CHESTNUT HOUSING

My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.

Isaiah 32:18

In This Issue

Thank You...
Announcing Our Executive Director
$200,000 Awarded for Milburn Apartments
What We're Reading

Thank You...

... To the volunteers who came out to do some dirty clean-up at Milburn Apartments the last couple weeks. We had over 25 volunteers across four days, and filled three large dumpsters with debris and damaged furniture from the two properties. We couldn't do this work without volunteers like you! Thank you!

Announcing Our Executive Director

The Chestnut Housing board is delighted to welcome Chad Martin as our first, part-time Executive Director. Chad has worked as a pastor, a housing advocate, a carpenter, and in a variety of nonprofit leadership roles. He ably put all that experience to work in 2022 when he was hired as a consultant to Chestnut Housing.

Chad has already moved our organization forward in countless ways. Thanks to Chad’s efforts, we completed a five-year strategic plan, were awarded $1.1 million in federal funding, deepened our relationships

with many congregations, businesses and non-profits, and engaged more effectively with our residents.

We’re excited to see what we can all accomplish together in 2023. Please join us in welcoming Chad to Chestnut Housing!

Sue Waterfield

Chair, Board of Directors

$200,000 Awarded for Milburn Apartments

We are thrilled to share that Chestnut Housing has been awarded a grant of $200,000 from the S. Dale High Foundation toward capital expenses for the redevelopment of Milburn Apartments.

"We are pleased to continue our support of Chestnut Housing in helping to meet the acute housing need in Lancaster. They have been focused and efficient, even utilizing volunteer labor to help moderate costs," stated Dale High, Chair of the High Foundation board.

The grant represents 10% of the total project budget, and brings us another step closer to securing the funding needed to create affordable homes for eight additional households in the City of Lancaster. We are grateful and honored to partner with the High

Foundation!

Next Steps

Stay tuned for more news as we work on some exciting next steps.

Finalizing a general contractor partnership
Fundraising to close $500,000 gap
Gathering neighborhood input

What We're Reading

Homelessness Is A Housing Problem, by Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern (2022)

The title says it all pretty clearly -- this book takes a deep dive into homelessness data across America's major cities to demonstrate that the driving factor causing widespread homelessness is rapidly escalating housing costs.

While its primary subject is major metro areas, and especially coastal cities like L.A., San Francisco, Boston, and New York, it shows what we know to be true here in Lancaster too -- we simply need more housing for households at every income level in order to avert significant homelessness.

Homelessness Is A Housing Problem reviews commonly assumed factors like substance abuse, mental illness, and even poverty rates. And the authors point out that city-level statistics do not show significant connections between these factors and rates of homelessness. Instead, rising housing costs and housing scarcity are much more closely linked to homelessness.

This book is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to understand more deeply why it is so important for Chestnut Housing to invest in creating more housing in our community in the coming years.

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Looking for more resources on affordable housing? Or do you have a book to recommend to our team at Chestnut Housing?

If so, reach out to Chad Martin: [email protected].