Compound Impact Refugee Housing
As you probably already know, the recent exit from Afghanistan has forced thousands of refugees to flee the country. In Philadelphia alone, we could be expecting as many as 10,000 people arriving in the coming weeks.
One of the major barriers refugees face when arriving to the US is finding safe, stable housing. Traditionally, most landlords require some basic information like a credit check, rental history, and income verification. However, refugee families are not able to provide any of this information. Therefore, landlords are often unwilling to rent to refugee families.
That is where we step in. At Compound Impact, we purchase distressed properties in NE Philadelphia for well under market price. Afterwards, we have a team of contractors refurbish the house to rentable condition. Once the house is ready for a family, we look to the three major refugee resettlement organizations (Bethany, NSC, and HAIS) to match a family to our home.
The house will be rented exclusively to refugee families on an ongoing basis. If a family chooses to leave for any reason, a new refugee family will be matched.
We also partner with local churches to furnish our homes with basic house essentials for the families, who often arrive without any possessions whatsoever.
On top of that, each of our homes is completely financially sustainable. Families typically receive several months of government support and our fantastic resettlement agencies work to quickly find employment. After the initial resettlement period, most families are completely financially self-sufficient.
In fact, our homes actually generate a growing profit over time. Every single penny of profit generated from our homes is used to provide clean water to communities abroad without access to clean water. To do so, we partner with NeverThirst, one of the most efficient and effective nonprofit organizations working in the clean water space.
We already have 1 home being refurbished currently and a family will be moving in on October 1, 2021. As the need for refugee housing has risen dramatically over the last few weeks, we want to work towards acquiring our second property as soon as possible. It costs $35,000-$40,000 to purchase and refurbish one house big enough to take in a large refugee family. Will you help us get our next home launched?
