The Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships - Housing and Community Development in Action

Title:

Color Me Back: Same Day Work and Pay Program

Location:

Philadelphia, PA

Challenge:

To address increased homelessness, panhandling, and economic insecurity in Philadelphia.

Innovation:

Considering the trauma behavioral-health challenges for this population, Color Me Back, a same day work and pay program using public art-making- was uniquely developed to include (1) peer outreach staff working alongside program participants to provide support, connections to services and help with reducing barriers to more permanent employment; and, (2) meaningful work opportunities in which people contribute effectively and noticeably to their community, decreasing negative public stigma.

Overview:

The Sheller Family Foundation and the Scattergood Foundation worked with Mural Arts Philadelphia to design, implement, and fund, along with the Barra Foundation, a trauma-informed same-day work and pay program to address homelessness and panhandling. Within a month of inception, as many as 100 people were showing up daily for the chance to work. This spurred the City of Philadelphia Office of Homeless Services and the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services to join the partnership with plans to scale to 100 daily work opportunities in multiple sites. The Community Life Improvement Program, a city entity that improves neighborhood quality of life through cleanups, was brought on as a second work opportunity. First Step Staffing, a low-barrier temporary staffing agency, became the pipeline to more sustainable work opportunities.

Partners:

Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Barra Foundation, City of Philadelphia Office of Homeless Services, Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, Community Life Improvement Program, and First Step Staffing.

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Title:

The Homeless Assistance Fund, Inc. (HAFI)

Location:

Philadelphia, PA

Challenge:

To address barriers that prevent individuals and families experiencing homelessness from acquiring permanent housing.

Innovation:

The capitalization of a dedicated fund from the sale of former Naval Base housing staffed as a private foundation and governed by cross-sector partners, provides a long-term source of grant funding that Philadelphia has used to fill gaps and leverage other funds for homeless assistance. HAFI supports homeless service providers that use evidence-based practices, including Housing First, Motivational Interviewing, Critical Time Intervention, and the Sanctuary Model (an “evidence-supported” practice).

Overview:

Philadelphia’s 2019 Point in Time Count identified 4,399 households experiencing homelessness. HAFI’s role in addressing homelessness is to reduce financial barriers that delay households’ transition from shelter or transitional housing to permanent housing. With an annual grant budget of $200,000, HAFI provides grants to homeless service providers to support the costs of security deposits, first/last month’s rent, furniture, utility arrearages, and associated case management. More recently, they have supported transportation costs to enable recently homeless individuals, including returning citizens, to obtain and maintain employment as one critical step in the path to permanent housing. Since 2005, HAFI has invested $2.89 million in high capacity, homeless service providers in Philadelphia, enabling 1,850 households to transition from homelessness to permanent housing, and supporting over 700 formerly homeless individuals to obtain employment.

Partners:

City of Philadelphia Office of Homeless Services, Philadelphia Division of Housing and Community Development, And Urban Affairs Coalition.

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Title:

Career Coaching in the Economic Opportunity Program (EOP) Expanding SNAP 50/50 grant participation.

Location:

Portland, OR

Challenge:

To address the needs of local low-income residents through a coordinated statewide funding program that results in stabilized housing and employment as delivered by various culturally-specific and population-specific community based organizations.

Innovation:

Analysis supported by Meyer Memorial Trust determined that systems alignment generated more occupational training completions, more access to career-track employment, higher income increases after participation, and better housing retention outcomes for customers served with aligned services. This approach grew community capacity to serve local low-income residents with proven one-on-one, relationship-based, career coaching to support access into high-demand, family-wage jobs.

Overview:

In a broad partnership, resources were gathered to address low-income residents’ most pressing county-wide challenge: homelessness. The initiative links employment and housing services to funding that creates stability for the network of community-based organizations dedicated to helping customers access occupational training followed by increased likelihood of achieving both housing and employment security.

Partners:

Prosper Portland, Worksystems, City of Portland, Joint Office of Homeless Services, Multnomah County, Oregon Department of Human Services, HUD Portland Field Office, and USDA Food and Nutrition Service.

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Title:

Human Centered City Permitting

Location:

Detroit, MI

Challenge:

Detroit’s economic resurgence is attracting new investment, creating a high volume of applicants interacting with the city’s Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department (BSEED). The process of obtaining the permits needed to open a business in Detroit takes, on average, 6 months. One of the biggest hurdles for small business owners is obtaining city permits. The City of Detroit and the Quicken Loans Community Fund saw an opportunity to work together to simplify the city’s permitting and licensing process.

Innovation:

One of the most significant challenges for Detroit entrepreneurs is the process of obtaining the permits and licenses needed to open a business. Before this intervention, entrepreneurs had to complete between 70 and 80 forms, writing their name and address 21 times and often having to go back and redo parts of the process that they got wrong the first time.

Overview:

Using human-centered design, a team of city employees, Detroit entrepreneurs, community partners, and designers worked together to create a simple permitting process. Over 18 months, the team redesigned forms, introduced an online permitting system, and overhauled the physical space in City Hall. The new process has reduced the number of forms from 85 to 35 and saved 400 hours of staff time.

Partners:

City of Detroit.

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Title:

National Opportunity Zone Capacity Building Initiative and Academy

Location:

New York, NY

Challenge:

To help cities build a pipeline of bankable projects that move beyond early stages of planning and attract private investment in economically distressed areas.

Innovation:

Outcomes will be supported through three initiative tracks: promote and disseminate the Operating Zone (OZ) Reporting Framework, install a Chief Opportunity Zone Officer with two engagement specialists in six partner municipalities who will drive responsible and effective private investment, and create a National Opportunity Zone Academy, which will provide seven urban areas with technical assistance to produce community-led approaches to development.

Overview:

The Rockefeller Foundation partnered with 15 public agencies across 13 urban areas to provide them with the resources, training, and networking opportunities to develop modified investment prospectuses. These prospectuses will speak to the strengths of their OZ in a format that will resonate with investment firms while benefiting the communities in those OZs. The aim is to assist public-partners in developing investments that avoid displacing low-income families in targeted areas while ensuring that employment opportunities created by those investments benefit low-wage workers.

Partners:

Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Miami-Dade County, and 14 municipal agency partners.

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Title:

The St. Peter Residential, an Innovative Solution for Affordable Housing

Location:

New Orleans, LA

Challenge:

Lack of affordable housing in New Orleans.

Innovation:

The St. Peter Residential is the first net-zero building of its kind in Louisiana. This means that, in addition to providing high-quality, low-cost, and safe and secure housing, residents of the St. Peter Residential will have extremely low energy bills coupled with high levels of comfort and air quality. This development dispels the misconception that affordable and sustainable solutions are mutually exclusive and provides much-needed affordable housing where housing opportunities for low-income families and veterans are sparse.

Overview:

In 2019, St. Bernard Project partnered with Entergy, the City of New Orleans, the Housing Authority of New Orleans, the Louisiana Housing Corporation, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Boston Financial, and Home Bank to develop the St. Peter Residential: a 50-unit, mixed-market apartment building where 50% of the units are reserved for veterans.

Partners:

Louisiana Housing Corporation, Louisiana Housing Authority, Entergy, the City of New Orleans, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Boston Financial, and Home Bank.

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Title:

CONNECT ALL @ the Jacob Center

Location:

San Diego, CA

Challenge:

MUFG Union Bank Foundation in partnership with the City of San Diego and CONNECT ALL @ The Jacobs Center sought to bring access and opportunity to those disconnected from the prosperity of San Diego’s innovation and knowledge-based economy and startup ecosystem.

Innovation:

MUFG Union Bank Foundation in partnership with the City of San Diego provided multi-year financial support to help establish CONNECT ALL @ the Jacobs Center, the region’s only business accelerator program that is exclusively for low- and moderate-income and diverse founders. This accelerator program is free of charge and does not require an equity stake, unlike other accelerator programs in the city. To support the community, the program only accepts entrepreneurs that live in the City of San Diego and have their business in the City of San Diego.

Overview:

This program provides entrepreneurs with the tools they need to scale their business, including expert mentoring, business management, and investment relationship assistance. Services are free and do not require an equity stake. Participating startups utilize a new, well-appointed, 4,300-square-foot co-working space and business resource center and have access to mentorship through renowned entrepreneur supporter Connect, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with more than 30 years’ business acceleration experience.

Partners:

MUFG Union Bank Foundation, City of San Diego and Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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