A.H. of Monroe County, Inc 2023 Annual Report

OUR MISSION

• Provide case-managed health care, food programs, counseling, housing, resources and services to individuals and families, clinical, and other supportive and volunteer services.

• Increase affordable housing by acquiring, developing, and maintaining low-income and work-force housing for persons in need.

• Conduct health education, linkage to care, and housing programs that further seek an HIV-Free generation.

• Work to eliminate homelessness in Monroe County.

THE CORPORATION IS DIVIDED INTO TWO DIVISIONS:

AH HEALTH is driven by a shared vision of health and well-being for all. Through specialized care for HIV/ AIDS, we are committed to empowering individuals, fostering resilience, and building a thriving, inclusive community.

AH HOUSING is dedicated to transforming lives through affordable housing solutions, empowering individuals and families by providing safe, sustainable, and inclusive housing opportunities in Monroe County.

In 1986, with the founding of this Agency, the seed was planted.

The Keys community provided sustenance. Our growth is not a sprint but a marathon.

By 2023, the fruit of those labors is visible everywhere, and no more obvious than the partnerships and cooperations with other social service and healthcare organizations.

Our alliances with the Florida Department of Health, the Monroe County Homeless Services Continuum of Care, Inc., Wesley House Family Services, Vestcor, Midway Specialty Clinic, City of Key West, the Housing Authority, and the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys — to name a few — make them valuable participants in our Mission of HEALTH + HOUSING.

2023 accelerated those bonds.

Growth requires patience and perseverance. Although its official inauguration was in January of this year, 2023 was spent planning the assimilation of Florida Keys Outreach Coalition (FKOC) into our organization as a subsidiary. Two Boards and two staffs deconstructed, then reconstructed, how FKOC would meld with our infrastructure, from grant writing to marketing, to eliminating any duplicated services.

What emerged are two nonprofits in some ways leaner, and in other aspects, expanded.

With FKOC and the Monroe County Homeless Services Continuum of Care, we’re advancing from the blueprint stage into the funding mechanism for The Poinciana Project (at Poinciana Plaza, on Duck Avenue), which will increase the units now available to a potential 200+ of transitional and permanent housing

inventory. This will warrant community input, demolition and moving housing residents into new facilities based on a construction schedule — no easy feat — in a phased approach.

After years of dialogue with the City of Key West and the Community, we move toward a Summer 2025 opening of The Lofts at Bahama Village, with 98 rental apartments and 28 ownership units.

We even divided our AHMonroe.org site into two separate websites to make waitlists, qualifications and what to expect more clearcut: AHHealth.org and AHHousing.org, You can also access FKOC’s website from there.

The SMART Ride wrote the final chapter of its 20-year success story with the Miami-to-KeyWest journey last November, but hold on to your helmets...a county ride is planned for Fall 2024.

None of this takes into account the 4100 adults, families and children of Monroe County AH and FKOC we will serve over the next twelve months. Because that’s what we’re about: people.

Need, which we regard as an opportunity to serve, will continue to unfurl. Our timber of services is strong and we will always lend support if another nonprofit needs guidance… or more. We are steadfast in our goal to retain our community families and friendships.

E. SCOTT PRIDGEN Executive Director

Growth requires patience and perseverance.

Board of Directors

PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT

Rebecca Balcer Laurie McChesney

TREASURER SECRETARY

Neil Chamberlain Gregory S. Oropeza, Esq.

MEMBERS

Juan Benitez

David Campbell-O’Dell

Christopher Elwell

Donna Feldman

Jennifer Hughes

Samuel Kaufman

Stuart Kaufman

Jacqueline Luhta

John Spottswood III

Dawn Thornburgh

Stephen Aube

CLIENT LIAISON

Marcus Varner

E. Scott Pridgen EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Special thanks to our Advisory Committee Members

Donald Dotzauer

Dr. Carla Frye

Bryan Green

Niels Hubble

Stephanie Kaple

Where we are

KEY WEST - LOWER KEYS

William Malpass

Mark Roby

John Sangston

Chris Welts

Genya Yerkes

MARATHON - MIDDLE KEYS

• Gordon Rollins Center 1434 Kennedy Drive

• Poinciana Royale 1341 McCarthy Lane

• Marty’s Place 1909 Venetia Street

• FKOC 3154 Northside Drive, #201

• Ruth Ivins Center 3333 Overseas Hwy.

TAVERNIER - UPPER KEYS

• Coral Isles Church 90001 Overseas Highway Tavernier, FL 33070

This time last year, I wrote that 2022 was a busy year at the Agency.

2023 YEAR IN REVIEW

Little did I know how the ground would shift in 2023!

With the Board’s oversight, last year concentrated on the integration of The Florida Keys Outreach Coalition For The Homeless, Inc. (FKOC) into AH as a subsidiary. The ‘why’ was easy. It took dedication to make the ‘how’ fall into place. With AH an active affordable housing developer and housing advocate, such as with the Lofts at Bahama Village, why not provide stewardship to the heartbreaking plight of the homeless and hungry?

REBECCA BALCER

AH Board President

Housing is healthcare. AH’s mission of Health + Housing is uniquely aligned with FKOC. From homelessness to homeownership, we can be pivotal in shaping our community.

With that welcome also came a goodbye as, after twenty years, we bid farewell to The SMART Ride … but exciting plans are afoot to reinvent a Lower Keys fundraising ride. The Key West Mile Markers, I can assure you, still have their eye on the horizon.

We’re not done. We never are. Part of a nonprofit’s journey is ensuring the soil is fertile for seedlings of help and hope. Watching the Agency branch out into new collaborations and “grafting” on a new affiliation means our connectivity to the Keys is as steadfast as ever.

We are sowers of seed within the field of human need.

KAREN FRANK & JERRY HUGHES

Could there have been a better compass for the final SMART Ride than Karen Frank and partner Jerry Hughes? On the road as Key West Mile Markers, or off, they are an energetic team in life and love who define esprit de corps. Add to that their willingness to assist AH — where Karen was once employed and for whom Jerry volunteers to honor his brother Christopher, who was lost early to AIDS in 1992 — and they make very real the phrase “power couple”.

UNSUNG HEROES 2023

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE FLORIDA KEYS

Love inclusively, learn continuously, live spiritually, and leave a legacy to make the world a better place.

THE PILLARS OF SUPPORT YOU

Rodney Ross MARKETING/PR DIRECTOR

Christie Moore JUNIOR ACCOUNTANT/ SUPPORTIVE SERVICES

Giselle

Rocabruno Mora MEDICAL CASE MANAGER

E. Scott Pridgen EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CEO

Mark O’Brien WEBMASTER

Jason Hatch LEAD MEDICAL CASE MANAGER

Jennifer Suarez HEALTH COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST

Annette Mobley PROPERTY MANAGER

Esneider Gomez DEPUTY DIRECTOR

Bryan Rowland HOUSING SERVICES MANAGER

John Guy DIRECTOR OF A.H. HOUSING SERVICES

Guillermo Vasquez MAINTENANCE ENGINEER

Michael Hodge MEDICAL CASE MANAGER

Michelle Norwood DIRECTOR OF CLIENT SERVICES

Lauren Cuviello DIRECTOR OF COMPLIANCE

Maria Downes FKOC WOMEN & FAMILIES PROGRAM MANAGER

Lenny Vander Molen FKOC NEECE PROGRAM ASSISTANT

Carolyn Woodhead FKOC DIRECTOR OF CLIENT SERVICES

Andrielle Blevins FKOC PEACOCK SUPPORTIVE LIVING PROGRAM MANAGER

Julian

Stephen

Dave

YOU CAN COUNT ON

Dean

William

Randy

Mark Tischler DIRECTOR OF FINANCE

Chuck Brown FRONT DESK

Giselda Liotta HOUSING CASE MANAGER

Margie Cooper RN – INTENSIVE CASE MANAGER

Joe Petrick FRONT DESK ADMINISTRATION

Kevin de la Rosa MAINTENANCE ENGINEER

Katie Lutz MEDICAL CASE MANAGER

Joan Higgs

– INTENSIVE CASE MANAGER

Geno Sickler

Deb Franke

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Steve Grundmeier GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Pete Yatsuk

MAINTENANCE ENGINEER

Michelle Norwood DIRECTOR OF CLIENT SERVICES

Great oaks from little acorns grow.

That’s how the proverb goes.

In 1986, frightened and worried people gathered on a back porch to start what was then-called AIDS Help.

I came to work at (AIDS Help) in 2001 as a 22 year-old kid. I sat with my first client in Hospice care as he transitioned out of this life; in 2023 I did it again, with a long-time client I had known since 2001. Loss is less frequent now, but its weight and senselessness is the same. As the HIV healthcare landscape changed — the ebband-flow of grants, different funding, new providers — AH Client Services has been the one constant. Yet we had to evolve, too. Now it’s about equity — acknowledging what need looks like at each moment in time without categorizing clients as needy — and never using a cookie-cutter approach. Whether they relocated here, are refugees or a neighbor from down the street, these are the friends and neighbors we care for. After all, we are them.

A roof over your head promotes physical and mental wellness.

The first AH Monroe board meeting.

Strides in healthcare reduced the grim mortality rate.

By 2023, nearly 65% of our clients living with HIV are age 50 and older.

Our vision broadened as we helped our community navigate hurricanes, a pandemic and an ongoing housing crisis.

Our logo and branding did too.

Health is Housing, so became an Agency priority.

Affordable housing is vanishing. Nine people are living in two-bedroom apartments. I get calls: ‘My place has gone up for sale and I have nowhere to go!’ The trust I have established with landlords is critical. Having a home after not having one is not always easy so I advocate for the property owner as much as our client, acting as a go-between to make sure a tenant, no matter what issues they have, is capable of being self-sufficient. Our landlords know a whole team stands behind that tenant. Sometimes they call me with an availability.

Where would I be without AH?”

Edward Vosburgh contemplates.

”AH housing has created a safe haven and peace of mind. I’m close to several neighbors…one treats me like she’s my mother. I’m not going anywhere.

Nutrition and food security is part of the equation.

FKOC housing adds 175 beds for men, women & children

Rick D’Amico had no inkling adulthood would bring HIV and homelessness.

When you’re homeless, your only focus is survival. I wanted to thrive. AH gave me hope and perspective and saved my life. I have retired in Key West. How many can say that?

Long-time collaborator FKOC officially joined AH as a subsidiary to stop Monroe County hunger and homelessness in its tracks.

Carolyn Woodhead DIRECTOR OF FKOC

A new client’s stabilization, figuring out their barriers, is the key. There’s nothing more rewarding than to provide a support system to a single mother of two — place them in temporary housing, encourage her to earn a degree in office management — then watch her put it to use. They have their own place up the Keys now. How lucky am I to be able to offer a safety net to disadvantaged men, women and children?

SEEBOL PLACE POINCIANA ROYALE

McCARTHY-ROGERS MARTY’S PLACE

HARVEY HOUSE

Gisi Liotta HOUSING CASE MANAGER

LOFTS

AT BAHAMA VILLAGE

It begins!

With a projected Summer 2025 opening, the construction of the Lofts at Bahama Village is underway ... and everyone is interested in living in one African-Americans have watched Bahama Village be put on the back burner repeatedly. We’ve given our heart and soul to this island.

— Lakay Barnett is a 4th generation Conch who’s determined her daughter Zaylee will represent the 5th and that she will be raised at The Lofts at Bahama Village.

of the 98 rental units and 28 home ownership units.

One valuable takeaway has been reinforced: there is never TOO MUCH public information. Inclusiveness is critical. Everyone deserves a place at this table.

At publication time, 490 households have expressed interest. Consideration of eligible applicants for both rental and homeowners will be based on area median income requirements, as well as rental rates and homeownership sale pricing published by HUD and the City of Key West.

Applications will be sent in the Spring of 2025 and will adhere to a marketing plan of four tiers:

1. Applicants currently living within Bahama Village are prioritized.

2. If any units remain, families with children living within Key West city limits will be considered.

3. These applicants would constitute single households living within the Key West city limits.

4. If applicants of the three previous tiers have been exhausted, households living outside the Key West city limits will be considered.

For more information and to follow the progress of the development, visit: ahhousing.org/properties/lofts-at-bahama-village/

Even before the integration of Keys Outreach Coalition (FKOC) organization, we were working with the Key West Housing Authority, Naval Properties Local Redevelopment Authority of the City of Key West and the Monroe County Homeless Continuum of Care on what we call Poinciana Project

Duck Avenue) for the homeless. Late 2023 saw measurable advances from blueprints to increase the units now available to a potential 200+ of transitional and permanent housing inventory. Demolition and moving housing residents into new facilities based on a construction schedule will be no easy feat.

As always, community input and transparency is the key to ensuring slow and steady growth.

Pictured above is the aerial site plan on 3401 Duck Ave

Finance Highlights FY 2023