Common Ground's mission is to end homelessness through innovative programs that transform people, buildings, and communities. Common Ground is one of the nation’s largest developers of supportive housing, having created more than 2,000 units of permanent and transitional housing in New York City, Connecticut, and upstate New York.<ref> </ref>

In 1990, Common Ground pioneered the concept of mixed-income supportive housing: affordable housing for a range of income groups with on-site social services. These services help formerly homeless tenants restore their health, regain their economic independence, and rebuild their lives. Of those they assist, 93% remain stably housed. Indeed, their lives are transformed.

Common Ground has consistently demonstrated its cost-effective approach to ending homelessness. Numerous studies have shown that when homeless people are left to languish on our streets and in the shelter system, public expenditures on the services they access – such as emergency rooms, hospitals, and jails – far outweigh the costs of providing these individuals with affordable housing and the support they need to get back on their feet. <ref>http://www.fastcompany.com/social/2008/profiles/common-ground.html</ref>

The organization currently has 170 employees, many of whom are its own formerly homeless tenants. But Common Ground is more than bigger. Haggerty and her staff are at the forefront of a movement to reconsider the basic assumptions about homelessness. In the process, they’re creating solutions that are equal parts innovation and common sense. “A few years ago, we began thinking about our mission much more ambitiously,” Haggerty says. “We’re daring to ask, What would it take to end homelessness?”

To get at the answer, Common Ground conducts original research: According to Haggerty, widespread information about exactly why people become and remain homeless doesn’t exist. What Common Ground has found through on-the-street head counts, interviews, and homeless focus groups re frames the whole housing issue. “It’s not just an argument about the quantity of housing,” Haggerty says. “There aren’t enough types of housing available.” In other words, people are homeless for different reasons — which necessitates a variety of responses.<ref>http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/66/socialcapital.html</ref>

History

Ms. Haggerty was barely 30 years old when she became convinced that the fledgling concept of supportive housing could work at the historic, bankrupt Times Square Hotel. She formed Common Ground in 1991 to bring her idea to fruition - and she conceded that, braces on her teeth and the same clothes she had worn since graduating from Amherst College in 1982, she must have made an unlikely champion for such an ambitious undertaking. But Ms. Haggerty said she felt called to the project; since completing her senior thesis on the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, she had considered her “education an obligation, not a possession.”

After working seven years for Brooklyn Catholic Charities in housing development, she knew her way around the world of nonprofit real-estate development. She knocked on the doors of colleagues and professional contacts and cobbled together enough money with state and federal incentives for low-income housing, historic preservation, low-interest loans and some private bridge financing to make her vision a reality.

Since then, Common Ground has developed five more buildings in New York City, housing more than 1,300 people, and is working on other projects in London, Tokyo, Connecticut, Australia and Newburgh, N.Y. Near each of the completed projects, crime has dropped, property values have risen and the buildings have saved the city money, according to statistics provided to Common Ground by various city agencies. Supportive housing costs about $10,000 to $13,000 a year, according to Common Ground, while a bed in a shelter, a city prison or a hospital bed can cost about $23,000 $63,000, and up to $600,000, respectively.

Haggerty’s advice: Don’t throw more money at hostels. A person needs a home to become a contributing member of society. <ref>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E4D9133DF934A35751C1A9659C8B63&scp=1&sq=Developer Goes Home To Tackle New Project&st=nyt</ref>

Programs

On-The-Street Head Counts

The Director of Common Ground’s West Midtown Homeless Service Provider Project, Becky Kanis, made clear the count is only the first step to solving street homelessness. “The important part is what we do with this information,” she said. “We want to move from crisis management to lasting solutions. Other cities have done that successfully. We plan to do the same.”

She went on to explain that they are copying what London calls their Rough Sleepers Initiative. In 1998 when Londoners started doing regular counts, they found 621 “rough sleepers.” In their 2001 count they found only 264 people. They had reduced homelessness by almost 2/3rds in 3 years. And the way they did it was through getting all the outreach workers and service providers to cooperate with each other in networking and sharing information.

Kanis observed that Common Ground is unique in setting that mark on the wall and saying, “We’re going to solve this, not manage it. We’re willing to step up and take a leadership role because we see that together we can do much more than we can do alone. We believe that the effects are going to be exponentially more than they would be by any one group working by itself.”

“At the real end of the day the only thing that’s going to matter is the people who have been thus far completely unwilling to accept the offers of shelter, etc. by outreach workers,” she said. “Can we reach them and make a positive difference in their lives? What can we do compassionately to help these people who have, for all practical purposes, fallen through the cracks of society? That’s where our focus is; that’s what matters.”

“We don’t know exactly what’s going to work here in New York,” Kanis concluded, “but we know what’s worked in other cities. Therefore, we’re going to spend our efforts doing those things, and as we find smarter and better ways to do things we will adopt them.” <ref>http://www.commonground.org/?p=162</ref>

Street To Home

Identify and prioritize. Assess and negotiate. House and retain. Those are the three key elements of the targeted strategy of New York’s Street to Home initiative, a partnership of Common Ground Community and the Times Square Alliance, and the strategy has reduced homelessness by 87% over two years. In the last year alone, Common Ground’s Street to Home moved 54 people from the streets directly into housing. The City of New York this month adopted Street to Home as the citywide strategy to reduce street homelessness by two-thirds within three years. Common Ground will direct all efforts on the streets of midtown Manhattan and throughout the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens.

First setting their sights on a 20-block neighborhood with one of the highest levels of homelessness in the city, Common Ground focused on securing housing for those who have been living on the street the longest and need housing the most among the average of 55 people on the streets and sidewalks of Times Square. Street to Home replaced the random “first come, first served” approach with a targeted, strategic process: identify and prioritize the most vulnerable individuals on the street, assess and negotiate housing options with those individuals, then house and retain.

Identify and Prioritize. Street to Home partners with Business Improvement District public safety officers or community outreach workers who - because they are on the front lines every day - have a thorough knowledge of the people continually living on their streets. These ambassadors are then trained by Common Ground in approaches to introduce clients to a housing team that will help them to secure housing. A simple tracking tool enables workers to differentiate between those who are consistently in the targeted area - “anchors” - and those who are transients. The role of “anchor” individuals in street homelessness was identified in the Rough Sleepers Initiative, with subsequent targeting of those individuals yielding greater success - a tipping point - in engaging and moving individuals in the surrounding area. Common Ground developed a research-based Vulnerability Index to take the guesswork out of outreach and offer a rational system for prioritizing the most vulnerable homeless for housing.

Assess and Negotiate. Because most people who have lived on the streets for a long time are suffering from multiple disabilities and are usually eligible for some form of housing subsidy, Common Ground trains service providers in how to assess for eligibility for housing, services, and benefits, and tips on expediting this process. With the immediacy of the housing offer in hand for the individual, Street to Home uses techniques derived from Motivational Interviewing and Trauma Informed Care in working with clients to negotiate placement into housing. Street to Home assesses each individual’s eligibility for subsidized housing and income benefits and walks each person through the process of obtaining permanent housing- registering for disability or income support benefits, completing medical and psychiatric tests, and finding an apartment that fits the person’s needs.

House and Retain. Common Ground has now helped more than 175 adults - who had been homeless an average of 9.9 years - move from the streets directly into permanent housing since the start of Street to Home. According to their experience, once inside, 90% are able to maintain their housing. Most individuals who have lived on the streets for long periods don’t wish to live in a shelter but want and are successful in their own homes. Moving inside begins their reintegration into society. Some clients of Street to Home have re-established relationships with family members. Many are working or have returned to school.<ref>http://www.ich.gov/newsletter/archive/09-13-07_e-newsletter.htm#article4</ref>

The Foyer Program

Rosanne Haggerty was on vacation in Ireland when she decided to see how that country addresses the housing needs of its poorest residents. What she discovered in the city of Belfast was the Foyer Program, a model long used in France, Ireland, and England to help young people without family and at risk of homelessness make the transition to adulthood. Haggerty hoped the model might be useful in New York City, where about 20 percent of homeless adults have a history of foster care, and where, according to one city agency, some 3,700 young people will age out of foster care between 2002 and 2004.

Haggerty decided to replicate the Foyer Program in her next project – the renovation of an old YMCA residence in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, which set aside 40 of its 207 units for young adults ages 18 to 24 who are aging out of foster and residential care or are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The [Christopher] Chelsea Residence provides employment, educational mentoring and life-skills training programs; participants will work over an 18-month to two-year period toward permanent housing and stable employment. The $32 million project, which includes $9 million for acquisition, has received state, city and private financing.

Common Ground formed alliances with new social service partners. Good Shepherd Services [806], a nonprofit social service and youth development agency, does the case management and youth development work and operates a mentoring program. Also, the organization repositioned their job training program in Ben and Jerry stores from adults to a youth training program, to tie it in with the Foyer program. <ref>http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/125/commonground.html</ref>

After screening out youth who are not suitable for the program, a case manager and the resident negotiate an action plan with five areas of goals: education, employment, financial, independent living skills and volunteer opportunities. This becomes a contract between the resident and the facility, and includes a 10-module system that the resident is tested on each month to achieve those goals.

The foyer is staffed at all times. When residents walk in, they’re greeted at the front desk. Residents can then go to their efficiency units, each with its own kitchen and bathroom, or spend time in the common lounge area, computer lab, eating area.

In the traditional foyer model, one-third of the residents have high needs, one-third medium needs and one-third low needs, but they’ve taken in a much higher percentage of high-needs youth. Nonetheless, the heavy level of support needed in the beginning quickly drops, and the longer-term residents are now mentoring the new ones.<ref>http://www.housingfinance.com/ahf/articles/2004/March/Supportive_housing.html</ref>

The Ben and Jerry's Partnership

Common Ground Community runs this [8th Avenue and 43rd St] Ben & Jerry’s franchise, one at Rockefeller Center and a seasonal kiosk at Bryant Park as retail businesses owned and managed by Common Ground Ventures, an affiliate of Common Ground. The Ben & Jerry’s franchises are one of several business ventures that provide jobs and training for tenants of Common Ground supportive housing. The franchises also produce unrestricted income for Common Ground supportive housing programs and contribute to the communities where shops operate.

Ben & Jerry’s donated the franchises and waived the franchise fee, provided start up management support and ongoing marketing support. In the first four years, the shop at 8th Ave and 43rd Street doubled sales and developed one of the strongest catering programs in the Ben & Jerry’s franchising system. In 2000, Common Ground received the “Operator of The Year Award.” They are the first non-profit organization to receive this award. <ref>http://nynp.biz/current/archives/nynparchives/0902-September_2002_Edition.pdf</ref>

Buildings

Tenants are closely screened. More than half the residents of both hotels [The Times Square and The Prince George] have jobs. Those who don’t are kept busy with a variety of programs, education, job training and volunteer activities. Each resident has a caseworker. If a tenant doesn’t live by the rules, there’s a quick intervention. <ref>http://www.commonground.org/?p=131</ref>

“Very rarely does a neighborhood throw its arms out and say: "Great! You’re going to bring affordable housing into our midst, ” she said. “It’s very understandable for neighbors to be concerned about any type of social housing project. They have questions about security, management, the construction project itself.

“These are questions I’d ask in my own neighborhood. We pay lots of attention to security. We have a very high bar in terms of selection of tenants. This is not institutional housing. We have a long waiting list of people who want to get into our buildings. That’s heartbreaking, but the good news is it means we can be very selective.”<ref>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E4D9133DF934A35751C1A9659C8B63&scp=1&sq=Developer Goes Home To Tackle New Project&st=nyt</ref>

The Times Square Hotel, Manhattan

Twenty years ago, the hotel was a dump. Its ceilings were caving in. Its halls were dark and dangerous. Its tenants — drug addicts, homeless families and elderly people with no place else to go — shared the premises with rats and maggots. Haggerty couldn’t let go of the idea of doing something innovative with the historic eyesore. She brainstormed with other housing activists. They applied for every grant, tax credit and low-interest loan available. They won the support of corporate and community leaders. They sold the mayor on their vision.

In 1994, the restored Times Square Hotel emerged from its scaffolding. Before long, other owners started sprucing up their buildings. Property values rose. The porn shops and strip clubs moved out.

Today, the hotel is home to 652 residents. <ref>http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/access/464782821.html?dids=464782821:464782821&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Nov 26, 2003&author=Carol Goar&pub=Toronto Star&edition=&startpage=A.28&desc=A triumph of urban ingenuity</ref>

The Prince George, Manhattan

The Prince George Hotel, a hulking 13-story eyesore at 14 East 28th Street with a tattered black canopy and crime-ridden past, was refurbished in 1998 as part of a $28 million project providing both living quarters and support programs. The Prince George was most recently the largest welfare hotel in the city.

Common Ground modeled the project after the 652-unit Times Square at 255 West 43d Street, a former hotel it renovated and runs with its on-site social services partner, the Center for Urban Community Services.

Apartments, ranging from 250 to 300 square feet, have kitchenettes as well as basic furniture and a bathroom. Residents may also do their own decorating. Common rooms include art, computer and rehearsal spaces, as well as two landscaped roof decks.

Those leasing any of the three commercial spaces, including the ballroom, must hire at least 25 percent of their employees from those living in supportive housing in the city.<ref>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E02E7DE163DF930A3575BC0A961958260&scp=3&sq="common ground" "roseanne":&st=cse</ref>

Ms. Haggerty said, “The Prince George exemplifies the caliber of housing that can be achieved when innovation, historical and environmental preservation and community integration meet.” <ref>http://www.commonground.org/?p=144</ref>

The Christopher, Chelsea

In 2000, the Frank McBurney Y.M.C.A. sold it's second building for $9 million to Common Ground Community. The building, which is entered through 206 West 24th Street, once housed the Y’s transient residences. In July 2000, the group began a $23 million transformation of the 24th Street building into 207 residences for homeless people and low-income single adults - those earning up to $32,640 a year - as well as teenagers at risk of becoming homeless. <ref>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950CE1D81631F93BA35752C1A9649C8B63&scp=1&sq="Rachelle Garbarine" +ymca&st=nyt</ref>

Renovation work was completed in two phases. By the summer of 2003, the space for the Foyer Program and 48 units of permanent supportive housing was completed. The remaining 119 supportive housing units were completed by the end of 2003.<ref>http://www.commonground.org/?p=172</ref>

The Andrews, The Bowery

In January 2002, Common Ground bought the Andrews from the family that had owned it for 50 years. The $7 million needed to acquire and renovate it came from the New York State Homeless Housing Assistance Program, the city's Department of Homeless Services, the John Merck Fund, the New York Foundation, Deutsche Bank and the Greenpoint Savings Bank.

"The principle behind this project is that there is a missing tier of housing that used to be filled by the lodging house" Ms. Haggerty said. "The loss of these cubicle hotels contributed substantially to increased homelessness."

A breakthrough for Ms. Haggerty, she said, was realizing that the typical squalor of these buildings was a management problem, not a problem of concept or design. And that the ingredients for a successful lodging house are renovation, committed on-site management and the matching of residents with needed services.

After the renovation, the 90 existing residents will have the right to stay permanently, paying $36 a week. New tenants may stay for up to 21 days, at $7 a night.<ref>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E0DC163CF937A25757C0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=4</ref>

The Schermerhorn House

In the Boerum Hill section of Brooklyn, a new Common Ground building will soon provide a home for low-income performing artists and entertainment professionals, and formerly homeless individuals living with HIV/AIDS. A collaboration with the Actors Fund, Schermerhorn House will help revitalize the neighborhood. Brooklyn Borough president Marty Markowitz says, “I wish we had a dozen more like it.”

Due for completion this summer, Schermerhorn House comprises 217 apartments, each with full kitchen and private bath. Tenants will have access to physical and mental health services and employment training, as well as support groups and workshops on health care, financial management, and career development.

Schermerhorn House will also house a 2,000-square foot state-of-the-art performance space which residents and community organizations will be able to use for rehearsals, performances, films, and exhibitions — enriching the vibrant and growing Brooklyn arts culture. <ref>http://www.commonground.org/?p=557</ref>

Cederwoods, Connecticut

Located on a beautiful 19-acre site overlooking protected wetlands, our new development in Willimantic, CT will provide much needed affordable housing, with social services provided on site. Currently in the pre-development stage, all site approvals will be completed this year. Construction will start in fall 2008, with completion slated for December 2009.

Cedarwoods will be a three-story building with 74 one-bedroom apartments, each 700 square feet. The units will be targeted to the formerly homeless and low-income workers. The building will be LEED-certified and ADA-compliant, with 10% of the units reserved for the physically handicapped.

Common areas will include an exercise room, arts and crafts room, back patio, and community gardens. On-site parking will be available for residents and visitors, and a central main entrance with 24-hour security will ensure a safe environment. <ref>http://www.commonground.org/?p=407</ref>

The Lee

On a beautiful fall day on the last Friday in September, we celebrated the groundbreaking of The Lee, our second new construction project and NY’s first LEED Silver supportive housing. (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a designation accorded by the U.S. Green Building Council.)

The residence will incorporate environmentally sustainable and energy-efficient design, construction, operation, and maintenance practices. Key green design features include a high performance condensing boiler; drought-resistant landscaping; individual temperature control; water-saving fixtures; high efficiency lighting; and a green roof. <ref>http://www.commonground.org/?p=418</ref>

References

External Links