Community Housing Innovations (CHI) provides housing and human services to support social and economic independence for families and individuals transitioning from homelessness. One way the nonprofit accomplishes that is by purchasing multifamily and single-family properties and transforming them into permanent, transitional, and emergency housing. CHI provides social services and case management for many of its residents under awarded county contracts.
In December 2020, CHI purchased a seven-bedroom home in Farmingville, N.Y., and converted it into transitional supportive housing. The facility offers 24-hour supervision, case management, and access to community resources, such as vocational education, employment services, and health care, to help 13 single men move toward a stable, permanent home.
Leviticus Fund provided a $450,000 permanent loan to reimburse CHI for the funds it used to purchase the property. The primary source of repayment will be a service contract awarded to CHI by the Suffolk County Department of Social Services. In structuring our loan, we created a monthly payment schedule for CHI that will be equal to the resources it will receive through the project’s county contract.
For a project like Highland Place, the long-term viability of the service contract depends on continued funding appropriations from the county for homelessness services —a fact that certainly would have deterred conventional lenders from funding the project. But our staff is knowledgeable about subsidy programs and recognizes the broad political support that programs to prevent homelessness receive throughout New York State. CHI also has a proven track record in providing supportive housing, and experience in managing diverse revenue sources that will help the organization fund its loan obligation.
This was the fifth loan that Leviticus has made to CHI since 2007. It represents another important step forward in CHI’s efforts to provide affordable, supportive housing on Long Island, which has a very limited supply of rental housing. Indeed, in Farmingville only 9% of the housing stock is rental—a clear indicator of the need for CHI’s new Highland Place project.
