American Family Housing

American Family Housing creates and sustains affordable, services-enriched housing, in safe, stable communities so that everyone has access to a home they can afford and the opportunity to live a fulfilling life.

AFH is uniquely qualified to operate housing and housing services together, with both in-house property management and in-house supportive services. Established in 1985, AFH has operated in the Southern California community for nearly 40 years. What began as one single-family home in Santa Ana, AFH today operates more than 60 residential properties in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Each year AFH serves approximately 2,300 adults and children.

• Innovative & cutting-edge affordable housing developer and service provider.
• Nearly 40 years of operating in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
• 95 staff + 20 social work interns.
• Strong base of volunteerism.
• More than 60 residential properties in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
• Together: a trauma-informed, proven team that does whatever it takes, for as long as it takes.

AFH is a regional contributor to ending homelessness. We expand locally, with local successes in the communities we serve, while the design of our housing and programs is focused on driving forward systems-changing innovations that support the larger effort to address homelessness and housing inequity. One example of our innovation is the use of modular construction to speed up housing construction. Another is our efforts to link housing and healthcare, where we recognize that housing is the key economic and social condition that affect health outcomes and is a major underlying, contributing factors of health inequities. Access to safe, quality, affordable housing – along with the supports necessary to maintain that housing such as income and good nutrition - constitutes one of the most basic and powerful factors that determines one's health. AFH taps into sustainable, targeted funding streams to pilot new and innovative supportive housing financing models. As a result, the number of families, individuals, children and veterans we are able to help has increased sharply.

REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT
• AFH serves more than 60 formerly homeless veteran households through its Veterans Initiative, integrating Veterans Affairs healthcare into housing in new communities such Potters Lane and Isla Intersections, where we converted surplus shipping containers into housing for homeless veterans.
• AFH opens a 53-unit housing community in the LA Promise Zone this year. Made with shipping containers, the community will feature AFH’s Housing for Health program and collaboration with Veterans Affairs healthcare.
• The 71-unit Casa Paloma in Midway City is the first Housing for a Healthy California community. AFH cut time and costs by using pre-fabricated modular units delivered and stacked over just two weeks.
• AFH is added 150 units to its portfolio each year, including the conversion of three hotels- a total of 250 units- into housing for people who are medically vulnerable.

SUPPORTIVE SERVICES
• Supportive Services tailored to each household’s needs. At no charge.
• Case management, counseling, employment search, life skills training, food assistance, transportation assistance and other services to residents in permanent supportive housing.
• Children’s program offers free summer camps, birthday parties, back to school events, school supply drives, and weekly tutoring.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
• AFH manages many of its own properties, ranging from single family homes all the way up to 100 units.
• Our property management team is constantly working to improve our customer service, through training, teamwork, and through using time-saving tools, such as a mobile work order management system.
• Our property management works closely with our services team and community partners to support high quality buildings and the best results achievable for our tenants.

While AFH has a highly diverse revenue stream, the agency relies upon private donations - both cash and in-kind donations - to support the work we do. Many of our initiatives focus on working without any public resources or government funding, so that we can work cost effectively and to our own standards. Other of our initiatives rely on government funds (such as our Medi-Cal funded staffing positions), and with private donations to supplement those funds, we can focus on results: what makes sense for the households we serve.
Donate now! https://afhusa.org/donate/
Whenever you volunteer at AFH, you know you are making a difference. Our volunteer program starts with an internal needs assessment, under which the AFH team identities gaps in resources that prevent us from fulfilling our mission. Our social events are specifically designed to build community and social connection, bringing the resilience that we know in each other into our residential communities. Our donations drives are driven by need, such as move-in baskets for people moving into our housing and off the streets. Whenever AFH opens a new building, we make it a goal to fill every kitchen with dishes and donated food, along with handwritten welcome notes. Most recently, we have opened a “pop-up” clothing donations store that rotates among a few of our properties. Come learn more about us by volunteering!

AFH is looking to expand the number and diversity of Directors on its Board! AFH’s Board of Directors is active and works robustly to support our nonprofit mission. All Board members make contributions meaningful to the individual in support of AFH, and all Board members are supported in this. The Board connects with the people we serve by participating in activities including volunteer activities at our sites, mixers, ribbon cuttings, community open houses, and by attending Board meetings. The Board has set itself the gal to assure that all board members are engaged and welcome, and that the Board has cultivated a circle of potential and future Board members who would support broader diversity on the Board.

AFH serves all of Orange County, parts of Los Angeles County, and parts of San Bernardino counties. From Culver City to Alhambra, and from Pasadena all the way into into Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa. Our home has always been in the heart of Westminster in the Midway City area within Little Saigon, while our main administrative offices are situated in the Norwalk area. Because our integrated model emphasizes incorporating both property management and supportive services into all of our communities, we limit our real estate development and acquisitions to locations that are less than one hour's drive from any of our main offices.

I’m so grateful that the AFH Board of Directors allowed me the opportunity to serve as AFH’s lead when I joined in 2017. When I interviewed for my role as Chief Executive Officer, I had three main talking points.

First, I observed that AFH had a strong history of community, volunteerism and strong assets, and that AFH was potentially at a crossroads as to who this wonderful community of people and homes should become. A real estate developer? A services provider? A management company? I argued that American Family Housing should be all of those, and yet, one nonprofit can not fulfill its own mission statement alone given there is so much work than AFH could ever extend its own reach to accomplish. Thus, I made the case that AFH’s focus should be on innovating and piloting the integration of housing and operations, with a focus on the whole person, on trauma-informed practices, and on cost-effective efforts that minimize reliance on outside operating support. And then support the expansion of those practices throughout the region.
Secondly, I said that we can end homelessness, that we already know what to do and how to do it, but ending homelessness isn’t something that can come from a far-away legislative action; we have to make it happen, here, here in our community, and we must show the stakeholders in the community what the future could look like if we follow practices that are proven to work. (As a side note, not every thinks we can end homelessness. Well, I beg to differ; and you should, too.)
Thirdly, I said that we should never miss the chance to build more housing, and that means innovating, such as using modular housing development. However, I emphasized that we need to focus on results, first: cheaper, faster construction, and high quality homes.

Please sign up to volunteer, donate, or email me at milo@afhusa.org, and I would be pleased to arrange for a tour of our newest communities.

My name is Lauri Reveles, and I am the chair of the all-volunteer board directors of American Family Housing.
The purpose of the Board of American Family Housing is: • To be diligent in the governance of the organization, establishing, reviewing and maintaining policies which ensure best practices are followed, and financial, human and capital resources are guided and managed with the highest degree of accountability and care. • To guide AFH to be the preeminent developer of affordable housing in California, maximizing the organization’s potential and ensuring the universal provision of housing and services to those most in need. • To ensure sustainability for AFH, building for the future and creating an organization that is systems- and mission-oriented, and self-perpetuating. • To serve as passionate ambassadors for AFH, driving positive perceptions of AFH, nurturing relationships with sources of funding and deals, and promoting the work of AFH within our networks. • To provide guidance to the staff as a value-add, setting and affirming priorities, providing wise counsel in managing growth, assessing risks, and engaging in planning and budgeting that supports the staff as they implement plans.
On behalf of the board of directors, I’d like to thank the cities and agencies we work with for choosing to partner with us in order to get results for their communities. I'd like to thank our donors and volunteers for extending our reach. And we invite you to join us as a donor, as a volunteer, as an advocate in our communities, and perhaps, as you get to know us better, as a board member.