Residents at Lumien 2, an affordable housing apartment complex in Durango, are receiving access to skill-building programs with the help of Rainbow Housing Assistance Corp.
Lumien 2 houses people who earn between 30% and 60% of the area’s median income, with 36 units set aside as affordable housing for the next 40 years. Rainbow, a national nonprofit selected by Lumien owner MGL Partners, aims to empower and educate residents in the rental community.
“Rainbow is actively working with MGL Partners to help residents become self-sufficient,” said Flynann Janisse, Rainbow’s executive director, in a news release Monday. “We selected programs and services which met the needs of the community with the opportunity to expand and enhance as we learn more about each resident.”
The programs at Lumien 2 cover home buying, obtaining a GED and learning English as a second language through live webinars and web-based programming.
Rainbow’s part-time resident services coordinator facilitates in-person workshops, at which all participants wear masks, undergo temperature checks and maintain social distancing in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the release said.
As of Thursday, 46 residents have been connected to Rainbow, which began its services Oct. 1, according to Rainbow and Lumien staff members.
“We see Rainbow’s high-quality programs as an opportunity to give back to our community and uplift the well-being of our residents,” said Mike Gerber, co-founder and principal of MGL Partners, in the release.
The nonprofit, which supports 116 communities nationwide, says its programs can improve occupancy, reduce turnover costs and lower concessions for partnering developers.
For residents, it offers free after-school educational programs for youths, health care resources, computer literacy courses, financial resource management and more.
Those programs help residents feel a renewed sense of stability, enhanced financial security and technological skills and other benefits, according to Rainbow’s program materials.
smullane@durangoherald.com
