Lotus Campaign

Reality check! ? Turns out that people who receive sustainable housing need fewer social services. Studies from the Urban Institute conducted in New York and Denver show that Housing First initiatives lead to savings in emergency services, jail, and shelter costs of up to $15,000 per person. At Lotus Campaign, we’ve seen this MYTH debunked firsthand: 96% of the residents we help house renew their leases—either with our support or on their own. Many previously housing-insecure individuals even transition to fully independent housing after just a couple of years. When people have a place to call home, they regain stability, find jobs, and rebuild their lives. With the right foundation under them, people are able to move away from public assistance and in many cases, continue on to help others like themselves. #LotusCampaign

Housing is not just about changing the present - it also means creating a future. Since 2023, Destiny has been successfully housed along with her daughter thanks to Lotus Campaign’s Landlord Participation Program and Families Together. Destiny now works full-time and pursues her passion for driving commercial semi-trucks, adding more proof that stable housing is the foundation for new beginnings. To learn more about residents like Destiny, visit www.LotusCampaign.org

?? Housing is NOT a partisan issue. ?? Federal funding cuts are hitting home in Charlotte, forcing critical housing programs to shut down—leaving our most vulnerable neighbors at risk. But at Lotus Campaign, we’re not waiting for policies to catch up. We’re taking action NOW. Our model works—96% of our residents maintain stable housing at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions. But we can’t do it alone. Read more about what’s happening and how you can help. Sign up for our newsletter now ?? www.LotusCampaign.org

Lotus Campaign has a starring role in the recently released 30-minute documentary: "Taking Care of Business: Homeless in America," by filmmaker K. Michael O'Neal. It's a deep dive into real, effective ways communities across the country are addressing homelessness. Lotus Campaign Executive Director Beth Silverman shares encouragingly that solutions exist; we just have to rethink what’s possible. Save the date. We're having a movie premiere on April 28 in Raleigh and April 30 in Charlotte. Be on the lookout for a special invitation, arriving in your email inbox soon. And if you're not currently on our mailing list, go to our website to sign up now. www.lotuscampaign.org

Homelessness isn’t just an issue of poverty—it’s a crisis impacting our youngest and most vulnerable. Families with children make up one-third of the homeless population, with infants being the most common age group to stay in shelters. Research from Margot Kushel MD of UCSF Benioff Homelessness & Housing Initiative has highlighted how homelessness and unstable housing have devastating effects on children’s health, development, and future. The thousands of unseen youth make up too many of our nation’s people experiencing homelessness. However, there are real solutions to fixing this heartbreaking reality, starting with providing stable housing to families with small children. Visit our website to see what #LotusCampaign has been able to achieve for families and to learn how much further we are prepared to go.

One of Lotus Campaign’s keys to success is placing people experiencing homelessness in housing located in Neighborhoods of Opportunity. We are eager to keep our ?? on Enrique Mutis's research out of the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies on Industrious Neighborhoods as the next frontier for solving homelessness. #homelessness #housingsolutions #affordablehousing

“When housing is scarce, vulnerabilities and barriers to housing are magnified.” - Gregg Colburn, Professor of Real Estate at the University of Washington Homelessness isn’t just about personal struggles—it’s about math. Dr. Gregg Colburn compares the housing crisis to a game of musical chairs: when there aren’t enough chairs, someone will always be left standing. In cities with a severe housing shortage, no matter how hard people try, some will inevitably end up without a home. As Dr. Colburn points out, research shows that homelessness rates are highest where rent is high and affordable housing is scarce, not necessarily where poverty or addiction rates are the worst. The solution? More chairs—more housing. While we know that housing is not the only part of the solution, it is always part of the solution. Lotus Campaign is dedicated to unlocking stable housing so that everyone has a place to land when the music stops.

Speak up on Monday, March 10. #HandsOffHousing

The federal funding cuts are hitting home, and those experiencing homelessness, in Charlotte. ? One of Lotus Campaign’s social service agencies, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), has been notified that their federal funding will be terminated, forcing them to cancel all HUD Section 4 program activities. The impacts of these cuts are potentially catastrophic, and every community will be deeply impacted. As Michelle Boudin of WCNC Charlotte reports, Roof Above is just one homelessness nonprofit that may have to cut services that help house many of Charlotte’s most vulnerable residents. ? This is not the first time the public sector has made the housing crisis worse. It’s why Lotus Campaign was designed with flexibility and relationships at its core. We were built for these circumstances, and we're poised to help as many people and partner organizations as possible to get through this tough time, with as much housing in place as possible. Lotus Campaign is prepared to meet this moment, but we need your support. Donate today to change the game ??? . www.lotuscampaign.org #homelessness #housingcrisis #homelessness #nonprofits #nonprofit #federalfundingcuts https://lnkd.in/gwmimXuT

This The New York Times piece by Brian Goldstone, author of forth-coming “There Is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America,” is one of the most important and illuminating op-eds published in recent years. https://lnkd.in/gdZCD9GA "For millions of Americans, the greatest threat isn’t that they’ll lose their jobs. It’s that the job will never pay enough, never provide enough hours, never offer enough stability to keep them housed. "It’s not just in New York and San Francisco and Los Angeles. It’s also in tech hubs…and rapidly expanding cities… places awash in investment, luxury development and corporate growth. But this wealth isn’t trickling down. It’s pooled at the top, while affordable units are demolished, new ones are blocked, tenants are evicted — about every minute, seven evictions are filed all around the United States, according to Princeton's Eviction Lab — and housing is treated as a commodity to be hoarded and exploited for maximum profit. "This results in a devastating pattern: As cities gentrify and become 'revitalized,' the nurses, teachers, janitors and childcare providers who keep them running are being systematically priced out. Unlike in earlier periods of widespread immiseration, such as the recession of 2008, what we’re witnessing today is a crisis born less of poverty than of prosperity. These workers aren’t 'falling' into homelessness. They’re being pushed. They’re the casualties not of a failing economy but of one that’s thriving — just not for them." ? Lotus Campaign is proud to address these very problems in Raleigh and Charlotte by?creating partnerships between unexpected allies - real estate leaders, landlords, social service agencies, and philanthropists - to?stably?house those who fell into homelessness or are in danger of doing so. Lotus Campaign has a 96% success rate of keeping people housed. Our model is replicable and scalable to other big cities, tech hubs and rapidly expanding cities facing the same challenges. Thank you, Mr. Goldstone, for shining a light on one of the least recognized causes of homelessness. www.lotuscampaign.org #homeless #homelessness #workinghomeless