Initiative for Affordable Housing, Inc.

Help up, help the community!

On any given day, over 4,000 Georgia residents face homelessness. Of these, nearly 40%

are families with school-aged children. For over 30 years, Initiative has helped struggling

families in metro Atlanta address the root causes of homelessness and pave the way for a

brighter future. Our three programs—social services, housing, and employment—provide

comprehensive solutions for families to build the foundation for permanent self-sufficiency. With

a dedicated team of professionals, our clients develop the skills and confidence to manage their

lives and households and to ensure that their children thrive.

Programs

Homeless Services

Initiative provides immediate housing, financial assistance, and long-term professional social

services for homeless women with children

Affordable Housing

Initiative owns and operates 355 units of safe, permanent affordable housing for low-income

families and seniors in DeKalb County and the City of Atlanta

re:loom—weaving a better life

At the re:loom weavehouse, Initiative employs and trains individuals who have struggled to

maintain jobs. re:loom employees learn to weave donated textiles into new products for retail

sales while gaining essential employability skills, including accountability, teamwork, and task

management.

Program History

Initiative was founded in 1990 by two Atlanta-area churches in response to the urgent needs of

homeless women and children in the community. Using time-tested social work strategies,

Initiative developed a long-term, comprehensive program to address the causes of recurrent

homelessness for women with children. These women face the challenges of generational

poverty, education and job training gaps, and family instability. From its founding, Initiative

committed to supporting vulnerable families for the long haul, through the many difficulties of

achieving financial independence.

1990: With one single-family home and one homeless family, Initiative was founded by two local

Presbyterian churches.

1990-1996: Funded by private donations from individuals, churches, and foundations, Initiative

secured housing resources and developed a case management model to help homeless

mothers achieve independence.

1996: Initiative purchased and rehabilitated its first multifamily housing complex, Prince

Avondale Apartments in Avondale Estates.

1997: Initiative first received recurring grant funds from HUD to increase the scale of its

operations and staff and began to purchase single-family homes from the foreclosure market to

serve its clients.

2002-2004: Initiative acquired and rehabilitated two additional properties—Sol Luna Park

Apartments in DeKalb County and Kirkwood Gardens Apartments in the City of Atlanta—and

used tax credit funding to build an 84-unit low-income senior housing property, Magnolia Circle

Apartments.

2017: Initiative’s grant agreement with HUD concluded, and Initiative began to transition to

philanthropic resources alone, temporarily reducing its service capacity and housing unit

inventory while developing new fundraising strategies.

2019: Initiative’s Board of Directors adopted a new comprehensive three-year strategic plan to

identify funding sources, increase service capacity, and further develop Initiative’s social

services, housing, and employment programs.

For more information about who we are and who we serve, please visit, https://www.gagives.org/organization/Initiative-For-Affordable-Housing-Dekalb