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By Gretchen Greiner-Lott
Vice President
Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers
Why should you care about housing? Well, during yesterday’s snow event, I had some time to think about that a bit. Although we were all stuck at home together, my family and I still had light, heat, and shelter from the elements, as well as access to stores. But some people I know were not that lucky. It made me think about all the things that many of us take for granted that are essential to a strong, healthy, and connected community.
Because I have lived in my neighborhood for some years, I know my neighbors. I know who is sick or elderly and might need some help during the snow. I also know who might be able to assist me, if the need should arise. For those folks in our region whose housing situation is different – they move from place to place in search of a more affordable housing situation or the affordable situation they find lands them in a not so safe neighborhood – their community experiences are very different. They are not connected or supported.
“What does this have to do with me?” you might ask. Everything.
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Whether you are a funder of health clinics, a nonprofit provider of educational programs, a growing business trying to attract new employees, or a local government working to spur economic growth and vitality, housing impacts everything you do to support your community. Without the basic starting point of having a safe and stable place to call home, many individuals will have a harder time achieving other life goals.
According to research from the National Housing Conference, low- and moderate-income people without decent, affordable housing are more likely to have negative health consequences and poor education outcomes for their children. It is also harder for people to get to work and be reliable employees when their housing situation changes again and again – or for children to keep up with much less meet academic standards when they move from school to school.
Everything that this region wants to achieve – improvements in health status and educational outcomes, job growth, a strong economy, transportation and smart growth advancements, and more – depends on having a healthy continuum of housing that serves everyone from extremely low-income renters to moderate-income first-time home buyers so that folks can live in stable and supportive environments.
 On March 21st, we hope you’ll join us for WRAG’s first installment of this year’s Brightest Minds series. Former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros will talk about how local funders, nonprofits, businesses, and governments can engage in a collective, multi-sector way to meet the housing needs of our region’s residents. For all the reasons list above, you can’t afford to miss it. [Registration.] |
Tamara Copeland is WRAG's president. Check out her column: 
Christian Clansky is WRAG's Communications Director and a proud, native Washingtonian.
Rebekah Seder is WRAG's Program Manager. She writes the news roundup on Fridays.
Great post, Gretchen! A couple thoughts. I completely agree with you about the importance of ‘a healthy continuum of housing’, but I think the argument that access to housing has much wider implications on social issues can be made for many initiatives. Two that come to mind are access to jobs and food.
Instead of taking the linear view that access to housing will lead to improvement in other social areas, I prefer to view access to housing as a critical component in a ‘virtuous circle’ of social initiatives that promote greater well being. Each must be understood and implemented within the context of the other.
I’m interested to get your thoughts on this. Why do you see housing as more critical than other social initiatives that have the potential for widespread impact?
Ryan, I think you further emphasized my point. Housing is not more critical, it’s just as critical as the social initiatives that many funders and nonprofits focus on every day. All these issues are connected so housing should not be left out of the conversation; however, most times, housing isn’t a part of conversations about a child’s well-being, a senior’s healthy aging, or a young adult’s employment status. Perhaps this is because housing seems like such a “big” issue that it would be too tough for any one organization to tackle. However, if everyone starts thinking of housing as their issue, too, we’ll have a greater impact on it – and our individual work on social issues, ultimately, will be better served. My blog post was part of WRAG’s effort to elevate housing to be part of the conversation.