Main Street Housing, Inc.

Our Mission: To develop quality, affordable, independent rental housing opportunities for individuals and families with psychiatric disabilities.

The Main Street Model: A Home Makes All The Difference!

Housing is a basic human need, and there have been many, many research studies about the importance of stable housing when it comes to improving mental health. At Main Street Housing, we also see the crucial difference between housing and home.

 Housing provides you with four walls and a roof, running water and heat, and a door that locks. A home is a sanctuary, a safe space for healing and recovery, a stable foundation on which you can grow and thrive. Maintaining a home brings pride and empowerment, membership in the community, and the autonomy to shape your environment to support your continued wellness.

Studies reflect that people with mental health needs much prefer to live in independent housing in their community. Rather than live in housing specifically designed around “illness,” many people seek to regain a sense of normalcy and find a space that promotes wellness and independence. Unfortunately, there is a significant shortage of decent, safe, affordable, independent housing across the country. This is where Main Street Housing, Inc. is leading the way with an innovative approach to developing housing opportunities for people with mental health needs and limited means.

As a statewide non-profit Community Development Housing Organization, we purchase quality properties in diverse communities across Maryland, following rigorous Property Selection Criteria to make sure Tenants have convenient access to public transportation and community amenities like grocery stores and health clinics.

Our property management is more than what a typical Landlord provides. Main Street Housing staff check in on every property at least once each month, both to inspect for maintenance needs and to offer coaching to Tenants on fulfilling their obligations under the Lease Agreement. Our guiding principle is one of supportive accountability: setting clear expectations around Tenant rights and responsibilities, coupled with friendly and empowering support in meeting those expectations. Everyone on the MSH team is a current or former recipient of mental health services, and we take the time to listen and work collaboratively with our Tenants. We create relationships and environments where people can succeed and stay stably housed.

 

Our History:

Main Street Housing, Inc. was founded by our Executive Director, Kenneth Wireman, in 1999. A veteran of the public mental health system, he recognized an opportunity to both improve the quality of life for countless individuals and families and to help transform how the sector conceptualized of housing for people with disabilities.

Historically, housing opportunities for people with psychiatric disabilities and low income have been tied to their participation in mental health services. This creates a paradox: achieving more independence and psychiatric wellness can place a person's housing in jeopardy.

With the support of leaders in the mental health consumer movement and state administrators, Main Street Housing, Inc. launched as a consumer-run organization with an effective and recovery-based model for the development of affordable, independent housing in the community – one that allows people to be Tenants, not patients.

Although we ensure that individuals who choose to live in our housing have a psychiatric disability, we firmly believe that being a good Tenant should be the only fundamental condition a person has to meet to maintain decent and permanent housing that allows real recovery and wellness to happen.