Gifts that Indwell receives from individuals, businesses, faith communities, service clubs and foundations provide the initial funding needed for construction of new affordable housing projects. These gifts, which generally make up about 10% of the total project costs, are crucial to the success of each project. They demonstrate community commitment and provide the base of funding which Indwell can then leverage to request grants and financing from the federal, provincial, and regional and local governments. Broad community support is a catalyst for other funding.
There have been recent changes in the availability, criteria and application processes for many government funding programs which support the construction and operations of affordable supportive housing. This will likely change the funding mix and timelines for Indwell’s future projects. Regardless, the donations and commitment to a project demonstrated by you, Indwell’s community of care, remains vital in obtaining these grants.
Following construction, tenant rents cover about 38% of operational expenses, which includes managing our facilities and the carrying costs of financing. About 43% of Indwell’s revenue is from funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health for programs that provide a high level of supports, as well as other operating grants.
Indwell tenants have a stability rate of 89%.
Housing stability measures are most often expressed in three very simple states: unhoused, housed, and still housed. All three states are expressed in most supportive housing and housing first literature. Housing First oriented literature is most often concerned with two basic outcome transactions: moving from unhoused to housed and from housed to still housed.
The latter transaction is often expressed as a target, based on the Tsemberis 1999 Housing First randomized control trial where a cohort of people who were unhoused, became housed and at the end of 1 year (with the treatment—support—condition) 80% were still housed. 80% still housed remains the gold standard and has been demonstrated consistently through several randomized control trials.
Simply put, if you are providing opportunities for individuals with complexity (concurrent disorder, primary mental health, or other complexities) to access housing and following up with support, you should be aiming for a minimum of 80% of your original cohort still housed 12 months later.
In Indwell’s case, out of 143 people who moved in in 2020, 122 people stayed housed for more than 12 months.