The mission of Ability Housing of Northeast Florida is to provide quality, affordable, community-based housing with an emphasis on meeting the needs adults with disabilities and others challenged by homelessness. We are the only organization in our community with this mission.Ability Housing initiatives revolve around the creation of quality, affordable, rental housing. The output of our initiatives is housing units. The outcome is an improved quality of life for our residents as well as the broader community.Ability Housing provides two unique housing programs to the Jacksonville community: CASA and Villages. The focus of each program is to provide high quality, affordable housing with positive impacts on each resident and the surrounding community. The Jacksonville community has a dire lack of housing affordable to very low- and extremely low-income families. Very low-income households are defined as those earning 50% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI). Extremely low-income households earn 30%AMI or less.A severely cost burdened household is one paying more than 50% of its income on housing. In 2005 there were an estimated 30,000 severely cost-burdened households earning 50% or less of the Area Median Income in Jacksonville. The number of severely cost-burdened households among this income group is projected to increase 56% by 2030.The greatest unmet housing need is among households earning 30% or less of the Area Median Income. Due to the lack of affordable housing, homelessness has doubled in our community since 2000. In a Florida Times Union article, the executive director of the Emergency Services and Homeless Coalition stated, The biggest problem [the homeless have] is not being able to afford housing. Others are trapped in institutional care because they cannot be released without identifying an affordable place to live. Housing for People with Disabilities, The Crisis Escalates a factsheet issued by The Arc stated, Being part of the community and living as independently as possible are among the most important values and goals shared by people with disabilities, their families, and advocates. A home of one s own, either rented or owned, is the cornerstone of independence for people with disabilities. However, across the nation, people with disabilities face a crisis in the availability of decent, safe, affordable, and accessible housing. Providing affordable housing linked with community supports is a national best practice, it is called supportive housing. While not all of Ability Housing?s housing serves families requiring supports, our emphasis on special needs households necessitates collaboration between Ability Housing and a myriad of supportive service providers in our community. To date Ability Housing has partnered with a dozen or more service providers to ensure the success of our residents with special needs.Supportive housing is efficient. Outcomes are better when services are provided in the community, in an affordable home. According to Florida?s Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) personal outcomes are 50% better when services are provided in the community rather than in a facility setting. Supportive housing is cost-effective. Community-based services are less expensive than facility-based services and institutionalization. According to APD, providing services in the community costs $20,000-$70,000 less per person, per year.There are additional peripheral costs to the criminal justice and healthcare systems when supportive housing is not provided. A 2004 study of homelessness in Duval County, where Ability Housing is located, shows in one year the community spent $35,000,000 on homeless individuals - only to return those served to homelessness.

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