5) Description of housing product/service offering: We address the issue of access to services. We found persons living in severely substandard housing while public housing had vacancies. The populations served are isolated individuals and families. Extreme low-income persons without family to assist house hunting; packing and moving of goods; who lack resources to secure better housing even if the monthly cost is lower. We have grants to assist with first month's rent; we will assist individuals, who lack family or access to transport, to move their possessions into affordable housing. We will allow families to move in with a payment agreement for small amounts toward security deposits monthly over extended periods of time. We will make arrangements, where possible, to trade labor(at a per hour rate)to forgive amounts owed or in arrears.

6) Description of innovation: We facilitate access by bundling grants;repayment; donations of furniture with affordable housing options. We utilize volunteer labor/vehicles to move fragile persons/families into decent affordable housing, who would otherwise be trapped where they were or have to abandon the few things they own due to the lack of ability to move them.

7) Benefits to clients: This is a direct service program for the populations to whom we provide affordable housing. The community has come to value our willingness to be public serving and refer those with needs to our Housing Authority.

8) Key operational partnerships: This program is still agency based, but the Social Services of adult protection; Social Services; nursing home/hospital social workers serve to funnel those who have unmet need to our programs. They then serve to locate items if needed to furnish household needs where necessary. However, all coordination is through our agency to limit the "run-around" effect to those served.

9) Financial model: Services are provided for free; housing is Federal subsidy model programs; grants provide portions of rent (where applicable); payment arrangements, over time, are used based on need.

          • Costs as percentage of income: n/a

          • Financing: The largest need is in house hunting and movement of goods. This is done entirely through donation of time and services.

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: This is a extremely rural area with a low population density; higher than national average poverty and essentially no access to non-profit agency assistance. Our total assisted is only 13 persons, but that is over 8% of our total tenant population. We believe access to relocation assistance would have a major impact in higher population areas and would serve to diseminate marginalized populations out of pocket areas of poverty and serve as a de-concentration tool. HUD's interest in de- concentration is thwarted by the lack of access to other housing due to access barriers created by isolation and poverty.

          • Number of clients in past year: 7

          • Percentage of clients that are poor or marginalized: all

          • Potential demand: How many would elect to leave substandard housing, but lack the resources to relocate to safe, decent housing? Demand, especially in the elderly/disabled populations, we feel would be immense. Moving elderly/disabled to more rural areas where costs are lower and affordable housing has less demand on units would also have an effect on the cost of programs. Moving families from metropolitan areas into smaller rural housing markets where schools have a lower student to teacher ratio and where costs of living are lower would have a major impact on life outcomes. The program could be used to shift populations back to rural areas.

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Start Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: Our expansion plans are to increase the grant funds to assist in start-up costs associated with moving. To increase the ability to fund initial rents.

12) Origin of the initiative: This started in relation to a unmet need in the community, where an elderly gentleman was unable to move from a substandard 1900's vintage hotel even though compelled to move on a condemnation order.He was too frail to move his own goods and had no resources of his own (family or funds) to move. As a member of the community, I provided the volunteer labor and vehicles - as Director of our agency, I assisted with the housing portion.

Contact Information:
JD  Bennett
Executive Director
Housing Authority of the City of Lamar
(Political subdivision of the State of Colorado)
804 S. Main Street
United States
Tel: 719.336.9575
Email: executivedirector@lamarhousing.org