who Experience Homelessness”

Thursday, May 22 at 2:00 p.m. ET
Read the rest of this entry »