Open Doors Atlanta receives 2020 Community Involvement Grant from NorthMarq’s Atlanta office

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MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA (December 18, 2020) – NorthMarq’s Atlanta office presented Open Doors with a 2020 Community Involvement Grant. The organization is a community partnership of real estate experts, developers, building owners, non-profit service providers, and funders committed to finding homes for Atlanta area residents in need of affordable housing. This partnership reduces both the number of homeless and the cost to house them by carefully screening families and individuals before placing them into available apartments across Atlanta.

“Those of us in the multifamily industry have been fortunate to participate in one of the most resilient and well-performing asset classes in the US. It’s only fitting that we find a way to give back within our industry, and Open Doors has been a leader in the Atlanta area in working to eradicate homelessness,” said Jason Nettles, managing director – investment sales.

Since 2013, Open Doors has found housing for over 8,000 homeless individuals thanks to its coordination with apartment owners and operators who have agreed to accept formerly homeless tenants into their properties. Their efforts combat the terrible numbers of homelessness in the Atlanta region, including 3,217 people without a home on any given night who have to sleep in an emergency shelter or on the street, and 719 people who are daily homeless and unsheltered/living on the street.

“The NorthMarq grant will support housing navigators who will recruit and train property managers and owners in our transformational applications and web tools to get formerly homeless Atlantans into housing faster. For thousands, this will be the difference of months, or years, on the streets or in shelters, preventing health and mental health traumas from being added to the economic violence already experienced from losing one’s home. The involvement of NorthMarq, and their prestigious client base in the Southeast, will accelerate our growth to many more diverse housing options for those most vulnerable. Money matters, but the people behind the money are just as important,” said Aaron Goldman, Chairman of the Board, Open Doors.

In the third year of NorthMarq’s Community Involvement Grant program, the company has awarded grants to 18 non-profits in 16 cities. The program solicits nominations from each local office, and had an increase of 20 percent from 2019, with a total of 18 non-profits focused on affordable housing and reducing homelessness receiving these grants in 2020.