FAIRFAX, VA–In December of 2012, Christopher Finlay, managing principal at Middleburg Real Estate Partners picked up a copy of Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine. One article later the seeds of a nonprofit, Shelters to Shutters, were planted.

The article looked at homelessness in Asheville, NC, and how many of the profiled people really wanted to work and in fact had been in the workforce prior to becoming homeless, says Andy Helmer, CEO of the Fairfax, Va.-based organization. “It was only due to bad luck that they found themselves homeless,” Helmer tells GlobeSt.com.

Finlay started thinking about the employment problems in his own industry: namely that churn for apartment management is approaching 50%. It is not unusual for people to leave for a slightly higher wage despite — and this was key to the new road on which Finlay's thoughts were traveling — the discount on rent the live-in employees received.

A Labor Supply Demand Mismatch

The apartment management industry was experiencing explosive growth and had a problem finding qualified individuals. There were many qualified individuals — people with maintenance or plumbing or electrical skills — among the homelessness, Finlay knew from his research. And so Shelters to Shutters was formed with the goal of helping to place these individuals with apartment companies.

To be sure there were significant challenges the nonprofit had to surmount. For starters, there was the question of how exactly Shelters to Shutters would find these individuals. Then, how would it convince apartment companies to hire them, especially given the many misconceptions there are about homelessness.

“The truth is 70% of people who experience homelessness have been in the workplace before,” says Helmer.

And finally, how would the group make sure it was not all for naught, with the individual falling back into homelessness should he or she hit another bad patch.

Shelters to Shutters came up with a formula that answered these questions.

The project launched in mid-2014, with Finlay piloting it in some of his own properties. It then rolled out broadly in mid-2015.

Last year the group placed 88 people. “We place about five to eight individuals a month and oftentimes they have a family so that means even more people off the streets,” Helmer says. So far the program's churn, or drop out rate, is 8%, for a 92% success rate.

How It Works

In every new city the program enters — and so far it has entered 18 metro areas — the group seeks out local social service organizations to participate. These organizations tend to be veterans organizations, organizations that help victims of domestic violence or workforce training non-profits.

Shelters to Shutters then provides the organizations with entry-level job descriptions of positions that need to be filled at a local apartment community. The organization refers people they think could fit the requirements and Shelter to Shutters does background screening and checks and makes sure their skills are up to the job required.

“It usually takes some time for the non profit to understand what we are looking for — they tend to get excited about the opportunity to provide both housing and employment and will inundate us with candidates,” Helmer says.

“Unfortunately a lot of these people are not what we are looking for — we need someone who has existing skills. Any kind of maintenance or experience with renovations. Or retail experience for leasing.

“It's like finding the right person for any other position.”

Once vetted, apartment management companies interviews these individuals and if they are hired it is as an at will employee paid at a competitive wage.

In return for the placement the employer provides a substantial discount in rent for the first 12 months of the job. During that time Shelters to Shutters provides case management support, requires the participants to enroll in a financial literacy course and requires them to also take some kind of continuing education. This could be, for example, a pool certification for a maintenance person.

“Hopefully at the end of the 12 months that person has become eligible for a promotion or an hourly wage increase,” Helmer says. “Our goal is to get them to financial self-sufficiency so that when the rent does go back to the standard discount they have the tools to sustain that rent increase.”

“If the partner decides not to hire the applicant that is fine but we do ask for feedback so we can make sure our screening process is not deficient. We want to see if there are markers we should have picked up,” Helmer says.

“After 12 months if they have hit all milestones we consider them graduated. We impress on them that they should pay it forward and in a lot of cases individuals have begun mentoring other participants that have entered the program,” he says.

AvalonBay, Equity Residential Sign On

Shelters to Shutters has about 23 industry partners — including such industry giants as AvalonBay Communities and Equity Residential — and a little more than 80 social service nonprofits. It is in a number of second tier and first tier cities including the Washington DC area and Baltimore; Durham, Raleigh, Charlotte, NC; Jacksonville, FL; Nashville, TN; Seattle; and Austin, Texas. “We are just now moving into the Atlanta, GA area,” Helmer says.

New York City is not on the list — the organization has been unable to crack that nut of the city's high cost of living, he says.

But it did crack the nut of its original challenges — including convincing apartment management companies and owners to participate in the program.

“We spend a lot of time educating the apartment owners; some still have misconceptions about the homeless,” Helmer says. Ultimately “we are finding high quality candidates in a pool that these companies never would have thought to look,” — which speaks volumes in itself.

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How One Nonprofit Is Helping To Solve Multifamily's Employment Problem

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