A nonprofit dedicated to eliminating global homelessness has shifted gears during the pandemic to help here at home.
While projects building hundreds of homes in Mexico, Haiti and El Salvador are on hold, the nonprofit New Story has spent the past three months paying rent for struggling families in metro Atlanta and other parts of Georgia.
“When the pandemic started, an unprecedented number of people needed help,” New Story co-founder Brett Hagler said. “Our neighbors lost their jobs and income and, in turn, lost their ability to pay their rent.”
Working with four local, nonprofit partners, New Story has made rent payments averaging about $1,000 a month for three months for more than 300 jobless Georgians — at a total cost of more than $900,000. The organization also is currently raising funds to support an additional 50 families in California.
“We wish we could help every person struggling,” Hagler said. “But we always say here: ‘Let’s care for some the way we wish we could care for all.’”
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Many of the Georgians helped by New Story are living in extended stay hotels, unable to come up with the deposit and first month’s rent for an apartment. These people do not receive the same moratorium protections as a standard renter and may not qualify or receive the government support they need.
One single mother of four who received the rent help said she had been concerned for her children’s well-being. She was already behind on her utility bills when she lost her job due to the pandemic and stressed about providing her children with necessities, such as food, clothes and toilet paper.
In another household of six, both parents lost their jobs due to the coronavirus and would have faced eviction without the rent help. They also had another big worry: one of their children was going through chemotherapy.
“We take great pride in supporting our community and are pleased to partner with New Story at a time when so many individuals are in need of assistance,” said Gina Porter, vice president of human resources for Domain Capital Group, a private investment management services company in Atlanta and New Story’s partner in paying rent directly to landlords of the qualifying families.
Domain has pitched in on other local charitable efforts during the pandemic, including providing meals for healthcare workers at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial and donating iPads so the hospital’s patients can stay connected with family members who are not allowed to physically visit.
New Story is based in San Francisco but has strong ties to Atlanta. Its three co-founders met in Atlanta and started the company here in 2014, before applying to and becoming one of the first nonprofits with tech incubator Y-Combinator in California.
Half of New Story’s team members still work from an office on Atlanta’s northside. The organization’s mission is to pioneer solutions to end global homelessness, which is forecast to increase by 200% and affect 3 billion people by 2050.
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New Story started out building homes in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake that left many homeless for years. The organization is now heavily involved in researching breakthroughs in home-building technology and sharing them with other nonprofits and governments.
In 2019, New Story started building the world’s first 3D-printed community in Tabasco, Mexico. The project consists of 50 3D-printed homes.
Since its founding, the nonprofit has built more than 2,500 homes around the globe. This year, New Story’s goal is to build about 700 homes across Mexico, Haiti and El Salvador. Those plans are still in the works but on hold due to safety concerns related to the COVID-19 crisis, said Sam Ballmer, a New Story employee.
What inspired New Story to provide rent relief to more than Georgia families?
Leaders of the nonprofit with strong roots and an office in Atlanta found that Georgia had a significant population in need of rent relief during the pandemic. Specifically, New Story found data that showed a higher percentage of the state’s residents were at risk of becoming homeless because of job losses during the coronavirus crisis. The existing shelters and resources for the homeless appear to lack funds to adequately support this surge in homelessness, the organization concluded.
What they did: Working with four local nonprofits, New Story offered rent relief to Georgians with children, all of whom have lost jobs during the pandemic. On average, New Story paid about $1,000 per month for three months directly to the landlords of the struggling families.
Brett Hagler, the co-founder of New Story, said: “We made a small shift to the work we were doing but never from who we were serving: those who need our help the most.”
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