Early on, it became apparent that one of the greatest obstacles for people with disabilities was to find affordable housing that was also accessible.

The Heart of Hearth Homes

The vision for Hearth Homes grew out of the life experience of the founder. When her young, athletic husband was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, the lives of their family were changed forever. As the illness progressed rapidly, his physical impairments made it necessary to move out of their home, with its stairs, narrow doorways, and thresholds on the shower. At that time, the concept of Universal Design did not exist. Anyone who has experienced dramatic changes in health and mobility knows the challenges that arise every day from living in spaces that are not adapted to their needs.

Many years later, their children grew up and her husband passed away. The time had come for the founder to address the important lessons learned. She joined a disability task force of a local family service organization, and was asked to be its Chair. There she was part of a talented group of professionals whose goal was the integration of disabled individuals into the society at large. Early on, it became apparent that one of the greatest obstacles for people with disabilities was to find affordable housing that was also accessible. The separate accessible facilities built for them were isolating and prevented them from feeling part of the community.

A longtime business associate encouraged the founder to form a nonprofit organization that would carry out the vision of building integrated housing with a community spirit. On September 30, 1997, Hearth Homes received its 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. Hearth Homes was born.

A core group was formed including several members of the task force, and others in the community who were excited by Hearth Homes' vision. We met once a month, and began to develop an action plan. In 1997, we created a focus group that would serve as a needs assessment for our concept. The results of the focus group strongly affirmed the need for affordable housing built with the principles of Universal Design that would house both able and disabled individuals.

Other ideas the group developed were inspired by co-housing practices. To build a spirit of community and a natural support system, we realized the benefit of offering community building activities in an attractive community room with a community kitchen. Since the members of the core group were all interested in sustainable development, we were impressed with the ideas of New Urbanism and in-fill development built close to transportation and jobs.

Our Philosophy

Building Inclusive Communities

The image of America as the world's melting pot remains just that: an image, not a reality. Our communities continue to be extremely segregated — along lines of race, income, and abilities. In addition, a variety of social and economic factors have shifted society towards nuclear households that lack the benefits of broader support systems.

Traditional special needs housing reinforces these patterns of segregation and isolation by focusing on targeted populations (e.g., the elderly or disabled). Members of the target groups must either live in developments populated entirely by members of the target group or compete in the private market and rent units ill suited to their needs, resulting in restricted comfort and mobility. Either option relegates these individuals to living environments that preclude their participation in a broad, diverse community.

Our Goal

The goal of Hearth Homes is to create affordable residential environments for people of varying abilities, ages, and incomes who wish to live independently with access to a mutually supportive community. We are achieving this goal via both our own development projects and collaborations with existing housing developers.

Our Tools

Hearth Homes embraces the principles of Universal Design (UD) as a core value. UD is an architectural model that emphasizes building designs that are both attractive and functional for all people, disabled or not, at little extra cost (typically under one percent of total project costs).

Where appropriate, our projects look to the New Urbanism model of urban studies that encourages human interaction among neighbors through high-density, mixed-use buildings and an emphasis on shared open space and community facilities.

Hearth Homes also promotes Community-Designed Services that provide support to residents of our multifamily housing projects in areas such as: career development, job skills, and technology training; shared child-care, group meals and recreational activities, etc.; and independent living services for residents with special needs who want them.

Universal Design, New Urbanism and many of the identified Community-Designed Services are used to foster community or inclusion in some residential developments, but this use has been inconsistent, often limited to people with sufficient financial resources. Our unique approach combines these models and makes them available to individuals of varying abilities and income levels.

Our Strategy

We have adopted a two-pronged approach in our efforts to introduce our vision of community building into the affordable housing arena.

First, we construct pilot projects that incorporate all of the components of our vision. Second, we partner with existing affordable housing builders to provide them with expertise in UD and other components of our community-building model. Through these partnerships, we are able to move projects that would otherwise be developed according to the conventional paradigm towards the more inclusive Hearth Homes model of community.