| Name | Bettie |
|---|---|
| Last Name | Kirkland |
| Home Address | 620 Lindsay Street Suite 100 Chattanooga, TN 37403 United States |
| Organization Name | Project Return |
| Describe Your Role In The Organization | Chief Executive Officer |
| Organization Address | 620 Lindsay Street Suite 100 Chattanooga, TN 37403 United States |
| Website | https://www.projectreturninc.org |
| Best Phone Number To Reach You | 423-609-8986 |
| Alternate Phone Number | 615-327-9654 |
| Email Address | bkirkland@projectreturninc.org |
| Alternate Email Address | khall@projectreturninc.org |
| Please Describe Your Project In Detail | PRO Housing (“PROh”) is Project Return’s innovative, award-winning affordable housing model, in which we acquire and upgrade modest, multifamily homes – typically duplexes – and make them available for lease at below-market rents for people who were formerly incarcerated. With this proposal, we request funding for Project Return’s start-up of PROh in Chattanooga. We bring proof of concept from our Nashville operation, where our PROh affordable housing portfolio includes, to date, 29 homes spanning six zip codes, leased affordably to individuals who’ve come through Project Return’s employment and services program and are living successfully in the community. PROh is distinguishable in several respects from other affordable housing models: PROh homes are expressly for people with incarceration history, and Project Return brings its reentry expertise to bear in the selection and support of successful tenants; PROh housing is acquired in a scattered-site fashion that does not create stigmatized areas or concentrated poverty; and the expert rehabilitation and upkeep of PROh properties creates high-quality living for tenants, and brings uplift to the neighborhoods they’re in. When people are first released from incarceration, typically their housing options range from transitional halfway housing, to shelter operations, to staying with friends/family, to tent cities and other unhoused scenarios. Project Return is not a temporary housing provider, and instead we focus on their gaining immediate and then sustainable employment while wrapping around them with signature services and support. In a matter of months, their steady income, work experience and advancement, savings and credit scores, references and relative stability (but for permanent housing) make them attractive lease applicants – except for their criminal conviction history, which means they are typically rejected by private landlords, as well as by the exclusionary policies of public housing and nonprofit housing providers alike. At that point, despite being reliable taxpayers in our community and otherwise starting successful new lives against nearly insurmountable odds, they are commonly relegated to overpriced motel rooms, homeless encampments, unaffordable apartments, or degraded enclave housing, which further marginalizes them, perpetuates the stigma, and continues to contribute to cycles of poverty. Project Return’s PROh presents a thoroughly different alternative: well-renovated apartments for lease by worthwhile applicants at affordable rents on quiet residential streets where working people live. This is a sustainable and imminently scalable model. With PROh, we replicate the private market, but we are also able to deploy an advantageous finance model, in which we leverage grant dollars with low-to-no interest mortgages through our banking partners – effectively taking affordable housing funds twice as far. We maintain a list of PROh characteristics that make properties appealing for possible acquisition and rehab by Project Return, and we work with a local real estate agent to find properties that meet the PROh criteria. Over time we have a diverse portfolio of housing across the metropolitan area. The result is more permanent, affordable, independent living, with employment and supportive services provided to the leaseholders, for their sustained reentry success. |
| Please explain how your project meets the requirements of the American Rescue Plan | The American Rescue Plan highlights the housing insecurity that many Americans face as a result of the pandemic. This is felt even more acutely by those with a criminal conviction history who are typically excluded from other private, public, and nonprofit affordable housing. The launch of PROh in Chattanooga will alleviate housing insecurity for the formerly incarcerated by making affordable housing exclusively accessible to those with a criminal conviction history. The final interim rule lists “affordable housing development to increase supply of affordable and high-quality living units” as one of its eligible uses. With this proposal, Project Return intends to increase Chattanooga’s affordable housing stock by at least 20 units. |
| Where would your project take place? | Much of the administrative and services work of PROh – vetting potential properties and arranging for purchases, managing the rehab of acquired housing, overseeing tenant selection and assuring successful tenancy, providing ongoing property maintenance – will be primarily office-based, and Project Return’s Chattanooga operation is located at 620 Lindsay Street. As for our work at the affordable housing itself, the scattered-site approach of PROh means that our properties will be located in different neighborhoods across the city of Chattanooga, rather than in any one particular area, and those properties will be selected and acquired over the course of the funding period. |
| How much will your project cost in total? | 4000000 |
| Do you have any matching funding sources from other local governments, private entities, non-profits, or philanthropic entities for your project? | Yes |
| Please describe the source and list amounts of any other funding. | $40,000 in public & private donations $10,000 Unum Social Justice Fund |
| What portion of the project are you asking the city to fund? | This funding will allow Project Return to purchase and rehab approximately 20 homes. It will also cover the salary of a Housing Manager and the equipment needed to rehab homes. |
| If funded, when would your project start? | August 1, 2022 |
| How long would your project take to complete? | We hope to purchase 20 homes in 2 years. |
| What milestones would you use to measure your project’s progress? | There are two aspects to the success of PROh: one, acquisition, renovation, occupancy, and management of the properties themselves; and two, the success of the people residing in those properties. As for the properties, the progress for PROh will be measured by the number of affordable housing units that are acquired and rehabbed during this funding period. We aim to purchase and rehab 10 units a year, but, of course, this is dependent on the local housing market. We will also aim for a steady occupancy rate of 95% a year; we believe we can easily achieve this based on the relative demand for affordable housing amongst our participants. As for the tenants, a hallmark of PROh is the successful tenancy of those who call our affordable housing units “home”. From the start, Project Return’s Housing Committee vets our PROh lease applicants based on a carefully designed rubric that measures a person’s likelihood of success as a tenant. This is a competitive application process for Project Return participants who’ve been successful in employment, informed as well by their relationship with Project Return over time. After moving into one of our homes, Project Return’s Services Coordinators work alongside our tenants, continuing to coach them toward career advancements and financial savings and other life goals. From the basic metrics of timely rent payment and household management, to successful lease renewal at one year and no legal system involvement (we have a 0% recidivism rate for PROh in Nashville!), we will measure successful tenancy as a marker of our progress. |
| How would you ensure accountability and transparency throughout the project lifecycle? | Project Return utilizes a robustly customized salesforce.com database for all of its work; we do same-day data collection, run weekly and monthly reports for our ongoing assessment of progress, employ a fulltime Quality Assurance Coordinator for internal monitoring of our adherence to standards of excellence in service delivery, and are transparent with stakeholders about performance and achievement. Project Return is accustomed to supplying periodic (monthly or quarterly) reports on outcomes, opportunities, and challenges, and we welcome site visits and other examinations of our work. We will eagerly comply with the reporting practice that the City of Chattanooga wishes to institute for this funding, and otherwise will plan for quarterly reporting. |
| If successful, how would your project benefit the community? | Again, it’s about both people and property. Our housing model offers a formerly incarcerated person a fair chance at a new life by allowing them to live without stigma, along with the dignity and stability of a desirable home, the sustainability of an affordable lease, and the comfort and respect of a responsive landlord. The community suffers when formerly incarcerated individuals are working and living right and are nevertheless excluded from housing. But the community wins when people who were formerly incarcerated are able to live productively and are affordably and respectfully housed! Moreover, the typical trajectory for a community’s affordable housing stock is that it is either reduced – by rents being raised to whatever unaffordable levels the market will bear, or by property being razed and replaced by unaffordable new builds – or it is degraded, by property owners shirking their management responsibilities and leaving rentals in substandard condition. By contrast, Project Return’s scalable affordable housing enterprise preserves, upgrades, beautifies, and grows the community’s affordable housing stock. |
| How will you attract community buy-in for your project? | As a Tennessee nonprofit organization originally based in Nashville, Project Return created a strategic directive in 2017 to explore our expansion to other geographic locations. Beginning in 2019, we devoted concerted time to getting acquainted with the Chattanooga community and learning in particular the sentiments and concerns regarding both criminal justice and workforce development in Chattanooga. Once we secured the start-up funding in Fall 2020 to plan and launch our Hamilton County office, Project Return leaders focused primarily on relationship-building across all sectors of the community. Our grand opening in November 2021 was well-attended by public officials, employers, nonprofit leaders, and foundations alike. We have received contributions from revered Chattanooga-based corporations as well as from local community members, and will continue to nurture that support. We have benefited genuinely from the enthusiasm of the Chamber, who understands that the work of Project Return brings solutions to the workforce quests of Chamber members. We have cultivated opportunities for local media exposure, resulting in newspaper, radio, and tv features of Project Return Chattanooga. Our partnerships with other service organizations are an essential aspect of the success of the people served by Project Return. Prior to opening, we established such partnerships with local medical clinics, child support offices, transitional living facilities, and many others. Also essential are connective relationships with private employers – of all sizes/types, throughout the metropolitan area, and across industries. Through these employment partnerships, we are helping to meet the workforce needs of the community while also providing opportunity for those returning from incarceration. These cross-sector partnerships create widespread buy-in within the community and will develop in tandem with our continued growth. In particular, there has been enthusiasm in Chattanooga for our affordable housing initiative from the beginning. Our affordable housing initiative, specifically, has been a popular topic amongst other nonprofits, correctional partners, and funders alike, and particularly for civic leaders who are clear about the profound and increasing need. Project Return’s strategy was to launch its core employment focus, and – as detailed in our Five-Year Roadmap for the Chattanooga operation – to layer in additional programs and enterprises thereafter. Having started up strong, we now look forward to activating all of the interest in our innovative housing enterprise, with the launch of PROh. Of course, our most hoped for buy-in is amongst our clientele—those individuals who arrived in the City of Chattanooga after being released from correctional facilities with little to nothing to their name. Facing nearly insurmountable odds and a dearth of opportunity, they came to Project Return for the opportunity for a successful new beginning. Within a few months of opening, we have already served nearly 100 men and women on their way to a full and free life after incarceration. While employment is the #1 predictor of a successful future after incarceration, housing is a close second. As individuals build their own proof of concept and their future sustainability through employment, they become the worthy lease applicants that can gain affordable housing through PROh. In the meantime, Project Return has collaborative relationships with state penitentiaries and local jails, and an established practice of frequenting facilities to connect with those nearing release, and we will continue our in-reach efforts in local jails and state prisons, as well as our outreach to transitional living facilities and across the community, in order to ensure that our prospective participants are knowledgeable about the life-changing opportunities to be gained at Project Return. For those participants who gain permanent employment and have otherwise achieved some stability since release from incarceration, there will be the added motivation of being able to secure permanent housing through PROh. |
| Is there anything else you would like us to know about your project? |