AAOC Partners With United to End Homelessness

The Apartment Association of Orange County has partnered with United to End Homelessness. The partnership has established Welcome Home OC, which will work together to look for solutions to the growing homeless population in Orange County. Through the program, apartment owners will rent housing to formerly homeless individuals and families holding vouchers and receiving supportive services. Those supportive services include case management, budgeting, problem-solving, tenant education and more.

“Almost two years ago, Orange County United Way approached the Apartment Association of Orange County about participating in a new initiative that would bring together Orange County’s top business, philanthropic, governmental, faith-based and non-profit leaders, to bolster the creation of permanent supportive housing and help put an end to the homelessness crisis in our own back yard,” David Cordero, executive director of the Apartment Association of Orange County, tells GlobeSt.com. “A major part of this initiative would involve placing individuals and families experiencing homelessness, with a housing voucher in hands, into market rate apartments and providing them with wrap around support services, to assist them in successfully transitioning from living in a homeless shelter or on the streets, to a safe, secure residence where they could begin getting their lives back on track. This effort is what would eventually become the Welcome Home OC program.”

AAOC is paying a critical role in the Welcome Home OC program, both in the development and implementation. “It could provide multifamily industry expertise and insight regarding the mechanics of the program, including its use of Section 8 federal housing vouchers, potential legal and logistical obstacles, questions and concerns that apartment owners and operators might have about the program which could impact their participation, incentives that would make the program appealing and marketable,” Cordero says.

The apartment association also has the industry connections to scale the program. “It had the relationships, resources and countywide reach to introduce and promote the program to a wide range of apartment owners and operators, from independent mom-and-pop owners and operators with a handful of units to the large, corporate-owned and operated management companies with thousands of units,” says Cordero.

The two organizations have been working together for more than a year, but only recently formalized the partnership and introduced the program to association membership. “AAOC then held a member education and engagement workshop the following week for members who were interested in finding out more about Welcome Home OC and all that is involved when they sign up as a housing provider partner,” says Cordero. “Workshops will now be held on a quarterly basis, along with other ongoing promotional and educational activities to ensure that the program remains in the consciousness of all AAOC members.”