About Homes for the Rest of Us 
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Homes for the Rest of Us is in the process of forming as a public charity, either as a stand-alone organization incorporating as a non-profit 501(c)(3), or under another non-profit, as a subordinate (IRS) Section 905 organization to an existing 501(c)(3) based in California. 

Its Board of Directors will be composed of community stakeholders, such as government employees, financial and legal professionals and community groups, especially those representing the same clientele we propose to represent, IE: the lower-income resident. 

We are currently in a fund-raising phase for its start-up operations expenses. Our goal is to attain the status of a CHDO (Community Housing Development Organization), a HUD designation. This will allow us to work with HOME funds and other set asides for low-income housing development. 

Its Mission is to develop/build "Starter Homes" for lower income individuals, including the working poor and those  workers in the following industries and jobs: farming, retail, charities, government, hospitality (hotels & restaurants), and emergency services. Most especially, we're interested in creating this opportunity for those who would have the most positive impact on the local community, through their purchase and ownership. 

WHY DO THIS FOR OTHERS?

The reason we are doing this is because home ownership is the best, fastest and most direct way for most families or individuals to create a "nest egg" or build equity for the safety of their financial future. By helping all levels (from low-income to middle-high income) in Santa Barbara County to accomplish home ownership, we feel we are doing a service to the overall current and future economy of this County. As well, we're looking into a way to reserve one home in every development we create, for youth and their foster parents, who have been remanded to County Child Welfare Services.

We will also try to serve others by creating homeownership opportunities in group home style co-operatives for those whose income may be a source of mortgage payment, yet they may not have funds for down payments, or credit worthiness because they have a lack of sufficient income, such as retired seniors, veterans and disabled. (An opportunity like this might be for disabled persons). 

To accomplish this mission, HRU will network with other agencies in Santa Barbara which provide services to  lower income individuals. Using qualifications already made for other social agencies' services, HRU will work to provide qualified individuals the opportunity to purchase a home.

Our organization will work to buy land inside and out of the existing communities, where we can develop small or large parcels into single-family homes and communities. Some of these will start soon, depending upon agreements we can create with developers and others will develop in the future. 

We offer to partner with builders, developers, general contractors and factory-built home manufacturers. Our goal is to use factory built (pre-fabricated; not mobile) homes; built off-site and transported to the lot to be developed. 

We offer to partner with land owners prior to erection of the homes, and in return for the opportunity to improve the value of their land, we will offer them a 25% share in the profits (difference between the cost of improving and the eventual cash sales price of the homes).

  • The reason we are forming this organization as a public charity/non-profit is because we want the results of this work to be vested in the hands of the community, not private enterprise. 
  • Although one of our goals is to own a percentage interest in a private for-profit LLC which has plans to develop homes for persons who are other than our clientele. 
  • The reason for owning that interest is so that we can have an income stream to this organization through that ownership. The income will be used to pay salaries, buy land & subsidize home building for following developments.
  • The founder is creating an organization that doesn't end with any future disassociation thereby. 

HRU will work most-closely with two particular agencies, one of which is a local advocate for affordable housing (Prospective Homeowners Association-PHA) and in a different for-profit it will own a investment/share (Competitively Priced Residences-CPR), which is an affordable housing development company, also known as a "social enterprise" (a business entity operated out of a non-profit, with the "profits" returning to the non-profit; sometimes in partner with other for-profits). 

Utilizing the developer services of Competitively Priced Residences, HRU will foster the construction of low-cost homes, mostly through the facilitation and use of pre-fabricated, or factory-built products. 

HRU will also see an income from the sales of homes to others which come from the buildings that CPR creates, through a percentage ownership in that LLC.

HRU will also work closely with another agency named Green Business Economic Development Co., which is forming as a local economic development association. The purpose for working in alliance with this organization is to help provide better-paying positions to low income persons who can be trained to perform work offered by that company. This in turn strengthens their credit and income abilities. 

HRU will work with companies that can apply as many green building techniques to the homes we construct. (Some of these companies may be green manufacturers, others will be general contractors).

HRU will also work closely with the County of Santa Barbara and the federal department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), as it is able, to utilize set-asides and funds for the development of affordable housing for those of lower income.

Clients of HRU will qualify for homes based upon their working incomes or subsidies and credit worthiness. Clients of HRU will also qualify based on their qualifications made by other social service agencies, so that there is not a lengthy interview process. HRU will work to educate these prospective homeowners on becoming credit worthy and reducing their debts, as well as teaching them how to purchase and keep a home. 

HRU will also establish co-operative management organizations to manage home owner-occupied premises.