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.

RESOURCE: McKinney-Vento Liaison Contacts  for CLPHA Member PHAs

This resource aims to foster strong partnerships between CLPHA member PHAs and McKinney-Vento liaisons to improve outcomes for students experiencing homelessness.

View Resource

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
9.26.19
From the Hudson County View: Betty Morris had two very big families: one was her immediate family, with 16 children, as well as her family-at-large – the residents of the Marion Gardens Housing Complex. Back in 1974, when the family was under threat, she took action by heading down to Washington D.C. to fight for the necessary funding to keep the complex alive. “My mother...
9.26.19
Access to safe, affordable and stable housing offers more than just a place to live — it provides an opportunity for children and families to access two-generation programs, services, supports and resources that lead to improvements in literacy, attendance and other early school success indicators.
9.12.19
From Education Dive: The Stable Homes Stable Schools initiative — launched in May to help Minneapolis Public Schools students and their families pay rent and maintain consistent housing while also offering wraparound services — already has 125 families with 396 children enrolled in the program and hopes to attract more than 600 students, the Minnesota Daily reported.

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