Housing
pic by arimoore
While many organizations will say their not in the housing business, everyone is effected by the need to afford a place to live within their income. The perfect solution is for nonprofits to own or build property that they can use for multiple individuals of various income levels. This will protect the organization from being restricted to a single use if one funding source becomes unavailable.
However, the mixing of funding, financing and revenues are at times a blessing to accomplish the housing initiative needed at the time and receiving wider support. This is where scattered site development can be the best solution. Take a vary of sites both adjoining and not adjoining to build an economy of scale set of housing.
My bias is for housing units fully handicapped by using universal design. This allows for the life cycle of a person or family to evolve without the barriers that age or health may present later. The use of universal design provides the opportunity for a property to be more readily used for assisted living and other disabled populations at any time.
You might ask how can I or the organization I work for be part of the solution when there is no interest in being involved in housing. Work to build an angle for the organization to be a member of working in the community to be part of the housing solution. You have resources within the organization that is called employee. Start with your employees and listen to them.
