DRC & Partners Take Honors for Groundbreaking Housing Partnership
FORT WORTH, Texas (July 25, 2017) – The Palm Tree Apartments, a privately developed supportive housing community for people once homeless, won an Award of Excellence from the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) at its summer conference last week in Indianapolis.
The Palm Tree Apartments won in the Program Innovation: Affordable Housing category for projects and programs that produce affordable housing through innovation or public/private partnerships. NAHRO Award of Excellence winners are chosen on a regional level and are eligible to compete for national honors later in the year. (UPDATE: the Palm Tree Apartments project has since earned its partners a NAHRO Award of Excellence.)
The 24-unit Palm Tree Apartments complex, originally built in 1955, was purchased by the Paulos Foundation in late 2015. The complex was then renovated and accepted its first residents in May 2016.
Today the Palm Tree Apartments provide permanent supportive housing for people escaping homelessness, 80% of whom had lived unsheltered in the surrounding Six Points Urban Village.
Permanent supportive housing (PSH) is a combination of affordable housing and supportive services designed to help individuals or families experiencing homelessness rebuild their lives on the foundation of housing.
As the housing placement and site-based case services partner for the Palm Tree Apartments, the DRC provides onsite case management geared toward helping residents maintain their housing. Services include referrals for medical and mental health evaluations, individualized case management plans, employment assistance, budgeting, and crisis intervention. Fort Worth Housing Solutions provides project-based vouchers that keep rent affordable for tenants.
Residents of the community had been homeless an average of nine years. Sixty percent are age 50 or older, and 75% have a least one chronic illness.
DRC Executive Director Bruce Frankel, Paulos Foundation President Flora Brewer and Fort Worth Housing Solutions Vice President Selarstean Mitchell were invited to present a report on the project at the summer conference, at which awards were presented. Fort Worth Housing Solutions won an additional five awards at the event.
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The DRC, formerly Day Resource Center for the Homeless, provides respectful, responsible and effective community-based solutions to help individuals and families emerge from homelessness as productive, healthy people.
To learn more about DRC solutions to homelessness that emphasize permanent housing, not just temporary shelter, the public can visit www.DRC-Solutions.org or follow the DRC on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.