Anne Mavity from Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative to speak at Dec. 4 Rotary Club of Edina meeting
Rotary Club of Edina will welcome Anne Mavity as the program speaker at the next regular meeting, Thursday, Dec. 4, at the Edina Country Club. Mavity is the director of new projects for Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative. At the meeting, she will focus on the new supportive housing project for youth scheduled to be constructed at 66th Street in Edina, called the 66 West Apartments. The Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative partners with congregations in the Twin Cities metropolitan area to end homelessness through housing, shelter and public advocacy.
They are:
• 70 congregations and counting, committed to ending homelessness in the Twin Cities
• Board, staff and volunteers passionate about the power of home
• 775 residents moving forward with our lives, no longer worried about finding home
• 12 families with children under 18 in our shelter program each day
• Board, staff and volunteers passionate about the power of home
• 775 residents moving forward with our lives, no longer worried about finding home
• 12 families with children under 18 in our shelter program each day
What they do:
• Call for solutions to homelessness in our communities
• Create affordable housing
• Coordinate Families Moving Forward emergency shelter program
• Create affordable housing
• Coordinate Families Moving Forward emergency shelter program
Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative began as one congregation, Plymouth Church in Minneapolis, whose members and clergy mobilized to renovate and refurbish Lydia Apartments, now home to 40 formerly homeless individuals who have a community of support and a safe, warm and comfortable homes.
Today they are more than 50 congregations strong. They have developed nearly 500 homes, about half of which offer supportive services. Nearly 800 people live in Beacon housing. With their congregational partners, they shelter up to eight families at a time, every night of the year.
Beacon has four housing developments in planning now, for youth, families and individuals whose backgrounds present challenges to housing stability, one of which is 66 West Apartments in Edina. They have a goal of 1,000 homes by 2020.
The organization is working on the 66 West Apartments project now. They are acquiring this site to create 39 studio apartments for young adults from the southwest Hennepin County suburbs who have experienced homelessness. Supportive services will be provided on-site.
The project is being developed with partner Edina Community Lutheran Church.
In the newly created role as director of new projects, Anne Mavity oversees Beacon’s housing development and congregational organizing staff and the development of new service partnerships.
Her career includes positions as a senior program officer for the Corporation for Supportive Housing; interim assistant to Hennepin County Commissioner Gail Dorfman; executive director of Minneapolis’s Central Neighborhood Association; and most recently, as president of Mavity Consulting where she served nonprofits including affordable and supportive housing providers.
From 1990 to 1993 she staffed the Congressional Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development, developing and writing federal housing, community and economic development legislation under Committee Chairman Henry B. Gonzalez.
Mavity earned a bachelor of arts from Lawrence University with a double major in Slavic language and literature, and government, as well as a master of public policy with a special emphasis in statistics and economic analysis from Georgetown University. She is married with two children and lives in St. Louis Park, where she is serving her second term as a member of the city council.
New member Ron Kalich is scheduled to be inducted into the Club at the Dec. 4 meeting.
Rotary Club of Edina meetings are open to the public. All are welcome. The cost for lunch and the program is $18. The meeting begins around 12:15 p.m. and ends promptly at 1:30.