Nonprofit that houses the homeless cancels Pensacola expansion due to landlord disinterest
A nonprofit that planned to bring a long-awaited program to find housing for people facing homelessness is pulling back on its plans to launch in Pensacola.
Officials with the Lotus Campaign told the City Council on Thursday they would not be launching their program in Pensacola.
The Lotus Campaign is a North Carolina-based nonprofit that partners with landlords and sponsors people facing homelessness with housing by paying the first month of rent and making other financial guarantees to overcome other hurdles that may prevent someone from being able to sign a lease.
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The organization also partners with other nonprofits to provide case management and ensure the individual is able to pay their rent.
Lotus Campaign founder Beth Silverman told the council after months of due diligence in Pensacola and meeting with 27 property management companies, they could not find enough landlords willing to participate in the program.
"We do not feel confident that we're going to be able to find more than a few partners, and we don't think this is going to be an effective leverage of public funding to fund a landlord participation program," Silverman said.
Silverman said they had two property management companies sign on to the program that, at best, would only be able to provide between five and 10 units. She said she didn't believe that such a small-scale project should tie up city funding that has a "ticking clock" tied to it.
"I just can't in good conscience use public funding for that," Silverman said.
The funding for the program came out of the city's share of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds that carry a deadline to be spent by 2024.
Pensacola had approved $425,000 for the program, and so far, about $40,209 has been spent toward the program, with $30,296 on due diligence and the rest on travel by Lotus employees to Pensacola from North Carolina.
Silverman said in Charlotte, North Carolina, Lotus works with 28 residential communities and has housed 538 people.
The decision adds about $384,000 to an already unallocated $800,000 in city ARPA funding set aside to address homelessness that must be spent by the end of 2024.
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Silverman added that another complexity in Pensacola is the lack of rental housing and apartments.
Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson told the council the city might use the funds as a local match for other affordable housing programs the city is pursuing. No formal action on reallocating the funding was taken Monday night.
"You're now another person from outside the area who's looked at our market and said, 'Hey, your biggest problem right now is you don't have enough, you don't have enough rental product on the ground, to help the people,'" Robinson said. "That is a clear message that I think is important for us at this time, that we need more product in the rental market."
Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Lotus Campaign cancels plans to expand rental assistance in Pensacola
