The RootStock Foundation

The Mission of A Community of Friends is to end homelessness through the provision of quality, permanent, supportive housing for people with mental illness.

The Values of A Community of Friends include; Dignity, all people, regardless of their circumstances, deserve to be treated with respect and to have a home; Excellence, we provide quality housing and services as a reflection of our personal and organizational commitment and; Community, our projects and services promote sustainability and serve as a foundation for stability, health and well-being.

Villas at Gower, Hollywood, A Community of Friends, completed April 2012

The RootStock Foundation and A Community of Friends have entered into a commitment for the advancement of A Community of Friend’s goals in developing real estate to house the homeless, in combination with The RootStock Foundation's goals to establish productive urban farming components at developments that will provide locally grown, pure, chemical-free foods in urban food deserts and, also, production in sufficient abundance that can be used to create revenues and the basis for an agriculture economy as an underpinning of support for low-income and homeless people.

The RootStock Foundation and A Community Of Friends agree that it is to their greatest advantage to develop these complimentary strategies in multiple locations, as many as logistically possible, establishing a first line of nutritional defense against the likelihood of homelessness, as well as the main hubs for restoring permaculture, water conservation, and a biological means of mitigating the effects of heat islands in hardscape urban settings with a network of fresh-foods production centers. The combined goal is to provide respite from blight, poor nutrition, and the uninspired living conditions that exist in cities across America.

The parties enter into this Memorandum of Understanding with the goal of reversing that decline, and reinforcing the underpinnings for a sustainable quality of life.