Corporation for Supportive Housing
Background and Purpose
Established in 1991 with funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, the Corporation for Supportive Housing (the Corporation) was the first, and remains the only national, intermediary organization dedicated to building the supportive housing industry in order to end chronic long-term homelessness. Its Minnesota efforts began in 1993.
Serving as an intermediary organization, the Corporation provides project-specific technical assistance, loans, grants, and trainings to community nonprofits that develop and ensure delivery of high-quality, financially feasible supportive housing. It also focuses on public policy reform to sustain and improve the developing and operating systems of supportive housing. The Corporation has invested more than $12 million in supportive housing projects, resulting in over 2,000 units of supportive housing throughout Minnesota. Because of its successful work, Minnesota has been a leader in family supportive housing with projects in the East Metro area seen as regional and national models.
Current Request
The Corporation plans to help develop 2,000 additional units of supportive housing in Minnesota over the next two years with many of those units being developed in the East Metro. It has developed a two part plan for doing so. The Corporation will develop a data base of projects throughout the state that are in various phases of development to be known as the Pipeline. One the long-term goals of the Pipeline is to document the need for improvement, quality and sustainability of existing units to use as a means to seek additional funding to support the units. This strategy will be developed through self assessments completed by supportive housing programs and the Corporation.
The Corporation has also created the Supportive Housing Institute (Institute), which helps supportive housing programs with training and technical assistance in the creation of detailed plans for constructing new units that have a greater chance of federal and state support. The Institute will include a minimum of three out of ten organizations from the East Metro area.