Local nonprofits, including Housing Forward and Beds Plus, are partnering with the Village of Oak Park to start a “Yes to the Address” program connecting people experiencing homelessness with landlords who have available units.
The idea for the initiative came from suburban Cook County’s participation in Re!nstitute’s 100-day challenge, according to Vanessa Matheny, the village’s community services administrator. In 100 days between February and May, organizations throughout suburban Cook County, including in Oak Park, housed 117 individuals experiencing homelessness and connected another 310 with shelters.
“Yes to the Address” is intended to sustain some of the work done in that challenge, Matheny said.
Prior research has shown it takes about 2.2 years on average to house an individual experiencing homelessness, Matheny said. But in the 100-day challenge, organizations involved proved it’s possible to house individuals in a much shorter time.
Now they want to continue that.
“We’re trying to make this more sustainable,” she said. “How do we continue to build that relationship with the landlords? How do we continue to make sure that people have access to affordable housing? … We don’t want to go back.”
Building the program
The program is in the building phase, Matheny said, as the village and nonprofits work to ensure close connections with landlords. She said that in September the village is hosting a virtual meeting with landlords to allow them to voice concerns, have questions answered and understand what involvement with the program would look like.
“There’s this misconception that because you’re homeless, you’re automatically going to be a bad tenant,” Matheny said. “We’re trying to reduce that stigma and help give a different face to this housing crisis.”
After the informational session, Matheny said the next step is to host “accelerated moves” in which the village will bring landlords together with case managers and clients, from organizations like Housing Forward, who are seeking housing. Matheny said she hopes the village can host two of these moves per year.
The housing will extend throughout all of Cook County, Matheny said, similar to the 100-day challenge. It just depends on what landlords have availability and are willing to participate in the program. They’re also hoping landlords will communicate with each other and spread the message about the program, Matheny said.
Housing Forward, along with other area nonprofits, will ensure clients who need assistance from landlords will be part of this match-up program, according to Romiesha Tucker, Housing Forward’s director of prevention, outreach and diversion. These clients will all have case managers and some form of housing voucher or subsidy.
“If the only thing that is preventing them from no longer being homeless is that there just has not been a landlord identified, those clients and case managers [are] who we are inviting out,” Tucker said. “The event is like a job fair.”
“Yes to the Address” will hopefully help the flow of housing and reduce bottlenecks, Matheny and Tucker said. It could reduce the number of individuals on the street by allowing those in shelters to move into interim housing like The Write Inn and having individuals staying there move into permanent housing.
“My hope is that this will continue to be an ongoing program and that we’ll continue to take lessons learned from previous accelerated moves to make them bigger and better,” Matheny said.
Accounting for concerns
Some landlords have expressed concerns about ensuring their property isn’t damaged and that the new tenants will pay on time, Matheny said. John Harris, the facilitator for the Oak Park Homelessness Coalition, said they’d like to have a mitigation fund in case of issues or damages, so landlords could feel even more confident about the partnerships.
“Are they taking a chance also if they rent to one of our clients?” Tucker said. “Absolutely because they’re still a tenant. But the difference is that the landlord is getting to see all of the support that this person has … It’s a little bit more secure.”
Some traditional renters might look “good on paper,” Tucker pointed out, but individuals experiencing homelessness who are ready to rent have agency connections, rental subsidies and a case manager. Some might think it’s a “red flag” to rent to someone that’s experiencing homelessness, she said, but they have a support system working to keep them housed. That should be alluring to landlords, she said.
There are different types of rental subsidies these clients might have. Permanent housing subsidies, which could be for an individual or a family, would guarantee rent for the life of the client. But other subsidies could be for differing time frames such as six months, 12 months or 24 months. A lot of these subsidies are funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Tucker said.
It’s also important for the client to be able to take on the full rent after a subsidy expires, Tucker said. The subsidy allows clients to get their footing but it’s important to stay rent-conscious in choosing apartments, she said.
Tucker said that another advantage is that for landlords wary about renting to individuals who have been experiencing homelessness, the subsidy provides a guaranteed income. And for the program to be successful, landlords must come to the table.
“We have all these resources but if we don’t have anywhere to use them, then we’re no better [off] than if we didn’t have them,” Tucker said. “That is really is why we need the landlords.”
