Causes: Homeless & Housing, Housing Support

Mission: To develop and support thriving, stable communitites in neighborhoods with a substantial jewish population. Chai accomplishes its mission by developing and managing affordable rental housing, rehabilitating housing and providing supporting repair services, promoting homeownership and providing loans to purchase and upgrade homes, providing services to the most vulnerable populations in the target areas and supporting neighborhood development.

Programs: Chai's homeownership promotion program was established in 1983 to promote investment and preserve the northern park heights area as a stable and diverse neighborhood chai's homeownership promotion program provides foreclosure counseling, grants, low interest and deferred loans, housing counseling, referrals, homebuyer workshops and renovation project management to low, middle and median income first time homebuyers and existing homeowners every year, chai serves hundreds of residents of baltimore city with workshops and counseling and provides hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans and grants to new homeowners.

chai housing management program provides oversight of the fiscal and tenant management of 16 affordable senior housing projects with 1,639 units, valued at $192 million. All of these projects were built or rehabbed with government funding that restricts tenant eligibility, rental rates and cash distributions. Chai is the general partner of 7 projects that are owned by for-profit limited partnerships where we are eligible to receive management fees and limited surplus cash distributions. The other 9 projects are owned by non-profit corporations that are subsidiaries of chai from which no cash can be distributed to the owners. Chai contracts with edgewood management corporation for the onsite management of all 16 senior affordable housing developments.

chai is committed to developing affordable housing for the community's senior population. With the rising cost of market rate rental apartments chai's weinberg senior apartments are among the few remaining sources of affordable housing for hundreds of low and moderate-income seniors in northwest baltimore. New multifamily affordable housing units for seniors and renovation of existing affordable housing units for seniors have been developed over the last 19 years by utilizing a variety of funding sources including federal, state, and local governments, private loans, and fundraising. A total of 1,639 affordable housing units in 16 mid-rise apartment buildings have been built or in the process of being completed by chai. In the next few years, we plan to develop housing for other special needs populations and affordable multifamily housing for families.