Background
In the fall of 2014, the Council for the Homeless (CFTH) began studying the root causes of our community’s rapidly rising rents and housing shortage. In our role coordinating the homeless crisis response system, CFTH experienced increasing demand for homeless services and a strained connection between rental assistance programs and the private rental market. Through this work, CFTH concluded that the agency could not fulfill its mission to prevent and end homelessness without a systemic change in the housing market.
Action
In March 2016 CFTH created the Housing Initiative, LLC to increase the community’s capacity to own and manage housing for those with the highest barriers to renting in the private market.
Vision
CFTH’s vision for the Housing Initiative, LLC is to develop and preserve a large portfolio of rental apartments the LLC designs, finances, owns, and operates from the perspective of the homeless crisis response system.
CFTH believes as the Housing Initiative, LLC achieves this vision over the coming decades, our community will have fewer people fall into homelessness and our homeless crisis response system will be more effective and efficient. The LLC’s work will help CFTH successfully lead the community’s efforts to make homelessness rare, brief, and one-time regardless of private rental market dynamics.