DRAKE HOUSE, INC

The Drake House offers programs and services that transform the lives of individuals by helping them create lasting pathways to economic self-sufficiency. The families in the program are local to the North Metro Atlanta/ North Fulton County Georgia area. We own two 16-unit apartment complexes and an activity center in Roswell. Our facilities are central to our service district and available by public transportation. Through community support, we are able to provide a private apartment, career services, financial budgeting and planning, Children and Teen Programming, including an After-School Program, weekly Life Skills classes, private family service meetings, as well as a food pantry, laundry facilities, computer lab, and library. With an average stay of 138 days in our crisis-housing program with provided case coaching services to assess and identify all barriers to housing stability. The Drake House works with families to create more permanent housing solutions at the end of the 180-day program, including transitional housing and other subsidized housing options.

The Drake House staff is tenured and professional regarding the services provided to families and community outreach efforts, as well as the overall day-to-day operation of the organization. Vetted, trained volunteers and mentors support the organization by working one-on-one with each family member. The Drake House's commitment to addressing the families' homelessness circumstance with a whole person, two-generation approach directly correlates to the long-term success of our program. The children are allowed to remain in their original schools, which offers the least disruption to the children, while moms work to identify more reliable income to build a nest egg for rental and utility deposits. Our Board of Directors and Advisory Council provide diverse leadership and vision to The Drake House, with long-term capital and program strategic plans.

Since our inception in 2004, we have built a foundation of strong leadership and diverse funding sources. We have capitalized on these resources to increase capacity with the investment in 16 additional apartments in early 2017. We continue to meet the needs of our community as homelessness transforms in our community. We expanded our physical space in 2015 for a teen center, expanded classroom space, and an expanded food pantry. We have an active alumni program. The level of awareness that we have created in our community has grown our revenue and in-kind support to sustain our programs. We added to our revenue stream with our social enterprise, The Drake Closets. They offer gently used women's clothing and accessories to our moms for job interviews and work attire and are also open to the public for shopping, volunteering and inventory donation support. Our community embraces our work as we are the only crisis housing center that serves our geographic region by offering private apartments to each family as they struggle to regain their financial stability. Through collaboration in a local continuum of care, coupled with support from the faith, corporate and civic community, we are able to serve 45-50 families with 80-100 children each year. Our goal is to keep these families in our community by continued advocacy for additional affordable housing and increased public transportation routes.

In our 15 years, we have been able to build a strong and proven program to serve families. Our biggest challenge is to help our families identify local affordable housing. Many of our families had been spending 50% - 60% of their income on housing, which forces them back into the cycle of homelessness. In early 2017, the Board of Directors approved the purchase of The Drake Village of 16 apartment units to address this need.

We completed a successful two-year capital campaign in 2018. In total, we raised $1.6M to pay the balance of the mortgage and complete the remaining renovations on The Drake Village Apartments. The Drake Village offers an affordable housing solution for up to 24 months to our Drake House graduates.

Our goal by creating The Drake House was to serve local families and keep them in our community. We continue to advocate at the municipal, county and state levels to bring awareness to this cause. We also advocate for increased public transportation routes and more affordable housing locally.