Athens Area Habitat was at the spearhead of the neighborhood renovation and rental program which Habitat for Humanity International took nationwide in the US in 2019. While most of the recovered properties in the Athens area are dedicated to providing cost-manageable apartments for local residents on fixed incomes, some have been set aside to serve partnerships with other local non-profits working to combat homelessness.
One such group is Family Promise of Athens, an organization that works with families to transition them from homelessness or the brink of homelessness back to stability and security. Our partnership began with the restoration of a quadruplex in central Athens, half of which was dedicated to Family Promise for use as temporary apartments by families they’re working with, and has expanded from there.
While there is widespread support in our community for programs that work to assist homeless families and individuals, temporary and transitional housing is one of the most difficult straits to navigate in the process. There’s little commercial incentive for private-sector home builders to create transitional housing stock, and it’s often viewed as an unwelcome use of existing housing stock due to stigmas against homelessness.
By setting aside multi-family housing — created by rehabbing once-abandoned structures — for the dedicated use of organizations like FPA, we simultaneously revitalize neighborhoods in decline while providing a predictable and plannable resource for organizations keeping families off the street and in their own homes. Currently we’re in the early stages of planning a project which may greatly increase our capacity in this area, so stay tuned!