City Roots Community Land Trust and Family Promise of Greater Rochester are delighted to announce a new partnership! This summer, Family Promise of Greater Rochester plans to take ownership of two multi-family residential properties in the City of Rochester currently owned by City Roots CLT. These properties will become long-term transitional housing for families exiting homelessness in our community. One property, located in the Marketview Heights neighborhood, has four separate three-bedroom units. The other property, located in the Beechwood neighborhood, has four rental units of various sizes and two ground floor commercial spaces. This partnership will ensure that these properties become true assets in our community.
Family Promise of Greater Rochester (FPGROC) plans to renovate both buildings, adding the residential units to their existing Transitional Housing Program, rolled out in 2023. FPGROC’s holistic services - eviction prevention, diversion, shelter, stabilization case management, and now transitional housing - allow the organization to provide the full scope of homelessness and prevention services. Families in transitional housing pay at- or below-market rent for up to two years and receive long-term case management services in the form of referrals, tangible goods, and advocacy. The primary reason families experience homelessness in Greater Rochester is due to a lack of decent, equitable, and affordable housing; the Transitional Housing Program is a natural next step for FPGROC in addressing family homelessness in the Rochester community.
City Roots will be donating the properties to FPGROC in exchange for a deed restriction on the properties that will give City Roots a right of first refusal to purchase the properties at 70% of their market value should FPGROC ever choose to sell them. This restriction will ensure that both of these properties will remain affordable housing for our community long term. It also facilitates a lasting relationship between our two organizations, and with the future residents of both properties. City Roots first purchased these properties in 2021 as part of a larger acquisition of deeply distressed rental properties across our city. In March of 2023, City Roots began a significant process of restructuring its real estate portfolio, which affected both of these buildings. The organization is so excited to see the project it began with these two buildings continue with FPGROC. Our community deeply needs the housing that Family Promise of Greater Rochester will be able to provide upon completion of renovations.