HGAR helps affordable housing effort

The Hudson Gateway Realtor Foundation, the charitable arm of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors, recently presented a check for $3,500 to Sheltering the Homeless is Our Responsibility (SHORE), now known as Sheltering the Homeless is Our Responsibility/Interfaith Council for Affordable Residence Inc. (Shore/Icare). 

Based in White Plains, Shore/Icare builds new multifamily homes or purchases and renovates properties to provide affordable rental apartments for homeless families or families about to become homeless. In addition to providing supported housing, Shore/Icare  supplies donated furniture and appliances to homeless families when they move into their new apartments. It also pays utilities, insurance and home maintenance costs to help residents make ends meet. 

Shore/Icare now operates as an interfaith, nonprofit organization with a mission to develop innovative permanent housing for people without homes and families at imminent risk of homelessness in Westchester County. It is the only agency in Westchester that builds and renovates homes to provide small-scale permanent housing for homeless families. 

“Shore/Icare is very grateful to the Hudson Gateway Realtor Foundation for this generous donation,” said Kim Jacobs, board president. “This will be most useful in caring for the various buildings and projects for the benefit of our tenants.”

In 1990, Shore established its Permanent Housing Program to develop and manage small-scale housing for formerly homeless families and started offering case management support services. Currently, the organization supports 21 families (75+ individuals). In 2019, Shore merged with Icare, a group with a similar origin and purpose, and became Shore/Icare. 

Established in 2004 and relaunched in 2013, the HG Realtor Foundation has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities and nonprofits throughout the Hudson Valley. It participates in qualified community-based charities that serve the housing, hunger, health, happiness and humane needs of citizens everywhere.