CHAI: Comprehensive Housing Assistance, Inc. has helped countless community members secure safe housing, improve their living spaces through loans and avoid eviction and foreclosure.
This year, the organization is celebrating 40 years of offering those services, and will be holding a special event to commemorate this achievement at the Edward A. Myerberg Center on Thursday, May 2.
First founded in 1983, CHAI was originally started to service the Park Heights neighborhood in particular. At the time, many Jewish families were moving out of the area and into the suburbs, so there was a vested interest in keeping the community stable for people who still lived there.
The organization was started by Ken Gelula, who served as its first executive director. Gelula was working for The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore at the time. CHAI began its operations in the basement of the former Beth Jacob Congregation with around 15-20 employees.
Over the years, CHAI’s work has expanded to encompass Baltimore’s northwestern region.
“We’ve always thought of Park Heights as the perfect campus. It’s a focal point of the Jewish communal agency system, and an area where the Orthodox community has been focused for generations,” said Lisa Budlow, CHAI’s CEO. “We want to create strong communities for life there. Everything we do is intended to strengthen the neighborhoods we are working with in northwest Baltimore.”
Over the years, a lot of things have changed for CHAI, right down to the kinds of buildings the organization is able to facilitate construction for. For many years, it operated within what staff referred to as the GSA, or general service area. More recently, CHAI has begun operations in Pikesville and Owings Mills and has started working with other community organizations.
The nature of CHAI’s work has also changed. CHAI started out with a focus on building affordable housing for seniors. It still supports seniors both through housing and through stewardship of the Myerberg Center, but it is also dedicated to affordable housing for families.
“Home ownership is really important because it stabilizes the community,” explained Ellen Jarrett, CHAI’s vice president of housing planning and development. “Everything I do is related to rental housing, but home ownership and helping people buy or fix up homes really helps with community stabilization.”
One of CHAI’s most notable recent projects has been the creation of the Woodland Gardens housing development. Woodland Gardens II, an affordable apartment complex for seniors, opened its doors in November 2023 after six years of planning. The COVID-19 pandemic and the need to seek funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development stalled the project. Its sister building, Woodland Gardens I, is still in development but opened its lease application process in December 2023.
Budlow noted that one of her personal proudest achievements as part of CHAI was taking over the Myerberg Center in 2016.
“We’re really proud of how it blossomed and how it navigated the pandemic,” she said. “It has just so much vibrant activity, and it’s just so meaningful to all members who participate in the programs.”
Notably, CHAI’s upcoming 40th anniversary celebration is its first time holding an anniversary event.
“We have our annual meeting, but we’ve never had a big anniversary celebration outside of that,” Jarrett said. “It’s really to celebrate the fact that we’ve been around this long, and to thank not just the staff but all of our community partners. The city and county politicians, community groups … it’s a very long list.”
While many of CHAI’s projects were delayed or faced difficulties due to the pandemic, Budlow is excited to be able to move past that and forge ahead with new projects. The organization will be entering its next strategic planning phase soon.
CHAI’s work has helped better the community in many ways, aiding northwest Baltimore’s neighborhoods in navigating housing crises and creating homes for people in need. Budlow added that the gratitude they have received from community members is the greatest reward she could ask for.
“We just got a letter from a longtime client, saying, ‘I never could have stayed in my home,’” she recalled. “We make a difference in people’s lives every day.”
