Housing Plus Inc

Homelessness and Housing--The Motel to Home Program. Homelessness is often defined differently by different entities. For example, in some cases, organizations such as HUD, the primary federal housing funding agency, does not consider families in extended stay motels to be "technically" homeless. School systems however do consider families and their school aged children living in extended stay motels to be homeless and they provide specific transportation and related resources for them to attend their local schools. That group of families is the target of our Motel to Home program funded by the United Way of Greater Atlanta. During the 2024 fiscal year Housing Plus performed outreach to local schools and extended stay motels and assisted 84 families in transitioning from extended stay motels into permanent housing (an apartment or rental home). There are many positives that come from these transitions including: decreased stress and an improved sense of well being for families and a more stable home environment has been proven to have a significant positive impact on the educational performance of children.

Financial Education--Financial Achievement Clubs (FACs). During the COVID era, Housing Plus participated in multiple COVID emergency rental assistance (ERA) programs. As part of that experience we saw many families returning for assistance as part of recurring cycle. The desire to help families break that cycle encouraged Housing Plus to incorporate financial education in our programming. We began this effort in 2023 and have continued to deliver financial education throughout 2024, and now have several financial clubs scheduled into 2025. The unique part of the FACs is a savings match component that matches what a participant saves during the program up to a maximum of $500. During fiscal year 2024 we had 52 individuals to complete the full six month curriculum of our Financial Achievement Clubs.