What Makes Alliance Housing Unique?
Alliance Housing has always been focused on poor and homeless people. It got started in response to the wish of poor and homeless singles to buy housing, fix it up, and live in it at a very low rent. Alliance Housing’s first duplex was run cooperatively and charged a monthly rent of less than $100 a month. Unfortunately, this grass roots model didn’t work as planned. Some residents lorded it over their fellows; rent disappeared; drugs and alcohol were a continual problem.
In time Alliance Housing learned how to manage its target population, making a go of scattered site duplexes. It stayed true to is mission of only serving poor and homeless people IF they were ready to pay rent and respect their neighbors. Knowledge of this target population led Alliance Housing to push for sober supportive housing since substance use was the big reason so many were on the streets. Now this knowledge is pushing Alliance Housing to build workforce housing since in the current economy so many poor and homeless people need a lower rent and easy access to public transportation.