Bridges & Balm Sustainable Housing Guide​
One of the most difficult challenges facing a transitioning/resting worker or transitioning survivor is affordable long term housing. Housing is a major monthly expense regardless of whether you are helping share the costs of a family-owned dwelling or renting a private or public studio or apartment.
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The Bridges & Balm Housing Exchange is a place where those who need housing can connect with those who have or know of available housing or are able to assist (i.e cosign) those needing to qualify for a rental property. Bridges & Balm is committed to helping workers or survivors navigate the path to safe, affordable and sustainable housing. Often this path consists of one or more interim measures before a long-term solution opens up, but achieving long term safe, affordable and sustainable housing is always the goal and focus. The Developing ​​a Holistic & Sustainable Housing Plan section below describes how we can assist in defining a housing scenario that meets your specific needs.
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How Can You Help?​
If you have housing available or can assist someone find or qualify for short or long term housing, you can help! Please click on one of the links below for more information.
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If you have or know of fellowship housing that may be available to workers or survivors, please click here.
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If you are willing to consider co-signing for someone applying for private rental housing, please click here.
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If you have any other ideas or suggestions, please Contact Us or email us at bridgesandbalm@gmail.com.
Important Note:The term "Fellowship Community" anywhere on the Bridges & Balm website refers to people associated with the home church fellowship at any point in their lifetime. There is no requirement that housing providers or housing assistance recipients attend meetings or even associate with meetings. Bridges & Balm will act as an intermediary between those who volunteer housing and those who need housing to make sure that there is alignment on expectations before exchanging personally identifying information or initiating contact between the parties.
​​Fellowship Housing Exchange
The Fellowship Housing Exchange section of the Bridges & Balm website provides a forum to match available housing options with those who need housing.
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The “Housing Assistance Needed” table below lists workers and survivors in need of an interim or permanent housing solution. The “Housing Available” table lists housing that is available for use by resting / transitioning workers and/or survivors. Clicking on the More Info or Add Property links in the tables below direct you to the Bridges & Balm Contact Us page that enables us to validate that the specific needs/qualifications are aligned with the available housing and contact the appropriate parties.
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Note Housing Available listings may be only available for a short period of time for various reasons. We will try to keep them current but occasionally some listings may be outdated.
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Developing a Holistic & Sustainable Housing Plan
If you are someone needing housing, achieving the goal of affordable and sustainable housing starts with developing a realistic long-range housing plan, then filling in your near term and mid-term needs with interim housing solutions..
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Our goal is to assist you in defining and implementing your holistic housing plan that meets your housing needs within the boundaries of your financial, physical and emotional capabilities. Therefore, from a planning perspective, it's important to develop long-range and interim housing plans in parallel. If public housing is part of your long term plan, it usually makes sense to start with defining your long range options as availability of long tern public housing is often limited in some sections of the US. Once the viability of your long range plan is validated, you can begin to investigate interim housing options that are compatible with your long range plan.
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Interim Housing Planning Options - Interim housing may meet your needs for a few years but may not be sustainable or available for the long term. Options for interim housing are fellowship community housing, corporate rental communities and other private or charitable housing assistance. Oftentimes, charities like Bridges & Balm can provide rental assistance for a period of time while waiting for the longer term housing to become available. Another good place to begin your private housing search is at the website, www.findhelp.org. Once you enter your zip code, it will direct you to local resources for various forms of assistance.
Long Term Housing Planning Options - Permanent, sustainable / affordable housing usually takes the longest to bring to fruition, so it's important to plan for it up front. Options for permanent housing include HUD Section 8 and other HUD subsidized housing programs, and occasionally fellowship private housing and other private housing options are available for longer term situations. It's always important to investigate and apply for multiple long term housing options in case one or more falls through. Please see the HUD Section 8 page on this website for information on submitting and tracking your Section 8 application.
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We're In This Together!
Finding housing is overwhelming. For resting/transitioning workers and survivors investigating and navigating housing options, Bridges & Balm will ensure that there is an active advocate working hand in hand with you. You are not in this alone. For those of you applying for public housing assistance (i.e Section 8) we will make sure there is assistance in each step of the process. For those contacting us with potential fellowship housing information or relaying a housing need, we will act as an independent third party and follow a predetermined process to ensure privacy and validate specifics with each party before supplying contact information.​
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