Over the past decade, Cottage Housing Inc. helped over eight hundred homeless adults and their children seek the home to a brighter future while concurrently expanding both the quantity and quality of our services, including: 

• a nearly three-fold increase in graduation rate
•  a four-fold rise in residential capacity; and
• more than six-fold expansion in number of persons served annually

Cottage Housing Inc. adds value to the Sacramento region and its economy in three vital areas:

REUNITING FAMILIES:  Nearly all (88%) of the 200 children living at our Serna Village project returned from out-of-home-placement, usually foster care settings where children are twice as likely as U.S. war veterans to experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)[1].  Children who stay in this system are likely to become homeless, go to jail or die within three years, often having babies who end up in foster care.[2]

  DEVELOPING HOME OWNERS:  Two youth graduates of our program recently joined over a dozen adult alumni who have purchased their own home – turning their homeless nightmare into the American Dream.

  CREATING TAX PAYERS:  In 2006, departing program participants showed a 300% increase in employment and nearly a 50% reduction in welfare dependency,  confirming one alumni’s claim that“…we’re going from tax-taker to tax maker”.

In addition to doubling the capacity of Serna Village, the average length-of-stay at Quinn Cottages reduced by nearly half over the past decade – doubling the number served annually by that project as well; meanwhile, it also doubled the number of program participants with significant disabilities, indicating we’re helping those who need it most at substantial savings to taxpayers as compared to alternative accommodations.

FINANCIAL OVERVIEW

Independent audits conclude that every $1 in private donations leverages at least $10 in support from government contracts, foundation grants and in-kind donations of professional services, supplies and equipment.

These audits also annually affirm the integrity of our agency’s fiscal operations, documenting nearly three-fold growth in an operating budget that gets about two-thirds of its revenue from government sources.

While still dealing with the opening our inaugural project in Midtown Sacramento, we were faced with the loss of a second project grant unless we quickly secured a site location.  In just 18 months, Serna Village was opened as part of the conversion of McClellan AFB -- see jump in “Income By Source” in 2002 and comparable jump in persons served shown by red line in “Comparison”.  There are similar jumps after Serna Village doubled its residential capacity in 2006, expanding from 40 to 83 families.

Most small businesses self-finance their own expansion, and Cottage Housing Inc. is no exception. A $159,000 deficit accumulated during Serna Village’s four-year expansion process successfully secured a five-acre, $14-million facility with a $1 million annual budget. Two-thirds of this investment was immediately recouped by a budget surplus after new facilities opened in 2006, raising the agency’s Fund Balance higher than pre- expansion levels.  

Cottage Housing Inc. culminated its first decade by raising a quarter-million dollars to complete this initial phase of its capacity expansion strategy. By the end of our second decade, our goal is to re-double residential capacity, increasing to 500 bedrooms that can annually serve nearly 1,000 people.

This will be accomplished by diversifying our revenue base through support secured from large institutional systems with more expensive, less effective intervention strategies (i.e. prison/parole, hospitals and foster care).   We will  raise another quarter-million dollars in the coming year as bridge financing to furnish the operating capital and administrative infrastructure required to realize these capacity expansion goals.