Project Welcome Home

In 2015, Reinvestment Fund provided financing for California’s first Pay for Success (PFS) project. Project Welcome Home in Santa Clara, CA, will provide community-based clinical services and permanent supportive housing for up to 200 chronically homeless individuals. The program brings together the County of Santa Clara, California and Abode Services, a national leader in innovative housing services for homeless persons.

Reinvestment Fund is a senior lender for this $6.9 million project that will reduce homelessness and the public cost of caring for chronically homeless individuals. The chronically homeless often experience significant barriers to housing due to serious medical and behavioral health issues, financial instability, and lack of support networks. Extended periods of housing instability can result in poor health and social outcomes that lead to tremendous suffering and higher costs for the county in the form of emergency services and incarceration.

According to a recent study, Home Not Found: The Cost of Homelessness in Silicon Valley, Santa Clara County spent an average $83,000 annually on persistently homeless individuals across all justice system, health care, social service, nonprofit, and housing agencies. The program’s goal is for more than 80% of participants to achieve one year or more of continuous, stable housing.

In partnership with the County’s Office of Supportive Housing and Behavioral Health Services Department, Abode will provide chronically homeless individuals with access to community-based clinical services and permanent supportive housing using evidence-based Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and a Housing First approach. These services are designed to end the participants’ homelessness, increase income, and provide increased access to ongoing physical and behavioral health services.

This is Reinvestment Fund’s second PFS financing, and the organization brings decades of experience financing affordable housing and community services, as well as strong expertise in housing policy issues and analyzing inequities related to low-income and vulnerable populations.

Additional funds for this project come from The Sobrato Family Foundation, the California Endowment, The Health Trust, Corporation for Supportive Housing, The James Irvine Foundation, and Google.org. Laura and John Arnold Foundation will provide key support for the project’s evaluation.