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.