Through a HUD Section 4 grant, LISC has partnered with HOPE—Home Ownership for Personal Empowerment—to help build the group’s capacity to match people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to safe, affordable and community-connected homes.
HOPE, Inc. (Home Ownership for Personal Empowerment) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to create stable, affordable housing options for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). This month marks the 32nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the goal of empowering individuals to live as active and contributing community members continues to be at the heart of HOPE.
LISC LA first partnered with HOPE in 2020 through Section 4. The Section 4 Program is the only program at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) specifically designed to build the capacity of nonprofit community development corporations. LISC LA provided HOPE with a Section 4 grant to build its capacity to purchase and preserve licensed group homes in LA County—homes whose affordability is increasingly threatened by fast turnover on the private real estate market.
Understanding how independence can change people's lives is a driving force behind HOPE’s work to address the affordable rental housing shortage. According to the Center for American Progress, adults with disabilities experience poverty at more than twice the rate of adults without disabilities. And this trend affects women and people of color with disabilities at disproportionate rates. People with disabilities are saddled with more medical debt, experience higher rates of food insecurity, and receive lower pay than the general population. Moreover, these and other factors contribute to higher rates of homelessness.
HOPE’s goal is to provide safe, affordable homes that foster inclusion within the community and provide ample opportunity for residents to lead full and active lives. The group’s housing models include supportive housing, independent living, 24-Hr residential care, and a college-to-career program. HOPE currently operates 98 locations that serve 358 people in 18 U.S. cities.
“HOPE addresses social injustice by providing housing for one of the most vulnerable and underrepresented groups in our society, people with I/DD,” said HOPE’s Lauren Quijano-Gin. “Thanks to our partnership with LISC LA, we were able to conduct the necessary accessible community outreach activities to reach more individuals with I/DD.”
Through that support, HOPE has created 30 online rental property profiles for each of their locations, with easy-to-understand instructions for applying to their housing and housing access and retention services. In addition, their materials are now more language- and digitally-accessible.
“I would like to thank all responsible that worked on getting me my apartment,” says a HOPE resident named Scott. “It has been a long journey, but I am now beginning a new chapter in my life, and I could not have done it without HOPE.”