Lotus Campaign

We are searching for an exceptional manager- or director-level colleague in #CharlotteNC to join our close-knit team. As a Program Manager or Director, you will be the driving force behind our Landlord Participation Program in #Charlotte. To date, this program has helped facilitate stable, long-term #housing for more than 480 people experiencing #homelessness. You'll have the chance to develop and implement innovative program strategies that grow this program and help continue to create meaningful impact. More here: https://lnkd.in/e2_jmCaG

You may have noticed that with our new website, we rolled out a new logo that speaks more to who we are today & who we will be tomorrow. Why the name though? What do Lotus flowers have to do with affordable housing and homelessness? Lotus flowers grow from mud. Nothing is more analogous to mud than the way homelessness mires individual lives and our society. Lotus flowers symbolize hope and the promise of regeneration – the kind of regeneration Lotus Campaign is working to create for individuals and communities.

It’s been many months in the making, but we are proud to reveal a brand new website that better represents who we are as an organization: Bold. Relentless. Creative. Unique. Hopeful. We solve homelessness in a way that is unlike any other, and we want you to know exactly how we do it and the success we’ve had to date. So go ahead: Give it a spin & tell us what you think. https://lnkd.in/eNy6u7ca

To solve homelessness, we need to understand its causes. Contrary to what many people believe, the root causes of homelessness in the U.S. are not individual risk factors like illness, mental health, poverty, and poor decision-making. Rather, it’s supply and demand. A core part of Lotus Campaign's mission is to dispel such myths and raise awareness about the success of our game-changing model to help solve the #homelessness and #affordablehousing crisis.

Many of the greatest social innovations often come from a place of deep frustration and a blinding sense of optimism. Sounds like Lotus Campaign. Our founders, who were serving on an advisory panel about homelessness and real estate, noticed that the team of experts had only one person representing the real estate industry. They wondered what would happen if an economic lens was applied to solving homelessness? They wanted to understand the detailed reasons for why landlords often would not rent to people experiencing homelessness. They called developers and landlords. Everyone had the same list of hurdles — Who’s going to pay rent? My property managers aren’t social workers. What happens if something goes wrong? That’s when our founders went to work figuring out how to overcome those barriers through economic guarantees, financial incentives, and strong partnerships with social services organizations. The result is Lotus — a partnership of unexpected allies — landlords, real estate developers, investors and the social sector working together to solve homelessness in a new way. Pictured: John, Sponsored Resident in the Lotus Campaign Landlord Participation Program, in his new home.

653,104 That’s how many people are experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States. More than half a million people is staggering, yet it’s a fraction of reality. Volunteers count those unhoused in their communities on a single night. The method is imprecise and often leaves out those staying with family or friends or in vehicles. But even a fraction of the story tells us this is one of the most intractable problems of our time. #Homelessness not only deeply harms the individuals it impacts; it threatens progress and prosperity for all. The National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that taxpayers spend an average of $36k for every chronically homeless person. This social and economic issue demands a social and an economic solution. Enter Lotus Campaign. We engage the private sector and deploy philanthropy to open access to market-rate, mixed-income housing NOW without government funds or support. 

Sandee Road Ventures, a young, mission-driven #realestate investment firm, is Lotus Campaign’s latest Participating #Landlord in #Charlotte. They offer investors a way to positively impact the local community by focusing on preserving workforce and #affordablehousing. Recognizing the vital bridge that Lotus offers, connecting private landlords and partner organizations to make it easier to facilitate #housing, joining the Landlord Participation Program made perfect sense.

Wonder where the name Lotus came from? Lotus flowers grow from mud. Nothing is more analogous to mud than the way homelessness mires individual lives and our society. Lotus flowers symbolize hope and the promise of regeneration. The kind of regeneration Lotus Campaign is working to create for individuals and communities. Pictured: Destiny, sponsored resident in our Landlord Participation Program, in her new apartment home in Raleigh.

We are unexpected allies working together to solve #homelessness. Lotus Campaign unites real estate leaders, landlords, service providers and philanthropists to dramatically reduce homelessness. Pictured: Mario, a sponsored resident of Lotus Campaign's Landlord Participation Program, walking through the door of his very own apartment after experiencing homelessness on and off for nearly his entire life.

A GREAT #podcast recommendation: Matthew Desmond joins #ArmchairExpert to discuss why he became interested in studying #poverty in America, how people are being priced out of their own neighborhoods, and what solutions he feels would help unhoused people the most.