A Million-Dollar Milestone at CSL

Written By Lexi Pardee

May 3, 2024 | By: Doug Cowan, CSL President & CEO

At Hawthorne Place Apartments, in coordination with POAH (Preservation of Affordable Housing), the owner-operator, CSL facilitates the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program. As of last week, the FSS Program at Hawthorne has eclipsed $1,000,000 in lifetime escrow savings!

How does FSS work? FSS is designed by HUD to bust through barriers faced by residents of HUD-supported housing. Residents, because they pay 30% of their income in rent, can often feel like they’re working more just to pay more in rent. FSS encourages growth in earned income through work, and, once someone enrolls in FSS, their increased rent payments are captured in an escrowed savings account. Participants declare a goal area, like homeownership, higher education, etc. Participants are required to meet at least annually with their CSL Financial Coach, and can graduate after five years. A successful graduation means a participant has not received cash welfare for the preceding 12 months. (Click here for a video to help explain FSS further.)

Evie St. John graduated FSS in November 2022. She used her FSS savings to purchase a house!

Here are some statistics since we began in late 2017:

FSS $ Deposited $1,012,950
FSS $ Disbursed $546,993
Current FSS $ in Escrow $340,222

# of enrollees 292
# in the program currently 128
# of graduations 64
# of homes purchased by graduates 28

Our large staff team at Hawthorne Place Apartments works to fully wrap around families (workforce development, financial coaching, basic needs, income supports, family stability, and more), and without their support, FSS would not be possible for those families. Our colleagues at POAH have entrusted us with this work, and our partners at Holy Rosary Credit Union have been critical to advancing families’ financial capabilities and their prospects of homeownership.

Changing the Narrative at Hawthorne Place Apartments: A Story of Housing and Stability

CSL produced this video in 2022 to celebrate five years of community transformation at Hawthorne. It’s 20 minutes long, but encapsulates the great work our team does there.

When you couple CSL’s seven years of presence at Hawthorne, along with POAH’s commitment to being a best-in-class housing provider, the transformation of Hawthorne, in so many ways, has been simply unbelievable.

Lexi Pardee
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