RHF Annual - Retirement Housing Foundation

ANNUAL REPORT 2004 1
A New Vision For Tomorrow
The theme for this year is A New Vision For Tomorrow.
Frank Gaines wrote in Forbes Magazine, “Only he who can
see the invisible can do the impossible.” The history of
those who founded RHF in 1961 and those who have
nurtured this faith-based, national, nonprofit these past 44
years is the story of those who have seen the invisible and
done the impossible. During the memorial service for one
of our founders, the Rev. Clark Harshfield, we recalled his
comments about God’s providence and miracles and
angels – persons who came along at the right time to
expand and enhance the vision. There were many such
persons: Rev. Reinhold Klein and Steve Pilibos, co-founders;
Palmer and Helen Conner who helped Clark and the late
Rev. Dr. Jesse Perrin, Southern California-Southwest
Conference Minister, establish the Plymouth Foundation
which helped to launch RHF and also started or relocated
44 Congregational churches; Jean Moore Warrick, who for
almost 25 years volunteered her time and skills first at
Angelus Plaza and then on the RHF Board of Directors;
Attorney William C. Kelly and Presbyterian Minister John
Glenn, who in 1986 with Rev. Harshfield founded the
nation’s first nonprofit tax credit syndicator, National
Affordable Housing Trust (NAHT), which 19 years later has
preserved or constructed 83 properties with over 9,000
affordable units. Jean Moore paved the way for the ARCO
Foundation to provide an initial grant to get NAHT started.
Later, the Ford Foundation provided a loan to take NAHT to
the next level. Last year, the Board and staff of RHF put in
print our vision, “The vision of Retirement Housing
Foundation is a society in which all persons may have safe,
decent, secure, and affordable shelter which eliminates
circumstances where some persons need to make
desperate choices between paying the rent or purchasing
food or medications. We seek to be an effective instrument
for providing housing and services for older adults,
especially those with limited incomes, persons with
disabilities, and economically disadvantaged families.”
It is not really a new vision, but stating it for all to see is
critical in this time when we are on the leading edge of a
demographic age wave and where so many for-profit
providers and some nonprofits, too, are abandoning the
mission of affordable housing, not out of a lack of caring
but because it is difficult due to issues of staffing, financing,
insurance, and constant regulatory change. RHF also
operates what we call “market rates” which means that
residents pay the total cost of their rent and various
services, including housekeeping and meal service, but the
majority of our communities are for persons who are at the
Rev. Laverne R. Joseph, D.D.
lower end of the economic spectrum. Our vision is to
preserve and create as many units as we can so that more
people might have a better quality of life. But that growth
must be balanced with sound economics within the limits
of financial and human resources. “No margin, no mission”
is more than a catchy phrase. It’s reality.
What have been the major accomplishments of this
past year?
• We took over more space in our national headquarters
office building and completed the design and build out
of this new space, as well as reconfiguration of the
existing space.
• We celebrated our 43rd Anniversary in March 2004.
The Rev. Stephen Gray, Conference Minister of the
Indiana-Kentucky Conference of the United Church of
Christ (UCC) spoke at the Annual Worship Service,