Housing Is Education

CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative recognizes the key role public housing authorities can play in a variety of educational efforts benefiting both low-income children and adults. Research has shown that housing stability has a significant impact on children’s school performance and long-term outcomes, such as graduation rates and post-secondary activities. Housing authorities are actively exploring how they can align with and add value to local approaches that aim to improve educational outcomes.

  • Housing authorities are providing additional support for residents’ education, from early childhood through adult learning opportunities. Some of these efforts are provided by the housing authority, such as through initiatives to improve attendance; others are joint efforts with partners, such as offering after-school programming on-site or digital literacy classes.
  • With support from the Housing Is initiative and other partners, housing authorities are using research to inform their work, as well as conducting program evaluation of their own initiatives to contribute to the field.
  • CLPHA works with a wide range of education partners at the national, regional, and state level to support the testing of innovative ideas and implementation of evidence-based best practices aligning education and housing.
  • Housing Is conducts advocacy efforts such as working with Senator Patty Murray’s (D-WA) office to write the AHEAD Act, a bill that would incentivize partnerships between different sectors to improve educational outcomes.
  • Some of our current areas of focus are: data sharing, out-of-school time; family engagement, two-generation initiatives, homelessness, early childhood, and connectivity.

Please contact CLPHA’s Director of Cross-Sector Initiatives Abra Lyons-Warren (abra@clpha.org) with inquiries about our housing and education work.

Innovative public housing authorities (PHAs) are collaborating with college access partners and community colleges to increase postsecondary educational achievement for low-income residents and college students experiencing homelessness. Learn more in CLPHA's report "Eliminating Barriers to Postsecondary Success: Cross-Sector Collaborations to Improve Postsecondary Achievement for Students Served by Public Housing Authorities.

Housing Is Education News
2.23.23
Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority CEO and CLPHA President Jeffery K. Patterson sits down with CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman to discuss how CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative has elevated collaborations between the housing and education sectors to improve education outcomes for low-income students of all ages, and Sunia explains how CLPHA member PHAs are pioneering these life-changing...
1.24.23
From the Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino's newsletter:

Sorry, this content is only available to members.

If you're a member of CLPHA, please click here to log in.

If you have not created your CLPHA.org account, it’s easy to create one. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

You can also click here to watch a webinar site tour that shows CLPHA members how to create website accounts for themselves and provides an overview of the site's functionality.

Otherwise, we invite you to learn more about the many benefits of CLPHA membership.