New years often come with new resolutions. While these have rarely worked for me in my personal life (cue image of meditation pillow gathering dust next to hidden stash of chocolate), setting intentional goals is critical to an organizations ability to move forward. You may recall that one year ago Fair Tide adopted a five year strategic growth plan that outlined a thoughtful path for expansion. Three overarching long-term goals of that plan include:
- Being a key player in bringing more affordable housing to the region for extremely low income individuals,
- Playing an integral role in moving people from homeless shelters into permanent housing, and
- Providing long-term case management for 40 formerly homeless households.
Year one of Fair Tide’s plan brought progress on all fronts. We signed a memorandum of understanding with Community Housing of Maine (CHOM), a non-profit affordable housing developer, and have been working closely with their staff to find a viable site for development. As part of that process, I, along with CHOM’s Development Officer, participated in the town of Kittery’s Housing Charrette that explored ideas for affordable housing on a parcel of town owned land in the Foreside. I also joined the town’s new affordable housing committee in early 2018. Our work is focused on decreasing barriers to affordable housing in Kittery, including altering the restrictive accessory dwelling unit ordinance and re-thinking zoning. As it turns out, affordable housing development is a long and slow process, but I’m happy about the progress made so far and optimistic about the prospects for this year!
Where more concrete advancements were made is in finding existing rental housing for folks experiencing homelessness. We moved eight households into permanent housing in 2018. While that may not sound like a particularly large number, the addition of those households to Fair Tide’s caseload resulted in a 160% increase in one year! Through building strong partnerships with the two closest emergency shelters; Cross Roads House in Portsmouth, NH and York County Shelter Programs in Alfred, ME, five of the eight households were moved directly from homeless shelters and into a stable home. Kerry, Fair Tide’s case manager provides ongoing support to all our households to assure long-term success. This aspect of our plan is reliant upon a close relationship with landlords and property managers and we continue to work with them to open up even more rental units to people who are homeless.
This past year was also spent building Fair Tide’s Board of Directors into a powerhouse team of committed and talented individuals with experience relevant to moving our growth plan forward. While we think it’s important to celebrate the successes, we are by no means resting on our laurels. 2019 brings new benchmarks that we are committed to achieving. We can’t wait to continue to share our progress with you as we further our mission of reducing homelessness in the Seacoast. Who knows, maybe continued success in reaching Fair Tide’s goals will motivate me to dust off that meditation pillow and throw away the chocolates ;).
Happy New Year from all of us at Fair Tide!