This week’s member spotlight features Dwelling Place of Grand Rapids.

Dwelling Place was founded in 1980 by several churches and local organizations to address the issue of the increase in downtown homelessness in Grand Rapids. The last three decades has seen Dwelling Place grow into an organization with much more diversified services and a much larger footprint on West Michigan.

Today, Dwelling Place offers a variety of services and programs. Beginning in the urban core, they worked to turn vacant or dilapidated buildings into quality, low cost housing options. This process started as a building by building process, but now Dwelling Place takes on revitalization projects on the scale of a whole neighborhoods. It has also moved out of the urban centers of Grand Rapids and into the suburbs and rural areas in West Michigan. To fully help revitalize neighborhoods, Dwelling Place also develops office and commercial real estate property.

Dwelling Place also offer quality support services to help families struggling with causes of homelessness such as mental illness, physical and learning disabilities, poverty, domestic violence and substance abuse.

Dwelling Place has developed and manages three housing opportunities outside the urban core in rural areas in the cities of Whitehall, Hesperia and Rockford. Renters have to met certain income requirements and rent can be based on income in some circumstances. These housing developments are important for offering affordable housing options for people to live and work in rural areas.

Overall, Dwelling Place owns and manages over 1,000 apartments and homes in 24 housing communities, provides support services for 350 residents, and operates 40 office and commercial real estate properties.