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Innovative Housing Institute

The face of the moon was in shadow

Re-Housing

Bailey Consent Decree – The Enhanced Leasing Assistance Program (ELAP)

IHI was selected to carry out the Enhanced Leasing Assistance Program, a portion of the Bailey Consent Decree. We worked closely with the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC) to develop the Plan for Administering Vouchers for and Implementing ELAP. HABC’s Housing Choice Voucher Program (formerly Section 8) provides subsidized housing, both HABC-held and privately-owned, properties throughout Baltimore. IHI works directly with HABC and the owners of the properties to match clients’ housing needs to available opportunities in the marketplace. IHI provides ongoing casework assistance, working with property managers on tenant management and Fair Housing training programs. The ELAP program assists non-elderly persons with disabilities (NEDs), approved through HABC. IHI has gained tremendous experience working with NED clients and helping them take the necessary steps to find, secure, move and settle into their new homes. IHI also works with developers and owners in Baltimore City to expand the supply of affordable housing in the greater Baltimore area.


Impact:

  • IHI has an expertise in reasonable accommodation requests and has completed 85 for our current tenants, and assisted over 13,000 tenants with ongoing case management services.
  • Since April 2006, IHI has assisted with 1,279 tenant-based NED (non elderly disabled) lease-ups in 45 ZIP Codes and 686 total project-based NED lease-ups.  Of those, 474 have been initial lease-ups.  Total project based tenants successfully living in 446 units.
  • IHI has held orientation of housing for over 3,100 potential tenants, completed 745 group tours (with over 6,200 potential tenants attending these tours)

 

S.T.E.P.S. Pilot Program

With grant assistance from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, IHI launched the S.T.E.P.S. program in the fall of 2017 for all clients and walk-ins that visit IHI offices during walk-in hours. Annually, IHI speaks with over 150+ chronically homeless, not within the ELAP program, seeking immediate and permanent housing assistance. To meet this demand, IHI developed the STEPS Notebook, a personal journal assisting clients with ongoing organizational tools and resources, personal development, and life coaching services.

The S.T.E.P.S. Notebook is an easy-to-use journal, for those in need of finding immediate, and permanent housing. It is the first of its kind in Baltimore City, and is a working medium that keeps our clients on track, to find safe and clean housing.

The S.T.E.P.S. Project offers a “buddy system” in which previous clients that were placed through the ELAP program are “partnered” with new clients to serve as mentors through the housing process.


Re-Housing

Bailey Consent Decree – The Enhanced Leasing Assistance Program (ELAP)

IHI was selected to carry out the Enhanced Leasing Assistance Program, a portion of the Bailey Consent Decree. We worked closely with the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC) to develop the Plan for Administering Vouchers for and Implementing ELAP. HABC’s Housing Choice Voucher Program (formerly Section 8) provides subsidized housing, both HABC-held and privately-owned, properties throughout Baltimore. IHI works directly with HABC and the owners of the properties to match clients’ housing needs to available opportunities in the marketplace. IHI provides ongoing casework assistance, working with property managers on tenant management and Fair Housing training programs. The ELAP program assists non-elderly persons with disabilities (NEDs), approved through HABC. IHI has gained tremendous experience working with NED clients and helping them take the necessary steps to find, secure, move and settle into their new homes. IHI also works with developers and owners in Baltimore City to expand the supply of affordable housing in the greater Baltimore area.

Community Initiatives

20/20 Campaign

The Baltimore Housing Roundtable has developed a vision for Fair Development in Baltimore. The 20/20 campaign calls for real, annual investment in neighborhood-driven development- development that puts us in charge of our own communities & doesn\’t price us out. The request is for a $20 million investment in the capital budget for permanently affordable housing and $20 million for projects that employ community residents to deconstruct vacants and create public green space.

Currently, the 20/20 Campaign has over 20,000 resident signatures for petition for support!


Share Baltimore

A new pilot project in Baltimore City, comprised of 4 new community land trusts, working to use various CLT models to preserve affordable housing. More to come……


Thurgood Marshall Initiative

The Conscious Developer’s and Investors Roundtable promotes conscious capitalism seeking to use business acumen, planning and investment to generate higher purpose in the life of communities by focus beyond only making money. By connecting business, tech and finance talent with financial resources and governance, the alliances joined in the conscious developer’s roundtable (CDRT) help launch the revitalization of strategic historical sites, revitalization of affordable and market housing, and expanding opportunities in retail and commercial projects. Through equity initiatives that lead to community benefits and profit sharing, CDRT features the key to broad-based engagement and recovery of purpose and profits.


Consider the Person Campaign

In November 2016, the Community Development Network of Maryland launched this project to change the hearts and minds of landlords and community members regarding participants in the Housing Choice Voucher holders that are being prevented from accessing housing opportunity, simply because they are participants in this program.

Housing Choice Voucher program (formerly Section 8) participants are often working professionals, elderly and veterans, families and individuals. But all too often, language used to describe voucher holders is comprised of stereotypes, misconceptions and racism. The Consider the Person campaign was created specifically to address those perceptions head-on, and to promote fair and affordable housing opportunities in the Baltimore region.


Consider the Person Campaign

In November 2016, the Community Development Network of Maryland launched this project to change the hearts and minds of landlords and community members regarding participants in the Housing Choice Voucher holders that are being prevented from accessing housing opportunity, simply because they are participants in this program.

Housing Choice Voucher program (formerly Section 8) participants are often working professionals, elderly and veterans, families and individuals. But all too often, language used to describe voucher holders is comprised of stereotypes, misconceptions and racism. The Consider the Person campaign was created specifically to address those perceptions head-on, and to promote fair and affordable housing opportunities in the Baltimore region.


Policy and Reform

Baltimore Regional Housing Campaign

BRHC’s vision is consistent with the recent ruling of the federal court in the housing desegregation case of Thompson v. HUD, which held that the federal government has failed to provide poor families with access to housing outside of segregated, high poverty communities. This case will be an important catalyst for change in the region and can help to break down legal barriers.

Organizing Members include: Innovative Housing Institute, ACLU of Maryland, Poverty and Race Research Action Council (PRRAC), Citizens Planning and Housing Association, Inc.

In 2011, the BRHC filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, citing that the state housing agency of Maryland was maintaining a policy that funneled low-income housing developments into poor, predominantly black communities.  Six years later, on September 20, 2017, the Maryland Board of Public Works approved $225,000 to settle a six-year-old discrimination complaint against the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development. Under a “Voluntary Compliance Agreement and Conciliation Agreement,” the State has agreed to help finance development of at least 1,500 low-income housing units across Baltimore City and Harford, Howard, Carroll, Anne Arundel, and Baltimore counties. The settlement restricts those units to communities with low crime, minimal poverty, and highly-ranked schools.

The Opportunity Collaborative

The Opportunity Collaborative (The Collaborative) was the consortium charged with developing a Regional Plan for Sustainable Development(RPSD) (link to PDF) for the Baltimore region. The RPSD is a collective effort of governments, organizations, and community partners to connect traditionally separate planning efforts and to develop new strategies to reduce regional disparities and improve the quality of life for all our citizens. In addition to the RPSD, the Collaborative developed regional plans in the areas of housing and workforce development and funded innovative and transformative efforts through a series of grants.

The work of the Opportunity Collaborative has helped to shape policy decisions at the state and local level. In April of 2016, the Opportunity Collaborative’s work was recognized with the HUD Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships.

Baltimore Regional Housing Plan

“THE GREATEST HOUSING NEED IS FOR THOSE WHO MAKE UNDER 30 PERCENT OF MEDIAN FAMILY INCOME (MFI) – EQUIVALENT TO A FAMILY OF FOUR EARNING $26,000 OR LESS. BOTH SEVERE HOUSING COST BURDEN AND STATE CALCULATED UNMET NEED SHOW AN UNMET DEMAND IN THE REGION OF JUST OVER 50,000 RENTAL HOMES AFFORDABLE TO THESE HOUSEHOLDS”

IHI was the lead consultant for the development of the Opportunity Collaborative’s Regional Housing Plan, Strong Communities, Strong Region. Strong Communities, Strong Region,  was created through an effort and experience of a diverse group of housing experts, local and state government officials, non-governmental organizations and civic and religious leaders. As an expert in inclusionary zoning with grassroots experience with the most vulnerable sector of the population in the city, IHI can help provide the solutions recommended throughout the indepth report offering viable and comprehensive solutions and recommendations for Baltimore Region partners.

The Regional Housing Plan set the following goals:

  1. Address Unmet Housing Needs for 70,000 low-income households.
  2. Sustain the Region’s Diverse Communities
  3. Bolster Vulnerable Communities
  4. Boost Opportunity for People in Highly Challenged Markets
  5. Connect Housing Efforts to Transportation and Workforce Development
  6. Support Plan Implementation Through Continued Convening of the Housing Committee

“DHCD ESTIMATES A SHORTAGE OF NEARLY 14,000 ACCESSIBLE UNITS AFFORDABLE AT 30% MEDIAN FAMILY INCOME (MFI)”


Baltimore City Continuum of Care

The Continuum of Care is a collaborative body within Baltimore City that includes organizations that serve homeless persons, homeless and formerly homeless persons themselves, and other organizations and individuals that are interested in ending homelessness in within the City, and carries out responsibilities required by the HUD Continuum of Care (CoC) program. IHI is an active and contributing member of both the Housing and Resource Development Committees.


Inclusionary Housing/Zoning

IHI is an expert in inclusionary consulting services to organizations and communities around the country on a variety of topics, to include public procurement by cities and towns, as well as private work on specific studies. Currently, IHI’s focus is regional, in partnership the Grounded Solutions Network, and serves as a regional consultant for inclusionary housing/zoning studies for municipalities in the eastern region of the United States. IHI has Board members, staff and consultants that are experts in the field, and assist with a broad range of topics pertinent to affordable housing and community development. Qualifications and past engagements and studies can be found in the IMPACT section of the website.
IHI attended and was Housing Champion at the Intersections Conference, hosted by Grounded Solutions, in Oakland, CA in the fall of 2017. Grounded Solutions Network and IHI share the mission to cultivate communities that are equitable, inclusive and rich in opportunity, by advancing affordable housing solutions that last for generations. Inclusionary zoning policy and the community land trust model are both excellent mechanisms to maintain and expand the supply of affordable housing.

Real Estate Development and Community Land Trusts

In 2010, Governor Martin O’Malley, signed the Affordable Housing Land Trust Act (AHLT Act) into law, in Maryland Annotated Code, Real Property § 14-501. An affordable housing land trust is an entity that provides affordable housing to low-income and moderate-income families through an affordable housing land trust agreement; and is organized or managed by a nonprofit organization that buys land on behalf of a community and holds it in trust.

Currently there are approximately 160 community land trusts operating in every region of the country. These community land trusts are nonprofit, community-based organizations whose mission is to provide affordable housing in perpetuity by owning land and leasing it to those who live in houses built on that land. In the classic community land trust model, membership is comprised of those who live in the leased housing (leaseholders); those who live in the targeted area (community members); and local representatives from government, funding agencies and the nonprofit sector (public interest).
In Maryland, there is a growing number of non-profits that are using the land trust model to expand and preserve the supply of permanent affordable housing. With over 20+ years staff experience in real estate development, appraisal valuation, and transactional services, IHI partners with local developers and builders in the Baltimore area to provide technical assistance in these areas.

Casework Management Services

The Innovative Housing Institute (hereinafter called “IHI”) provides contract Casework Services Program for tenants located in subsidized or LITHC units. IHI provides this service to support building owners and their tenants, and assist property management companies who are not trained, nor conversant in the law contained within the Fair Housing Act of 1968, or client’s who are desirous of outsourcing this function. IHI has 20+ years’ experience in casework services for both families and individuals with disabilities. IHI currently manages the Bailey Consent Decree for the Baltimore City Housing Authority.
IHI has an expertise in reasonable accommodation requests and has completed 85 for our current tenants, and assisted over 13,000 tenants with ongoing case management services.
Our casework management services include:

  • Regular and periodic phone communication;
  • Home visits;
  • Advocacy;
  • Conflict management;
  • Coordination of tenant related responsibilities with property manager;
  • Community referrals for support and follow up;
  • Develop structure and time management
  • Behavior modification
  • Emergency/crisis services
  • Budgeting/money management
  • Meal planning;
  • Family communication
  • Assistance with community services information
  • Development of short term and long-term goals.

Tenant Placement

IHI assists private building owners with quality tenant placement for renters with housing vouchers, and those falling in the lower income brackets. IHI has completed within Baltimore City and the surrounding counties. Through the management of the Bailey Consent Decree, IHI has a decade of experience in successful placements, and the finalization of steps taken to sign a lease or rental agreement on a property for rent.

  • Since April 2006, IHI has assisted with 1,279 tenant-based NED (non elderly disabled) lease-ups in 45 ZIP Codes and 686 total project-based NED lease-ups. Of those, 474 have been initial lease-ups. Total project based tenants successfully living in 446 units.
  • IHI has held orientation of housing for over 3,100 potential tenants, completed 745 group tours (with over 6,200 potential tenants attending these tours)

 


Consulting/Technical Assistance

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