CLPHA Advocacy

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Renowned Physician Dr. Camara Jones to Present Keynote Remarks

WASHINGTON (May 9, 2019) – Collaborators from the housing, health, and education sectors will convene in Washington, D.C., May 16 and 17 for the fifth national Housing Is Summit hosted by the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA). The event, featuring plenary sessions devoted to ending intergenerational poverty and keynote remarks from Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and renowned physician Dr. Camara Jones, will bring together 300 policymakers, practitioners, advocates, and researchers who are committed to developing cross-sector partnerships that improve life outcomes for residents of public and affordable housing.

“Housing is essential, but not sufficient to help low-income families thrive and break the cycle of intergenerational poverty,” said CLPHA Executive Director Sunia Zaterman. “CLPHA, through our Housing Is Initiative, fosters connections between housing providers and health care systems, schools, and community organizations to develop targeted interventions that support families served by public housing authorities. The Housing Is Summit celebrates these partnerships, encourages peer-learning, and highlights the complementary roles local innovation and national advocacy play in developing cross-sector solutions to our greatest collective challenges.”

The Summit opens on May 16 with keynote remarks from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), a long-time activist and champion of ending childhood poverty. Rep. Lee recently worked to secure funding for the congressionally-commissioned landmark study, A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty, which was published in February by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

During a plenary session following Rep. Lee’s remarks, Christine James Brown, chief executive officer of the Child Welfare League of America and a member of the board of the National Academies will present A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty and the authors’ two packages of policy proposals that would reduce child poverty by 50 percent over the next decade.

Joining James Brown for the plenary, the lead author of the groundbreaking article, A Universal Child Allowance: A Plan to Reduce Poverty and Income Instability Among Children in the United States, Dr. Luke Shafer, associate professor for social work and public policy and director of poverty solutions at the University of Michigan, will discuss the significant impact that a universal child allowance of $250 per month could have on the overall health and well-being of children of all incomes, but especially those living in extreme, $2 per day, poverty.

A second plenary session on Thursday will feature David Williams, policy director of Opportunity Insights, the research group led by Dr. Raj Chetty, who will explore how housing mobility research can guide policy and practice.

The first day of the Summit will also include a press conference at 2:30 PM ET announcing the release of CLPHA’s upcoming report, Eliminating Barriers to Postsecondary Success, which profiles the work of five public housing authorities who are collaborating with college access partners and community colleges to increase postsecondary educational achievement for low-income residents and college students experiencing homelessness. Bethany Miller, education program officer with The Kresge Foundation, will moderate a discussion following the press conference with panelists from public housing authorities and postsecondary partners who are participating in this work.

Additional breakout sessions include presentations from national partners and public housing project leads involved in an innovative multi-state, multi-sector collaboration between public housing authorities and UnitedHealthcare (UHC) Medicaid managed care plans. They will discuss their project, Improving Health by Aligning Housing and Health Systems, which is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and uses data and analytics to develop place-based health interventions.

Day two of the conference opens with a keynote presentation from Dr. Camara Jones, a senior fellow at Morehouse School of Medicine and recent past president of the American Public Health Association, who will address the systemic, structural racism and other inequities that underlay health disparities and how the social safety net can be strengthened with this understanding.

Attendees will next participate in their choice of peer-to-peer working roundtable discussions on topics such as data sharing with anchor institutions, educating homeless youth, and using technology to address resident health needs.

Afternoon breakout sessions will feature Dr. Craig Pollack, associate professor of health policy and management at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in a panel discussion with researchers who are evaluating the impact of cross-sector interventions to improve health outcomes; a discussion among representatives from public housing authorities and the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services who are working to support long-term housing stability for people who are particularly vulnerable to homelessness; and a case study of the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh’s early childhood education collaboration with Duquesne University and ABK Learning and Development Center to improve life outcomes for residents.

The conference will conclude with a closing plenary session devoted to the role of philanthropy in forging innovative cross-sector collaboration to create long-term change. Representatives from The Gates Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, and Melville Charitable Trust will discuss current projects and impact-investing strategies aimed at expanding opportunity and improving long-term life outcomes for lower-income individuals and communities.

The complete Housing Is Summit agenda is available on CLPHA.org.

Many of the conference sessions will be webcast live at the following links:
May 16: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM ET, LIVE WEBCAST
May 17: 9:00 AM – 3:30 PM ET, LIVE WEBCAST

Registration for the Housing Is Summit is currently closed. Members of the media who would like to attend the Summit should contact Jenny Werwa at jwerwa@clpha.org.

About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities

The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis, and public education. CLPHA’s 70 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org and on Twitter @CLPHA and follow @housing_is for news on CLPHA’s work to better insect the housing field and other areas of critical importance such as health and education.

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Public Housing is as much a part of the national infrastructure as Route 66, the Lincoln Tunnel, and the Hoover Dam.

WASHINGTON (April 30, 2019) - Today the House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing entitled “Housing in America: Assessing the Infrastructure Needs of America’s Housing Stock” to examine the need for investment in affordable housing infrastructure--including public housing—and investigate additional barriers to developing affordable housing.

Sunia Zaterman, the executive director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, issued the following statement after watching the hearing and reviewing draft legislation circulated by Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) that would authorize funding for several housing infrastructure projects, including $70 billion for the Public Housing Capital Fund:

“Public housing is as a much a part of the national infrastructure as Route 66, the Lincoln Tunnel, and the Hoover Dam. Public housing helps communities and families thrive by providing more than one million low- and very-low income families, children, elderly and persons with disabilities with a stable place to live, connecting low-income workers to economic opportunities, and spurring regional job creation and economic growth.

“But, years of chronic underfunding have led to the deterioration of the public housing stock and since 1990, at least 300,000 units have been lost because of the lack of adequate resources to maintain them. The federal disinvestment in public housing has contributed to an untenable shortage of stable housing for low-income households.

“A reinvestment in public housing should include adequate funding to preserve and improve the public housing stock. Equally important is thoughtful consideration about additional tools that public housing authorities can use to modernize and develop affordable housing to meet the needs of residents and local communities. Expanding the Rental Assistance Demonstration program and increasing the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit allocations, for example, would support public housing authorities’ recapitalization and redevelopment efforts.

“Housing is infrastructure and we thank the Chairwoman and the Committee for underscoring the importance of public housing during today’s hearing and in the Housing is Infrastructure Act of 2019.”

About the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities

The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities is a national non-profit organization that works to preserve and improve public and affordable housing through advocacy, research, policy analysis, and public education. CLPHA’s 70 members represent virtually every major metropolitan area in the country. Together they manage 40 percent of the nation’s public housing program; administer more than a quarter of the Housing Choice Voucher program; and operate a wide array of other housing programs. Learn more at clpha.org and on Twitter @CLPHA and follow @housing_is for news on CLPHA’s work to better insect the housing field and other areas of critical importance such as health and education.

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