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Initiative For Affordable Housing:
Serving DeKalb
County and Metro Atlanta, Georgia
Initiative for Affordable Housing, Inc. is a
private non-profit
agency, founded in 1990 by two churches with long histories of
social involvement in the local community. The agency is located
in DeKalb County but serves homeless families who are
from all around the Atlanta metropolitan area. Initiative
owns and maintains
20 single-family homes, as well as four apartment complexes
with 355 rental units. The agency also develops, constructs,
and sells
affordable housing to increase availability of affordable housing
in metro Atlanta.
What We Do:
Initiative offers homeless families permanent,
affordable housing along with the supportive services and resources
to help make a house or an apartment a home. Unique in its response
to the community’s diverse needs, Initiative provides a safety
net of social services and agency-owned affordable housing that
is time-limited and tailored to each family’s needs. Initiative
is committed to the philosophy that offering a place to live is
only the first step in helping families along the path out of homelessness.
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Analysis
of Initiative Homeless Program Data Shows Significant Income Gains for Program
Participants.
Data collected over five years and submitted
to HUD for Initiative’s
Homeless Program shows substantial gains among participants’ monthly
income when they exit the program over their income when they entered
the program.
“Much of this is because the Initiative Homeless Program takes
the desperation away. Program participants have a roof over their head
and the adults can focus on work,” says Lisa Wise, Executive
Director of Initiative. “I think one of the most important things
we do is to normalize a family’s living situation and provide
a safety net so a parent can then search for a job.”
Initiative’s social workers help participants with job searches,
resume writing, job interviewing – anything that will get them
up and working. The numbers show that many participants enter the program
without a job and almost all have job income when they leave. |
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