Partner Partner Content 50 Years, 50 Stories: Story #2 Dawn Farm’s Chapin Street Project

Founded in 1973, Dawn Farm offers a source of help and hope for those who struggle with alcohol and drug addiction. In 1998, Dawn Farm’s Executive Director Jim Balmer understood that many clients needed safe, recovery-based transitional housing. To support the idea, the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation provided a $12,000 grant to fund a best-practices study of effective housing models.

But fate intervened. The day after the grant was approved, a notorious crack house on Ann Arbor’s Chapin Street was raided and closed. Jim Balmer called the Community Foundation to ask permission to use the grant to rent the house and set up a transitional housing program. Believing in Dawn Farm’s track record and vision, AAACF said yes.
One house became two, then four, and over the years Dawn Farm’s Chapin Street Project has grown to include a collection of small houses and apartment complexes that house more than 140 men and women each day. AAACF’s original grant has helped Dawn Farm make a transformative difference in the lives of more than 3,000 men and women. 

One of the many ways the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation
supports all that is good in our community.
 
Read more “good” stories at: aaacf.org