Place of Hope Helping Solve Palm Beach County’s Affordable Housing Crisis
Place of Hope, one of the area’s largest providers of affordable housing, is expanding its transitional affordable housing program at The Leighan and David Rinker Campus in Boca Raton. The nonprofit, which is dedicated to ending the cycles of abuse, neglect, homelessness, poverty, and human trafficking, will be expanding two single-family homes into duplexes and constructing three new apartment-style buildings that will more than triple the number of single mothers, aged-out foster youth, and otherwise homeless young adults it currently helps daily on the Boca campus.
In the first quarter of 2023, Florida saw a 22% increase in youth coming into foster care due to homelessness that, in many cases, could have been avoided if affordable housing options were available for the family. Place of Hope is acting now, building and expanding transitional affordable housing with critical support services to those in need to prevent children from being removed due to homelessness. “A recent study revealed that more than 300,000 households renting in our region are ‘severely burdened,’ spending more than half of their incomes on housing and facing imminent homelessness. How much more vulnerable are our youth aging out of foster care, or our single mothers with dependent children?” said Place of Hope founding CEO, Charles Bender. “The best way for our community to break the insidious cycles of child abuse and neglect, homelessness, and further trauma is to guide young people toward their full potential, healing, and self-sufficiency.”
Work is already underway on the conversion of the “Mommy & Me” duplexes. The units will house single mothers and mothers-to-be, who would otherwise be faced with living on the street. When complete, four families will have a place to call home in a structured environment with support services in place that will prepare them to transition to healthy, independent living. Construction kicked off with the help of a generous $1 million multi-year donation by Boca Raton’s Mark and Sharon Warren. “Place of Hope is doing something impressive that we had never seen before,” said Mark Warren. “They are providing housing, college help, transportation, and support to get these kids jobs in a foundational lifestyle so they can properly join society.”
Crews are also set to begin work in the coming weeks on the first of three additional affordable transitional apartment complexes that will each, daily, house at least sixteen aged-out foster youth, otherwise homeless young adults, and single mothers with their children. The construction of The Schmitt Family Housing Complex is made possible thanks to a significant lead gift by Boca Raton’s Dru and Debbie Schmitt. The Schmitt’s also pledged funding to pilot an early childhood education program for the children of young mothers living on campus. “Place of Hope successfully solves one of society’s most intractable problems with a perfect balance of caring,
planning, execution, and vision,” said Dru Schmitt. “Debbie and I are thrilled we can support their vision and participate in their journey.” The Schmitt Family Housing Complex is being built within the Marshall and Vera Lea Rinker Village alongside the Gary Peters Family Housing Complex which has served 21 young adults since opening in 2020.
To the north in Martin County, work is currently underway on Place of Hope’s new Treasure Coast Campus, which, when complete, will provide neighborhood family-style foster care, “Mommy & Me” housing, and transitional affordable housing to up to 100 foster children, aged-out foster youth, young adults and single mothers with dependent children. Since its inception, Place of Hope has helped hundreds of young adults transition into healthy adulthood with transitional affordable housing on multiple campuses.
