affordable housing Archives - Community Engagement Learning ExchangeCommunity Engagement Learning Exchange

Housing is the Prescription for Healthy Communities after Disaster

This entry was contributed by Beth McKee-Huger, on October 19th, 2018 at 12:46 am and is filed under Disaster Relief, Housing.

Weather disasters are ripping through communities in North Carolina and all over the world, dislocating people and devastating buildings and forests and farms. Each time, after the emergency response to dangers of injury and contamination and emotional trauma, the community is changed. Sometimes what is left is neglect and abandonment, so that unhealthy conditions become worse. Sometimes what happens is gentrification, so that dislocated residents cannot afford to come back to trendy buildings. But sometimes it can be community leadership, so that neighborhoods can rise stronger and healthier than before. This is the story of strong community and healthy housing six months after tornadoes shredded a path through east Greensboro.

Meeting People Where They Are: A Charlotte-NYC Exchange

This entry was contributed by Sabrina Colón, on May 30th, 2018 at 9:00 am and is filed under Civic Education, Community Partnerships, Outreach Methods.

As our communities grow and become more diverse, local government agencies are combining new and tested techniques to engage their residents. In the traditional model of community engagement, agencies relied on public meetings to get feedback from residents. While this can still be an effective means of engagement for some populations, many residents are missed in the process. Similarly, as governments have embraced new technology to bridge the gap, there is still no substitute for face-to-face interactions.

So what is the next step? How do you reach as many residents as possible in a meaningful way? Continue Reading

Savannah’s story of community empowerment: Nice Video on Asset-Based Community Development in Action

This entry was contributed by John Stephens, on May 21st, 2018 at 9:00 am and is filed under Capacity Building, Community Partnerships, Innovation, Outreach Methods, Social Justice, Uncategorized.

While Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) has been around awhile, I think the stories that illustrate the concepts and structure are very important.

I just ran across this nice video from Savannah’s experience with two neighborhoods. https://youtu.be/6rbRAQLbeRM

In under twelve minutes, the story covers from the 1970s to today: the decline and revitalization of two neighborhoods. Most importantly the story is mainly about the members of two neighborhoods in Savannah, with less attention to what city employees did or did not do.

Community Engagement Transforms Housing

This entry was contributed by Beth McKee-Huger, on September 15th, 2017 at 9:00 am and is filed under Housing, Social Justice, Uncategorized.

Tenants have courageously started to reverse the downward spiral of the Avalon Trace Apartments, with the support of Greensboro organizations. In December, they told their stories cautiously, anonymously, to university students in the compelling video (view video here). “If you could hear our voices, would we matter?”, describing the deteriorating physical conditions and negligent landlord response. But well-founded fear of retaliation and of being displaced from their homes had silenced most complaints.

Housing Matters: School and Family Stability and Greensboro’s Housing Our Community Initiative

This entry was contributed by Beth McKee-Huger, on June 7th, 2017 at 5:13 pm and is filed under Civic Education, Community Partnerships, Housing, Outreach Methods, Social Justice.

Safe affordable housing is complicated.

Building new or rehabilitating deteriorating housing requires putting together complex and expensive deals. The people with the money and power to accomplish this, therefore, make the decisions about what gets built and where. This may or may not match with what works best for the people who will live there or for the community as a whole.

Most of us don’t get the opportunity to make the development decisions but we do pay for the shortage of good places to live. Many pay with the quality—or even the length—of our lives. Even if we have adequate housing ourselves, we all absorb the costs of health care, schools, public safety, and social services when people have to choose between dangerous places or moving from homes they can’t afford. Some are displaced by gentrification when whole streets are transformed from high-risk to high-cost; others live in neighborhoods that just continue to export dollars, as rent payments out (to landlords out of state or across town) exceed investment coming in.

Fellow CELE bloggers describe the complexities of raising our voices, as neighborhood residents and community advocates, about the impact of housing decisions. (See blogs tagged Affordable Housing)

BUT… However difficult it is to speak up, we must do so. Here is what is at stake for us and our communities:

Where Affordable Housing Meets Community Engagement

This entry was contributed by Kevin Amirehsani, on May 5th, 2017 at 9:00 am and is filed under Accessibility, Community Partnerships, Dialogue & Deliberation, Elected Officials, Housing, Public Meetings.

For those outside Colorado, it may come as some surprise that one of the state’s hardest-fought legislative battles of the past few years – one that should finally conclude this week – involves incentives for condominium construction. As unsexy as “construction defects reform” sounds, it is emblematic of how much of a hot-button issue affordable housing is across The Centennial State. This is especially true along the Front Range, which is home to seven of the nation’s 12 counties where affordable housing is at its lowest-ever level.

Changing the Conversation

This entry was contributed by Traci Ethridge, on April 14th, 2017 at 11:52 am and is filed under Civic Education, Dialogue & Deliberation, Diversity, Outreach Methods, Public Meetings, Social Justice.

On a Monday night in late September 2016, community members filled the Charlotte City Council Chambers to capacity. One by one, they expressed fear, anger and frustration about the officer-involved shooting of Keith Lamont Scott and the state of the community. The response to what was heard both in the Chambers and during days of protests would prove to be a defining moment for the city.

Housing or Food – How Does Our Community Solve The Puzzle?

This entry was contributed by Beth McKee-Huger, on October 6th, 2016 at 9:00 am and is filed under Community Partnerships, Housing, Social Justice, Uncategorized.

Would you tell your children there is no food because you gave all your money to the slumlord? Or would you buy groceries and risk another eviction, knowing that each time the money doesn’t stretch far enough to pay the full rent, that it is harder and harder to get housing?

That is the agonizing dilemma of thousands of mothers and fathers and grandparents raising grandchildren as they experience the “persistent shortage of safe affordable housing”. Eviction, if they don’t give every penny to the landlord. Homelessness, because they can’t find anything else when wages are low and rents are rising and eviction records are counted against them. Plus, landlords may not want families with children; that is illegal discrimination but common practice. Substandard, because that may be all someone will finally agree to rent to them.

If our community had more housing, in decent condition, with rents affordable for families, then children could eat and not change schools four times a year and not go to the hospital in asthma crisis. And parents could smile instead of being depressed and stressed as they have to choose food OR roof OR health but not all three.

When Progress is at Odds!

This entry was contributed by Stephen Hopkins, on September 26th, 2016 at 9:00 am and is filed under Dialogue & Deliberation, Diversity, Social Justice.

I am a sixty years old black man who has been fighting for social justice and fairness for low- income communities here in Durham North Carolina for the last 27 years. I have seen a lot of changes come into our communities that at the time I felt good about, housing has been improved, we have more and better parks and playgrounds, downtown Durham has come back to life and there are more things to do, access to main highways are being improve and a lot of different jobs are coming into the area. The problem I see now is that with all of these good things happening in Durham, not many poor blacks are benefiting, in fact we are being forced out of our neighborhoods, are young blacks men and women aren’t getting the good paying jobs and the black owned businesses are dying out. Try as I can, I don’t know how to turn this around or where to start, Any ideals?

A Good Place to Live – Vision and Action in Greensboro

This entry was contributed by Beth McKee-Huger, on June 29th, 2016 at 10:17 am and is filed under Community Partnerships, Innovation.

I have been a housing activist in Greensboro for almost 30 years, creating organizations to build homes and to advocate for policies and funding that promote safe, affordable housing.

The broad impact of good places to live:

Imagine unprecedented collaboration to assure opportunities for all in our community to have good places to live.

Count the new jobs created by the investment in building new houses and apartments and in repairing deteriorating housing.
Consider the stability of employees without the stress of possible eviction or injury from dangerous housing.
Celebrate the academic achievements of students who don’t miss class due to housing-related asthma attacks or have to move multiple times in a school year, so they can—YES—prepare for college.
Calculate the property tax dollars generated by appreciation rather than decline in property values. Welcome the family values of parents and children reunited from costly foster care because they now have good homes.
Be relieved about neighborhood safety when blighted areas become bright spots, without boarded buildings and vagrancy.
Rejoice when homeless service providers not only cooperate in connecting individuals to necessary resources but when the housing resources actually exist for them to have permanent homes.
Do a victory dance when a person’s zip code does not determine one’s life expectancy or the number of trips to the hospital or the risk of getting arrested.

OK, now that you can imagine the transformation, let’s work to become a part of it.

I’ll talk about the opportunities and challenges in Greensboro for the quantity, quality, affordability and other success factors for housing that works for everyone. I’m glad to see engagement on critical housing and social needs with many community partners. Continue Reading