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
9.26.19
From The Monroe Monitor: Today at the Seattle Housing Authority, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the top Democrat on the Senate education committee, sat down with local officials, community advocates, and digital education leaders to learn more about how Seattle has successfully expanded access to digital skills and literacy education—as well as best practices and lessons from their...
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
From ideastream: Public art is everywhere at Woodhill Homes — much of it historic, dating from the 1930s and 1940s. A panel on a building shows a woman hoisting a basket of fruit above her head. In the community center gym, WPA murals cover the walls, showing scenes of everyday life from when the complex was built. But for the public housing development's current residents, what...
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.
9.25.19
On September 20, the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) and developer The Alexander Company broke ground on the rehabilitation and restoration of the Milwaukee Soldiers Home, a National Historic Landmark District originally built in 1867 to house Civil War soldiers and help them transition back to civilian life.
9.16.19
With the explosion of the opioid epidemic over the last decade, communities have seen alarming increases in substance abuse and drug-related deaths. Given the scale and urgency of these issues, officials at the local, state, and federal level have sought to prevent and treat addiction and drug overdoses. These efforts have involved a wide range of partners including public health departments 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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