Housing Is Initiative


 

We Envision... Celebrating 10 Years of CLPHA's Housing Is Initiative

In 2024 the Housing Is Initiative is celebrating our tenth anniversary. To mark this milestone, we are releasing We Envision..., a comprehensive report reflecting on the Initiative's accomplishments and looking towards the future of cross-sector partnerships that improve life outcomes.

 

Read the Report

 
CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative helps build a future where systems work together to improve life outcomes for low-income people.

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.

Our Work
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.

 

Learn more about our education initiatives. 

 

Housing Is Health:

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.

 

Learn more about our health initiatives.

 

Housing Is Digital Equity:

As our world’s reliance on technology continues to grow, achieving digital equity and bridging the digital divide for disadvantaged populations becomes more and more critical. The digital divide disproportionately affects low-income households and contributes to racial inequities that have long plagued Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC) communities. PHAs are uniquely well-positioned to help advance digital equity given that they house and provide services to some of our nation’s lowest-income and most disconnected families. 

 

Learn more about our digital equity initiatives.

Housing Is-Related News
10.10.19
From Kaiser Health News: One patient at Denver Health, the city’s largest safety net hospital, occupied a bed for more than four years — a hospital record of 1,558 days. Another admitted for a hard-to-treat bacterial infection needed eight weeks of at-home IV antibiotics, but had no home. A third, with dementia, came to the hospital after being released from the Denver...
10.10.19
From the Boston Business Journal: Starry, a Boston-based startup internet service provider, has partnered with Denver Housing Authority to offer broadband internet to affordable and public housing residents. Denver is just the second city to get Starry’s low-cost internet, following a pilot program in Boston. The pilot program launched in 2016.
10.10.19
From Lawndale News: Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) officials joined La Casa Norte, the City of Chicago Department of Housing, local elected officials and members of the community to dedicate Pierce House, which brings 25 units of supportive housing to the Humboldt Park community. The one and two-bedroom apartments are supported by CHA project-based vouchers and will be leased to individuals...
10.10.19
From the Chicago Defender: Chicago Housing Authority officials today joined Evergreen Real Estate Group, the City of Chicago Department of Housing and the community to celebrate the opening of Independence Apartments, a mixed-income apartment building that brings affordable housing for seniors to the Northwest Side.
10.10.19
From the Akron Beacon Journal: Tanzania Johnson joined the U.S. Air Force to get out of Akron and start a new beginning. She enlisted right after graduating from Akron’s Firestone High School in 2010 and became a military police officer. She was stationed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland until she was honorably discharged in 2014. While in the service, she gave birth to...
10.10.19
On Thursday, September 26, HUD announced an additional $1.2 million in Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) grants, building on the $74 million in FSS grants HUD awarded earlier this year. FSS grants help public housing authorities hire service coordinators who connect public housing residents with local programs and services with the goal of increasing residents’ earnings and...
Partner with Us

If you and your organization would like to learn how to join us in cross-system efforts, please reach out to us at housingis@clpha.org, and join the Housing Is Clearinghouse at housingis.org.

Special Thanks

The Housing Is Initiative is thankful to our foundation partners who make this cross-system work possible. 

Click here to learn more about our funders.

Learn more about the Housing Is Initiative at housingis.org

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