On any given night in Atlanta, more than 7,000 people will seek refuge in one of the city’s many homeless shelters, or sleep on the streets, under bridges, and on park benches. The number exceeds 25,000 when considering those who have no home of their own and are temporarily sheltered by someone they know. Twenty percent of the metro population lives within one paycheck of possibly losing their home. Many of the current homeless population are women, children, and veterans. Once individuals or families enter shelter or street life, escaping homelessness becomes significantly more challenging, and exponentially more expensive to alleviate.
Housing Placement Through Networking and Technology Development – Learn more about “Open Doors” here.
AREC has found that it can efficiently impact the staggering homeless numbers by connecting episodically and chronically homeless people to programs and housing units that are currently underutilized and unoccupied. Through its Open Doors collaboration with over 45 local nonprofits, housing authorities and Continuums of Care, AREC provides consumers with attractive affordable housing choices. These apartments are operated by receptive management companies who are familiar with the needs and services demanded by people experiencing homelessness. We incorporate subsidy programs including TBRA, PBRA, VASH, Georgia Housing Vouchers, and Rapid Rehousing assistance, as well as coordinating vocational, mental health and substance abuse case workers to ensure successful placement.
Property management software that gathers unit availability data currently does not have a connection with the entities that place homeless individuals. AREC has brought all of the technology partners – including Social Serve, MRI and Property Solutions – together to build a live feed of information showing daily updates of unit availability. With this feed, service providers will spend less time gathering information and more time working on cases and placing individuals and families into housing. By bringing this private sector model to the public markets, we are driving rapid improvements in productivity for all parties.
Real Estate Advisory Services and Development
AREC supports various non-profits focused on homelessness in acquiring or developing properties to add permanent supportive units to their already successful programs.
AREC has provided legal, environmental, and inspection services, as well as contributing funds and hundreds of hours of due diligence expertise, to evaluate and trouble-shoot acquisitions and identify sources of capital. We are committed to providing pro bono consulting services to non-profits who administer services and provide shelter to homeless Atlantans.
