Local homeless transition and recovery organization Cottage Housing Incorporated will celebrate its 15th year Wednesday with a fundraising celebration entitled "Beacon of Hope" at the Crest Theatre. The event will include and evening of reflection, entertainment and launch the program's Home Run! initiative. CHI President and CEO Robert Tobin has been deeply involved with Sacramento's homeless community throughout the past 10 years. "Homelessness is a symptom of larger systemic issues within our society," Tobin said. "Increasing challenges within our educational and medical systems affect some people more than others." To aid individuals and families in need, CHI opened its first living

Last week, 15 formerly homeless individuals were recognized for their transition off the streets during Cottage Housing’s semi-annual graduation ceremony. The honorees, seven men and eight women, tearfully but eloquently told the audience about the struggles to get into the two year program, and the success which has resulted from their time there. Tom Pratt, a 2010 graduate of the program, started his stay at Quinn Cottages in January 2008. “I came with very few possessions, no job and eight months of sobriety. I didn’t know a lot about Quinn Cottages, but I was determined to use my time here to get back on my feet and return to society as a tax payer and not a tax taker,” said Pratt.

Everyone wants "affordable" housing. But few people know what that is. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has defined affordable housing as no more than 30 percent of a household's income. That means you shouldn't be paying more than 30 percent of your income for housing — whether mortgage payments or rent — plus utilities each month. "People think affordable housing means just one thing. But it doesn't," said Sandra Hamameh, program director for the Sacramento Housing Alliance. "It means being able to afford a place to live, at whatever stage you're in in your life." Levels of affordability are also based on an area's median incomes. The median incomes for Sacramento

A proposal is in the works to create one of the largest permanent supportive housing projects in the city. The $41 million building at Seventh and H streets also is poised to become the city's newest single-resident occupancy, or SRO, structure. The infill project would feature sustainable design and materials, so the developers and architects will ask the U.S. Green Building Council to certify it as a sustainable building. But perhaps most unique about the public-private project being developed by Mercy Housing and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency is that it would offer support services to formerly homeless people in innovative and mixed-population permanent housing. Its

Thursday afternoon, about 50 seniors, homeless and other community members participated in the Sacramento Housing Alliance Affordable Housing Bus Tour. The tour surveyed 10 different housing options and stopped to provide in-depth tours of three housing complexes. Guided by Shamus Roller, director of the SHA, Ken Cross, CEO of Sacramento Habitat for Humanity and Paul Ainger, Mercy Housing project developer, the four-hour tour began and ended at the SHA office in Midtown. "It's important to know what affordable housing means," Ainger said. According to the federal government, housing is considered "affordable" when a person renting or buying it spends no more than 30 percent of his or her