Advice needed about strategy for opening sober living homes...

[Tyrone Reed]

Complete noob here, so please be gentle. :-)

I am in the process of setting up a 501 (c) 3 (paperwork has been filed...just waiting for IRS to do its thing) that will operate sober living homes for those in recovery who need safe and affordable housing.

In thinking of how to setup the homes, I am thinking of two separate strategies: either raising enough funds through grants to purchase properties, or leasing existing rental properties.

If I can't buy properties, one of the issues with possibly leasing properties is if I decide to lease/rent existing properties, they would need to cash flow for us to sustain the nonprofit and its mission, so there would likely need to be significant rent concessions made from landlord (for example, a 50% concession, ie rents normally for $2500, rented to nonprofit for $1250, so we could then rent each room for $500 a month and possibly cash flow).

I'm hopeful that I could find landlords who would be open to an arrangement where:

1) A 3% to 5% non-refundable downpayment is made to landlord in exchange for 5 year guaranteed lease/rental agreement

2) Nonprofit agrees to pay 50% of all needed repairs (due to occupancy) to property during that time

3) In exchange, landlord gets stable occupancy, gets a tax deduction for the amount of rental concession made (would likely be tens of thousands of dollars) and is not on the hook fully for repairs and maintenance

Fully open to hearing opinions or suggestions...am I thinking of this in a way that is possible? Am I offering too much or too little? Having monthly cash flow for the non profit is key and I'm seeking some ways to get there...

Thx

[Lauren B.]

Look up oxford houses. They’re an existing non profit and thy have a model in place and can help with funding. Even if you don’t want to open an Oxford house per se, the model appears successful and would be worthwhile to investigate.