Agency Details:

Dwelling Place

Dwelling Place improves the lives of people by creating affordable housing, providing essential support services and serving as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization.

Description:
Dwelling Place is a non-profit, tax exempt community development corporation. The mission of Dwelling Place is three-fold:

1. To create affordable housing for low and moderate income individuals and families. Dwelling Place owns and manages a total of 984 affordable apartments and homes.
2. To provide essential support services of our communities’ most vulnerable residents. Dwelling Place employs 14 resident support services staff.
3. To serve as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization throughout West Michigan. Dwelling Place continues to develop new projects in downtown Grand Rapids and participates in the revitalization of the neighborhoods of Grand Rapids, Rockford, Hesperia, Wyoming, Kentwood and Plainfield Township by providing affordable housing. In addition, Dwelling Place owns and manages 27 units of commercial space, 15 are commercial businesses and 12 are non-profit organizations.



History:
In 1980, downtown Grand Rapids was a far different place. The magnificent restoration of the Pantlind Hotel into the Amway Grand Plaza had been completed. Other major construction projects were underway. Both fueled real estate speculation and caused apprehension that our downtown neighbors, primarily low-income individuals and families, might be pushed out of the neighborhood: displaced by gentrification.

At the same time, the number of individuals living on our downtown streets was growing; a partial consequence of the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in Michigan.

To address these growing concerns, seven churches and several organizations came together to establish a non-profit organization to provide affordable housing and vital support services for individuals and families. This new entity was incorporated in 1980 as Dwelling Place.

While the story of Dwelling Place is unique to Grand Rapids, nonprofit groups similar to Dwelling Place are present in many communities across the United States. These specialized nonprofit organizations are also referred to as community development corporations (CDC’s) for the mission driven work they do to improve the quality of life in communities and neighborhoods. The stock-in-trade of CDC’s is almost always housing and economic development aimed at creating better neighborhoods. The real impact, however, is always on people.



Contact person: Teresa Zbiciak, Americorps, (phone), (email)


Office fax number: (616) 454-5249

Address:


101 Sheldon Blvd. Suite 2 Grand Rapids, MI 49503 (See a map)


Web Site: http://www.dwellingplacegr.org

Last updated on November 3, 2009