The team that founded Maisie’s Place, a nonprofit that provides in-home supportive living services to adults with disabilities, started by seeking to fulfill a need. Realizing that the level of service available to developmentally disabled adults living on their own in the Greater Sacramento area could be elevated, Patricia Costanza co-founded Maisie’s Place with her daughter and husband.
Working as a vendor of the Alta California Regional Center, Maisie’s Place launched in early 2023 and provides services to clientele in Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado and Nevada counties.
The Maisie’s Place staff provides 24/7 services to their clientele, working with them to achieve their goals for independent living, which range from learning how to clean their apartment and count money to using public transport on their own. Most importantly, says Costanza, their clients get involved in their communities.
“When someone gets into supportive living services, our responsibility is to get them out the front door,” she explains. “That could mean joining Special Olympics or even grocery shopping and making the right choices in the grocery store. It’s all meant to support them to be able to deal with life a little better.”
Though they had the expertise to bring their vision to life, accessing funding was another obstacle entirely.
THE RIGHT FINANCING FIT
With contracts from the Alta California Regional Center, which assists people with developmental disabilities build a team of supportive specialists, Maisie’s Place was not subject to the same type of risk that other enterprises experience: they knew where their work would come from. But to maintain the payroll for their staff—which grew quickly—in between contract payments, Costanza and her team knew that they would need some financing support.
“We went out to banks with marvelous binders filled with all of our information: our contracts, the money we would need, the low risk,” says Costanza, who was by then working as the CEO of the organization. “A friend in the banking industry told me: you’re a start-up, and a nonprofit. Nobody’s gonna give you anything. But I’ve never believed that.”
When following leads from traditional banks, the Maisie’s Place team was met with the foretold resistance—not for lack of preparation, but simply because their need did not match the large business plans that banks provide. Not wanting to take on more debt than was necessary, Costanza’s determination eventually led her to speak with the California Capital Lending Center’s Business Development Officer, Brian Zscheile.
After working with the Board of Directors of Maisie’s Place to establish a line of credit for payroll, Costanza was able to take out a microloan through California Capital to cover the overhead set up expenses of Maisie’s Place.
“Brian worked his magic and everyone [at California Capital] was just wonderful,” says Costanza of the loan application process. “What impressed me the most was that our fight became California Capital’s fight, and that’s highly unusual. Nobody takes things personal these days, but [they] did.”
SUPPORT FOR GROWTH
With a dedicated executive team, highly qualified support staff to provide 24/7 services to their clients and a Board of Directors invested in the mission, Maisie’s Place is poised to broaden their impact.
After seeing the difficulties that disabled adults experience in accessing safe, affordable housing, the team’s vision for the future is clear: expand housing opportunities for disabled adults by increasing availability.
As Costanza explains it, the goal of creating systems where disabled adults can live independently and participate in their local communities is hindered by a lack of affordable housing and stringent income requirements that preclude them from even applying.
“I have one goal,” she says. “I would like Maisie’s Place to have a piece of property with a duplex so that I can guarantee four or five clients a home that they can afford. We could control the rent so we can rent to them at whatever their income level is, and always keep a room open in case we get a client that needs crisis housing.”
With a deep commitment to and respect for the people they serve, the Maisie’s Place team is having a positive ripple effect on local communities by empowering disabled adults to build life skills and live with dignity. As a mission-based lender, California Capital is able to participate in building a better world through the enterprises that we fund.
