Housing Is helps broaden and deepen efforts to align housing, education, and health organizations to produce positive long-term outcomes for those experiencing poverty. Collaboration across systems and sectors—through shared goals, focused resources, and coordinated efforts—strengthens our collective ability to serve the needs of low-income individuals and families effectively and efficiently.
Public housing offers many low-income children, families, and seniors critical stability, but fragmented service delivery systems and siloed policymaking often fail to address social determinants of low-income individuals and families holistically. This often results in stagnant effectiveness and costly inefficiencies.
CLPHA leads the affordable housing industry as a convener of partners across sectors who are committed to aligning different systems and developing interdisciplinary programs to address a variety of essential needs in communities across the country. From promoting data sharing and shared accountability to encouraging cross-sector training and evidence-based interventions, our work fosters improved, sustained alignment and collaboration.
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.
Learn more about our education initiatives.
Public housing residents are not only economically disenfranchised, but also experience higher rates of chronic conditions and diagnoses such as heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and anxiety/depression. PHAs and their health partners can improve low-income people’s health and wellbeing by enhancing built environments, providing preventative health resources, and increasing access to healthcare services.
If you and your organization would like to learn how to join CLPHA in their cross-system efforts, please reach out to us at housingis@clpha.org, and join the Housing Is Clearinghouse at housingis.org.
The Housing Is Initiative is thankful to our foundation partners who make this cross-system work possible.
On December 20, 2017, the U.S. Congress passed the joint House-Senate conference committee agreement on HR 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. HR 1 is the most far-reaching tax reform legislation in over three decades. For affordable housing providers the bill fully preserves private...
HUD’s one-size-fits-all regulatory approach often inhibits PHAs from effectively tailoring federal programs to local community needs. PHAs have been successful when they are able to tailor their policies according their agency’s individual local goals, housing market conditions, and community priorities. This flexibility provides housing authorities the necessary tools to best serve their low-income residents. HUD should allow housing authorities to focus on innovation, ...
RAD was initially authorized with a unit cap of 60,000 in the FY12 appropriations bill, which has since been lifted to 455,000 in the FY18 appropriations bill. In order to meet the demand for RAD, CLPHA strongly supports eliminating the RAD cap.
From the San Bernardino Sun:
The rectangular room is immaculate, with something to explore at every turn.
Between the gray walls are areas to read, color, play, write and listen. Rugs for napping and bean bags for lounging rest on the hardwood floors.
Not a book nor crayon is out of place on a recent weekday – it’s the calm before the storm.
From the San Bernardino Sun:
When Ana Santana and her children moved into their Loma Linda apartment nearly four years ago, it meant more than having a new place to live.
It was a new start.
From ABC KSAT 12:
Bridging the gap between foster care and a life of independence is one of the big goals for local nonprofit the THRU Project.
Originally established to provide mentors for youth who age out of state care, the group recently expanded its mission to provide housing for a vulnerable young population.
We first told you about the Next Step housing program last year. Now it's expanding, thanks to a new partnership with the San Antonio Housing Authority.
From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:
Residents of Pittsburgh’s Bedford Dwellings are getting a lift from Lyft.
The ride-share service on Thursday announced it would transport residents of Bedford and those at Prospect Terrace in East Pittsburgh, both public housing communities, to and from local Giant Eagle grocery stores for $5 per round trip. Residents are eligible for one ride to the store each week.
...
From the Los Angeles Daily News:
As students across the Los Angeles Unified School District headed back to classrooms Tuesday, district officials heralded a new partnership with city and county housing agencies aimed at providing support to a number of housing insecure and homeless families in the northeast San Fernando Valley.
From the New Haven Register:
The Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of New Haven holds its annual "Back to School Fair" at Clinton School in New Haven, Conn., on Tuesday August 6, 2019. In addition to new school supplies and activities for the kids like face painting and snacks, families were able to access resources for education and health services.
