Bringing our mission home

What does home mean to you? Safety, privacy, comfort—each of us probably has a different answer. For Nettie (read her story here) a home is an opportunity to bring her family together.

At Health Care for the Homeless, home means everything. “I see people doing well once they get housed every single day,” says Lawanda Williams, LCSW-C, Director of Housing Services. “They find gainful employment, reunite with their families, start relationships and learn to trust again.”

There isn’t enough affordable housing in Baltimore, but we are part of the solution:

• In 2005, we first partnered with Baltimore City to house 30 people.
• Thirteen years later, we grew our program by 100x in order to provide 300 people with supportive housing.
• In the past year, we have continued to grow our program to serve an additional 100 people.

And there’s more housing coming. In July, ten Baltimore-area hospitals committed $2M to fund supportive housing for 200 people. We have three projects in the works with our friends at Episcopal Housing Corporation—building new affordable housing units, with 55 specifically reserved for people experiencing homelessness.

One of these projects will break ground in January 2020 and aims to be complete by spring 2021. 410 Lofts will create 68 affordable units, 20 of which will be used to permanently house those with the experience of chronic homelessness. We will be on-site to provide the supportive services we know work. Learn more in this coverage from the Baltimore Business Journal. 

The partnerships with local hospitals, developers, city officials and the wider community are coming into place. The reason that such diverse stakeholders are coming together on a single goal is clear: housing works.

Help us keep the momentum going. Learn more here.