This month, Jubilee Housing is excited to roll out our new five-year plan for justice housing℠, “Justice Housing in Action.”
Justice housing is the foundation on which strong, equitable communities are built. Justice housing offers people of all income levels access to deeply affordable homes, with nearby services, in resource-rich areas—such as Jubilee’s core neighborhoods of Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, and Mount Pleasant. In areas like these, residents can benefit from a thriving, inclusive community.
As we developed this plan over the past several months, we started implementing it as well.
We created the Justice Housing Partners Fund, a tool to provide quick-strike investment capital for bridge financing on future justice housing properties. Goal 2 of our five-year plan calls for Jubilee to increase the number of justice housing properties in our portfolio by 30 percent. The fund will enable us to better compete for such properties against market forces buying up buildings for condo conversions in our neighborhoods, which have become some of the most competitive areas in the city.
Goal 1 of “Justice Housing in Action” reminds us to put residents first in all we do. We reignited our emphasis on residents with our first-ever resident survey, in which we captured the perspectives of 80 percent of Jubilee households. We learned new insights about our residents’ needs and aspirations. Those insights are informing adjustments we’re making to strengthen and refocus our supportive programming. We’re also digging deeper into our residents’ experience with follow-up, one-on-one conversations.
One way we’re providing improved opportunities for Jubilee Housing residents is through the Platform of Hope, which we featured in our last newsletter. This collective of six organizations, including Jubilee Housing, provides holistic and self-directed support to cohorts of individuals, living in Adams Morgan, who are experiencing economic vulnerability. Recently, the Meyer Foundation, United Bank, and the Share Fund—a donor-advised fund of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, made initial grants to support the Platform of Hope.
Meanwhile, Jubilee Housing joined the Coalition for Non-Profit Housing and Economic Development and other non-profit developers in calling for an FY 2019 D.C. budget that included non-designated dollars for the Local Rent Support Program (LRSP). Jubilee relies on LRSP funds, in conjunction with investments from the D.C. Housing Production Trust Fund, to help achieve deep affordability at its buildings. The City Council approved $3.5 million for non-designated LRSP purposes.
So, it’s been a busy first half of the year. We thank you for your continued support of our efforts on behalf of current and future Jubilee residents. We look forward to sharing more news of our progress along our five-year plan as the year goes on.
We hope you will join us as we create future justice housing. Visit our website for ways to give and get involved.