Community Housing Services

Industry Profile Report

Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters

Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.

Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.

Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.

Industry Profile Excerpts

Industry Overview

The 6,900 community housing providers in the US offer emergency and transitional housing. Firms may also subsidize housing using existing homes, apartments, hotels, or motels. The industry includes organizations that provide low-cost housing in partnership with the homeowner who assists in construction or repair of a home (Habitat for Humanity) and that repair homes for the elderly or disabled homeowners.

Dependence on Government Funding

The community housing industry is dependent on government funding, which accounts for about 60% of social assistance (over 40% of total revenue).

Shift to Permanent Housing

Government policy that prioritizes ending homelessness quickly has created more permanent housing solutions for the homeless.

Industry size & Structure

The average community housing provider employs between 15 and 23 workers and generates between $1.7 million and $2 million annually.

    • The community housing industry consists of about 6,900 organizations that employ about 160,000 workers and generate almost $19 billion annually.
    • The industry is highly fragmented; the top 50 companies account for between 25.8% and 29.2% of industry revenue.
    • Most organizations are small and independent and operate at a local level. National organizations like Habitat for Humanity are the exception. Almost all organizations (over 95%) are tax-exempt.
    • The community housing industry is part of a complex network of emergency shelters, transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, and public housing.
    • Temporary shelters account for 48% of establishments and 44% of revenue. Other types of community housing account for 52% of establishments and 56% of revenue.
    • US cities with the largest homeless populations include Los Angeles; New York; Seattle; San Jose, CA; and Oakland, CA.
                                    Industry Forecast
                                    Community Housing Services Industry Growth
                                    Source: Vertical IQ and Inforum

                                    Recent Developments

                                    Mar 20, 2024 - Personal Income Increase may Reduce Demand
                                    • Personal income, an indicator of demand for community housing services, increased moderately during the first seven months of 2023, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. Demand for community housing services is likely to decrease as personal income increases. Industry employment and wages for nonsupervisory employees increased moderately during 2023, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
                                    • Homelessness increased 0.3% from 2020 to 2022, a period marked by both pandemic-related economic disruptions and robust investments of federal resources into human services, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Homelessness increased 6% from 2017 through 2022. Counts of homeless individuals (421,392 people) and chronically homeless individuals (127,768) reached record highs in 2022.
                                    • Over 16% people aged 12 and older had a substance use disorder in 2022, according to the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health conducted by the US Department of Health and Human Services. The survey also found that nearly 25% of adults had a mental illness, including about 8% who experienced both mental illness and substance use disorder. About 20% of adolescents ages 12 to 17 had had a major depressive episode in the past year.
                                    • A California city has turned to "micro apartments" to ease it's affordable housing crisis. Sonrisa is the third micro apartment community to open in the Sacramento region in recent years. While its 58 units are all 267-square-feet, the 11-story 19J building in Midtown offers an average of 415 square feet, and studio apartments at West Sacramento’s Kind are 360 square feet. Experts say that more of these apartments and their below-average rents could ease the affordable housing crisis across the US. They caution, however, that community opposition, a lack of public funding, and other concerns could stymie the trend of going small.
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