Mission: Sacramento Cottage Housing Inc. makes our community a better place by creating high-quality, low-cost housing within healing residential communities that help homeless people help themselves from the transition from the streets to self-reliance. We pursue this mission by promoting personal accountability, mutual respect, and good citizenship among residents of our transitional housing sites.
Results: Participants leaving in 2008 increased employment by 273% while lowering welfare dependence by more than half.
Each graduate saves taxpayers up to $100,000 annually by avoiding more expensive/less effective institutional options
Two dozen alumni went from homelessness to home owner.
Success rate nearly tripled -from 31% to over 80%
Number of residents with significant disabilities doubled
Average length of stay reduced nearly by half
numerous “Best Practice” awards
Target demographics: Participants must: meet H.U.D. definition of “homeless”, have
30 days of sobriety before entering the program, a maximum of two persons per household,
be referred by another community agency
Geographic areas served: Sacramento region
Programs: Our two housing sites, Bishop Francis A. Quinn Cottages and Joseph Serna Village, provide transitional shelter as well as support services to enable the homeless to get back on their feet. These services include addiction relapse prevention; health screening and referral; life skills training in practical matters like budgeting; and help enrolling in school, looking for work, applying for government benefits, and finding permanent housing. Since opening in November 1997, the 60 one-bedroom cottages of Quinn Cottages has offered homeless individuals, couples, and single parent/single child families a place to call home. Serna Village, which opened at the decommissioned McClellan Air Force Base in February 2002, provides 40 two- and three-bedroom refurbished duplexes for larger homeless families.
I am a graduate of Quinn Cottages and an employee of Cottage Housing Inc. I graduated Quinn Cottages in 2001, they taught me the life skills to live sober, be employable, to be productive member of the community and society. Quinn Cottages changes lives, it took me from being a tax taker to taxpayer, it took me from living a life of destruction and homelessness to living my best life!! I am truly grateful for the many opportunities they have provided me.
I heard about one of their programs Quinn Cottages in 2001 and by the Grace of God I was excepted. This program literally saved my life and the lives of many of my now fiends. Wonderful Staff and they really care about what they do! I wouldn’t be alive or have the life I have today without their guidance and support.
This place was HORRIBLE & PRISON-LIKE. It's 24/7 12-Step Religious Cult & "Jesus Saves" 24/7; 99% of the women leaving the place head for the dope-man to by a hit to forget all the torture they just went through...
masterinart
Professional with expertise in this field
06/15/2011
Rating: 5
06/15/2011
Serna Village is like no other supportive housing program well except for Quinn Cottages which is it's sister program. These programs are products of Sacramento Cottage Housing, Inc. These programs are unique in their resiliency model that is practiced; that everyone bounces back and that everyones has their own answers inside. There is a emphasis on asking questions and meeting people exactly where they are. The participants are asked what are they willing to commit to do regarding working on their personal wellness? Which healing groups would they like to attend from our resiliency calendar? Participants attend healing groups, go to school, work, reunify with their children. This is a participant driven program. Participant's volunteer in the community and in their own village. Participants are asked to be accountable and be willing to work on their commitments and become responsible and sustainable.
I was asked to create a multimedia photo essay to tell the story of Cottage Housing, and what they do for the people they serve and the community. I shot the story and did interviews over a six-month period.
In that time I got to hear the stories of many of the people Cottage Housing has helped. I was amazed at how they can take people with almost no self respect or hope for the future, and help them to transform into people who make a difference in the community.
The most surprising thing to me is that there are not more of these programs around. Every dollar spent here is an investment in the future of our community.
