Quest Community Development Organization Inc

Quest is a comprehensive community development corporation that primarily serves Atlanta’s Westside, with an emphasis on the Vine City and English Avenue neighborhoods. Quest has three main focus areas – \n\n1) developing and managing socially-responsible housing for very low income residents; \n\n2) ensuring that residents have direct access to a variety of services such as individualized case management, behavioral health, and workforce development; and\n\n3) providing solutions that reduce barriers to financial equity \n\nA community development corporation (CDC) typically serves economically-challenged communities and choose to be involved in one or more of a variety of activities including affordable housing development, economic development, education, community organizing, and other activities that support the growth of the community. As a comprehensive CDC, Quest recognizes that the expansion of low income housing, by itself, is insufficient in building communities that change lives. Instead, Quest is intentional about offering services in all of its developments. However, Quest makes available services and programs to all community residents.\n\nThrough collaboration, Quest seeks to transform the lives of all community residents. As advocates for the clients we serve, Quest supports the concept that decent housing is a right. We must continue to demand for housing reform at all levels, including encouraging the philanthropic community to step up, get local communities more involved, and get large businesses to understand the benefits of investing in housing to create a stronger workforce. \n\nThe term, "affordable housing" implies you must be able to afford a home in order to live in one. Instead, Quest refers to what we do as, "socially equitable housing" which is subsidized by the government (federal, state, local), philanthropy, corporations, non-profits, land trusts, faith-based institutions, or a combination thereof for the purposes of promoting equity and to decrease generational poverty. \nHousing before health care. Housing before jobs. Housing before education. Everyone should have an opportunity to create a life for themselves from a strong foundation -- a safe and secure home. That's what makes our approach "socially equitable."

The strategies for achieving the organization's goals include an aggressive approach to significantly expand the stock of affordable housing for homeless and very low income residents of Atlanta's Westside.\n\nGoals\n1. Increase the production of affordable rental housing in Atlanta’s Westside neighborhoods.\n2. Increase housing stability for current Westside residents.\n3. Work with community partners to increase the number of residents participating in local workforce development programs by 20% in the next 3 years.\n4. Work with community partners to increase access to health services by expanding services within the community.\n5. Use leverage as a community development corporation to pursue expansion of economic development opportunities for Westside residents.\n\nChallenges\n- Gentrification has begun and area residents are concerned they will be displaced. Residents are also concerned about preserving the historical legacy of the community. \n- English Avenue and Vine City contain one of the highest concentrations of abandoned or blighted properties in the metro Atlanta area. Nearly 43% of all housing units are vacant and abandoned, which equates to 400 - 500 properties in a 1000-acre footprint.\n- If nothing is done to preserve affordable housing, existing residents may be unable to remain in their community in the next few years. Only a 15% home ownership rate jeopardizes inertia for organizing around the rights and needs of home owners.\n- Residents repeatedly identified transportation as an access barrier to services and jobs.\n- Residents have significant employment challenges. There are few job prospects within the community.\n\nStrategies\nThe aforementioned goals will be accomplished by the following strategies:\n• Improve the quality and mix of available housing stock for low income and very low income residents\n• Identify three to five key short term development opportunities as priority projects that preserve affordability\n• Integrate job creation opportunities into redevelopment scenarios\n• Promote public/private partnership opportunities among developers and interested groups\n• Complete the development of a centralized resource center that could provide access to a comprehensive array of human services needed by residents, to include workforce development and health.

Since 2001, Quest has developed affordable housing and other socially responsible properties, and has delivered community-based services to stimulate change in the communities we are honored to serve. Quest seeks to continue serving as a dedicated resource and change agent for vulnerable populations through sustainable community development activities. More recently, we have increased our human resources capacity in both our Property Management and Property Development divisions to ensure we have the talent on board to take the Quest to the next level. \n\nQuest is on target to becoming the largest non-profit, community development organization in Georgia that delivers quality affordable housing and a comprehensive array of social services. With all of the major projects in the pipeline, Quest is taking things to another level, and we will have solidified our footprint in Atlanta. The next horizon is to serve as an advocate for affordable housing for very low income persons in Georgia and throughout the southeast, and we look forward to the challenges and opportunities this task affords.

Quest owns and/or manages over 200 housing units, 11 single family homes, and 4 commercial properties. As a nonprofit developer, Quest plans to add 452 additional affordable housing units on Atlanta’s Westside over the next three years totaling $87 million. In addition, Quest currently manages the personal finances of well over 500 clients throughout the state of Georgia for whom Social Security has deemed them unable to manage their own finances. Our accomplishments, to date, are summarized below:\n\n• Quest is the largest owner/manager of supportive housing in Atlanta\n• 90% of Quest residents do not return to homelessness\n• Quest is Atlanta’s largest nonprofit developer of housing for persons below 30% AMI (average median income)\n• Quest recently completed a $5 million capital campaign to build a 26,000 sf Quest Nonprofit Center for Change\n• Quest plans to invest $87 million in affordable housing for very low income individuals and families over the next three years\n• Quest has provided comprehensive supportive services to approximately 8,000 persons in its nearly 20 years of existence\n• Based on federal guidelines that measure quality in supportive housing, Quest scores among the best providers in metropolitan Atlanta \n\nWhat's next? In the next three years, Quest plans to develop over 500 additional affordable housing units.