Many have cited the affordable housing crisis in this country. Recently the New York Times highlighted the issue in its article “As Affordable Housing Crisis Grows, HUD Sits on the Sidelines”. Local affordable housing providers don’t have the luxury of sitting this one out. Everyday we are faced with the challenges of providing safe communities of choice to thousands of families while balancing the reality that many more go unserved. Local providers have gotten very creative in meeting these needs.
Here at Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of the City of New Haven, we have used the flexibility granted to us by US HUD under the Moving to Work[1] program to implement a number of initiatives that increase housing choice for low income families, assist them in moving toward self-sufficiency and use limited federal dollars more cost effectively.
In this series of blogs, we seek to highlight the efforts of ECC/HANH as we live into our vision of a New Haven where every resident has a safe and decent home that they can afford and opportunities to fulfill their goals. Beyond that we hope to explore broader solutions to the crisis of affordable housing.
The solutions to the affordable housing crisis are complex. They involve the production of housing units and the access to subsidy dollars. Solutions are tied to economic efforts that increase the economic standing of families in our communities. Solutions will challenge local zoning and land use policies. Addressing this issue will challenge biases held about those who live in poverty. It requires an honest look at the historical and present day underpinnings and a commitment to living into equity.
At ECC/HANH we have tried some things. Things that have improved the quality of housing provided. Efforts that have replaced distressed housing with state-of-the art mixed income communities. We have invested in people – from our youngest residents to our most senior. And we have been innovative in seeking to stretch limited public dollars and use them to leverage private investment in our families and our communities.
But there is much to still be done. Our waitlists are an inadequate indicator of the need. The disparity between the wealthy and the poor has never been greater. The City of New Haven is wrestling with how to meet the need for affordable housing while also building and maintaining the middle class. CT as a state is challenged by segregated housing patterns and resistance to efforts correct this. The state is in the midst of a fiscal challenge that promises to undermine efforts to do more for affordable housing. And as a nation, as the NY Times article references, too little is being done at the federal level.
Join in this blog conversation as we explore a way forward to a place where every resident has a safe and decent place that they can afford and opportunities to fulfill their goals.
Karen DuBois-Walton, Ph.D. is the Executive Director/President of the Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of the City of New Haven, CT. Trained as a Clinical Psychologist, Dr. DuBois-Walton has led the agency since 2008 integrating progressive housing policy, community development and social service provision in ways that create communities of opportunity for low-income residents in the City of New Haven. ECC/HANH’s vision is a New Haven where every resident has a safe and decent home that they can afford and opportunities to fulfill their goals.
[1] Moving to Work is a demonstration program of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development that offers flexibility to local housing authorities to develop local solutions that increase housing choice for low income families, increase family self sufficiency and offer cost effective solutions. ECC/HANH has been a MTW agency since 2000.
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