Housing Is Summit 2019 Recap

CLPHA’s 5th Housing Is Summit Energizes Partners with Electrifying Speakers, Networking, Idea Sharing

On May 16-17, over 300 practitioners, policymakers, executives, and researchers gathered in Washington, D.C., for CLPHA’s fifth annual Housing Is Summit, an event highlighting collaboration among the housing, education, and health sectors. The Summit is a time for partners—current and emerging—to come together to learn from each other, share best practices, and forge new collaborations. At this year’s Summit, we highlighted two critical themes that speak to our reasons for doing this work: Reducing Intergenerational Poverty (Day 1) and Addressing Systemic Disparities (Day 2). We sought to foreground these ideals since they are the broader purpose for doing what we do day in and day out. Attendees left invigorated and ready to continue and begin efforts in their communities.

View Summit session summaries and video recordings below.

Top Left: Dr. Camara Jones delivers keynote remarks on Day Two of the Summit; Top Right: Rep. Barbara Lee opens Day One of the Summit; Bottom Left: Press conference announcing CLPHA's report, “Eliminating Barriers to Postsecondary Success; David Williams Delivers remarks on Day Two of the Summit

Click below to view the 2019 Summit agenda and a full list of speakers and panelists.

2019 Summit Agenda

CLPHA 2019 Housing Is Summit - Agenda (5.15.19)

Housing Is Summit Speakers and Panelists

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Quotes from 2019 Housing Is Summit Attendees

“The information given at plenaries. Thank you for selecting such thoughtful, engaged, and informed speakers!”

“Diverse perspectives, awesome networking opportunities, and great discussions”

“Hearing about different ideas to ameliorate child poverty, talking about importance of dignity”

“The conference is excellently run and very valuable”

“The plenaries were insightful and stressed childhood poverty, which gave me a different lens.”

“…the value of the Summit was getting us to look at our issues differently. That opened up a way to approach my work more effectively!”

“Thank you for hosting. This has been one of the best conferences I have attended both in term so the quality of presenters and general organization. I am looking forward to implementing ideas and attending next year.”

From top: Kollin Min (Gates Foundation), and David Fukuzawa (Kresge Foundation) Susan Thomas (Melville Charitable Trust) in the plenary "Philanthropy’s Investment in Long-Term Change;" CLPHA Board President & King County Housing Authority Executive Director Stephen Norman; Summit attendees at the event's networking recpetion; panelists on the Aligning Health and Housing Systems with Data Analytics breakout panel; David Willams (Opportunity Insights) and Colin Groth (StriveTogether) in conversation during the plenary "Neighborhoods Matter: Translating Research to Policy;" Dr. Camara Jones delivers the Summit's keynote address, "Getting to the Root of Health Disparities: Understanding and Addressing Social Inequities"

Summaries and Recordings of Day 1 Plenaries

Plenary: Addressing Child Poverty at the Federal Level and Bold Actions to Reduce Child Poverty (Video Recording)

U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), a tireless advocate for children, opened the Summit to talk about bold actions that Congress and Summit attendees can take to address childhood poverty. Rep. Lee was followed by an expert panel of leaders and researchers at the forefront of such action: Cara Baldari of First Focus; Christine James-Brown of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the Child Welfare League; and Luke Shaefer of the University of Michigan School of Social Work and co-author of $2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America (2015). The panel explored a landmark study by the National Academies of Sciences report commissioned by Congress to identify evidence-based ways to reduce childhood poverty by half in the next decade, as well as research to create a universal child allowance. James-Brown noted that housing is a key factor in child well-being and is essential to move people forward. Shaefer focused on the notion that low-income families know best what they need, and therefore a cash policy reduces paternalism, directs money toward the most important needs, and ultimately stimulates the economy. Shaefer also pointed to successes in other countries that have implemented similar policies. One attendee wrote in their evaluation that “the Bold Actions to Reduce Childhood Poverty session was very inspiring.”

Plenary: Neighborhoods Matter: Translating Research to Policy -- David Williams (Video Recording)

David Williams of Harvard University’s Opportunity Insights (OI) began the session by providing an overview on the geography of opportunity. Williams showed significant variation in mobility rates by race when comparing incomes of middle-aged adults whose parents earned similar average incomes. Black men raised in high-income families, for example, were much more likely to fall into lower-income categories as adults compared to their white counterparts. Williams also noted that, across age groups, every year of exposure to a more resourced neighborhood helps improve outcomes. He identified three important policy strategies to reduce disparities in mobility and described OI’s efforts in those areas - 1) reduce segregation, 2) implement place-based strategies, 3) improve higher education. For the first strategy, OI is partnering on a Creating Moves to Opportunity (CMTO) project in Seattle/King County, which is testing whether housing locator services, landlord engagement, and flexible financial assistance can help families access better neighborhoods.

On the second strategy, OI is working to identify characteristics of high-opportunity neighborhoods, such as stable family structure, low poverty rates, good schools, and high social capital. Third, OI is exploring how well different colleges help move low-income students to the top of the income ladder. Part of this strategy is a partnership between OI and 400 colleges to help colleges enroll low-income students and increase access to schools for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In the Q&A portion, conference participants asked how opportunity mapping data can be used explicitly to reduce racial inequities.

Summaries and Recordings of Day 2 Plenaries

Keynote: Getting to the Root of Health Disparities: Understanding and Addressing Social Inequities -- Dr. Camara Jones (Video Recording)

Day Two of the Summit began with an electrifying keynote by Dr. Camara Jones, a renowned epidemiologist and public health leader, who talked about the role of "social determinants of inequity" as they relate to health disparities and disparities in other key outcomes. Dr. Jones placed cross-sector partnerships in greater context by discussing the role racism plays in limiting opportunity, diminishing access to needed services, and otherwise exacerbating already alarming racial disparities in access and outcomes. Speaking to the theme of Day Two, Addressing Systemic Inequity, Dr. Jones implored the audience to understand the varied and historic roots of inequity, as well as its present contexts in order to comprehensively address the problem. She added that naming and recognizing racism as a central force in these systematic issues is a critical component of constructive action on urgent disparities and system failures. Audience members engaged with Dr. Jones to further explore the ways leaders should lead and expressed appreciation that this component of cross-system work was foregrounded at the Housing Is Summit.

Plenary: Philanthropy’s Investment in Long-Term Change (Video Recording)

The Summit concluded with a conversation between Kollin Min of the Gates Foundation, Susan Thomas of the Melville Charitable Trust, and David Fukuzawa of the Kresge Foundation on the role funders play in facilitating and supporting cross-sector partnerships that serve vulnerable communities. All agreed that funders serve as important matchmakers, bringing cross-sector partners together around common issues such as housing instability and homelessness. Min and Fukuzawa noted that high rates of housing instability and homelessness among populations they were already working with drove their foundations’ involvement into housing. Likewise, Thomas articulated her foundation’s interest in looking more upstream to provide resources for initiatives that would prevent individuals and families from losing their homes or becoming homeless in the first place. Min, Fukuzawa, and Thomas noted that foundations are becoming increasingly interested in the national conversation around affordable housing and homelessness. In addition to each foundation’s independent investments, Gates, Melville, and Kresge are all a part of Funders for Housing and Opportunity, a funders’ collaborative that seeks to elevate these issues and bring in new partners. Moving forward, Gates, Kresge, and Melville will continue to invest in remediating environmental health hazards in housing, facilitate matchmaking with housers, service providers, and school districts, and encourage cross-hiring to institutionalize partnerships.

Insights From HUD: John Bravacos

Education Track

Breakout Session: Connecting with Powerful Partners in Education

Sharing three examples of education partners a houser can work with, attendees heard from Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of New Haven Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton, Tacoma Public Schools (TPS) Director of K-12 Leadership Development Thu Ament, and Partnership for Children and Youth President and CEO Jennifer Peck. DuBois-Walton detailed the partnership Elm City Communities has with New Haven Public Schools and other city officials to provide wrap-around support for at-risk youth. The partnership was launched in 2014 and successfully uses data sharing to help these young residents with academic support, career training, gang interventions, and other resources. Since beginning the partnership, they have seen a decrease in youth violence, suspensions and expulsions, as well as increased graduation rates. Ament discussed TPS’ partnership with the Tacoma Housing Authority (THA), which began in 2006 and is currently undergoing a redesign. He shared about an initiative at McCarver Elementary School to help parents and children with academic and social supports and reduce school mobility. He also discussed the financial literacy and assistance THA and TPS continue to provide to families, such as children’s savings accounts. Peck presented on the role nonprofits can play in housing-education partnerships. She told attendees that nonprofits can be a valuable intermediary between housing and education and used the work PCY has done as an example of this effort.

Press Conference and Breakout Session: Eliminating Barriers to Postsecondary Achievement (Video Recording)

CLPHA released our newest report, “Eliminating Barriers to Postsecondary Success: Cross-Sector Collaborations to Improve Postsecondary Achievement for Students Served by Public Housing Authorities,” during a press conference featuring Kresge Foundation Program Officer Bethany Miller,, Tacoma Housing Authority Executive Director Michael Mirra, and Southern California College Access Network Executive Director Alison De Lucca. Miller noted that “CLPHA was the perfect partner to lead this work,” while Mirra and De Lucca explained the need for housing-education partnerships to improve postsecondary outcomes for low-income residents. The following panel session featured Miller leading a moderated discussion among Mirra, De Lucca, Jennifer Thomas Arthurs of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, Cassandra Brooks of the Chicago Housing Authority, and Erica Walker Farris of the City Colleges of Chicago. The panelists discussed what motivated them to engage in a housing-education partnership, as well as lessons learned and next steps for the initiatives. Panelists noted challenges such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) students trying to navigate financial aid, and regulations within HUD that can stymie efforts by residents who work while attending school.

Click here to read “Eliminating Barriers to Postsecondary Success.”

Breakout Session: Early Childhood Education – A Case Study of Impactful Partnership

This session presented a case study of how a public housing authority, a private early learning center, and an anchor institution came together to deliver accessible, affordable, high-quality early childhood education to Pittsburgh families. Beginning in 2015, the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh (HACP) identified quality childcare as a great need for their residents. Working with ABK Learning Center and Duquesne University School of Education, they have created a partnership that provides 24/7 quality early learning for HACP residents. One attendee noted that they were “wowed” by this offering. Next steps for the center include a nature-based playground, more involvement from Duquesne students, and additional evaluation of the current offerings.

Health Track

Breakout Session: Understanding Essential Health Providers, Payers and Policies

The first session on the Summit's health track helped the audience identify key health providers, payers (and payment systems), and policies that are advantageous for PHAs to understand. CLPHA's Steve Lucas walked through key concepts relevant to housing authorities seeking to establish or deepen partnerships with the health sector, as well as best practices for "setting the table" with new partners. He introduced his co-panelists, Julie Trocchio of the Catholic Hospital Association and Bob Burns of the National Center for Health in Public Housing, by highlighting that relatively few PHAs work with hospitals and federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), which are essential providers of healthcare for low-income people. In addition to public health partners such as local health departments, these major healthcare providers can be powerful partners to improve resident and community health. Trocchio discussed hospitals' general interest in housing as well as some of the levers PHAs can use to make the case for partnership, including nonprofit hospitals' annual community health needs assessment and community benefit dollars. Burns explained the role of FQHCs in the provision of community-based healthcare and highlighted the sheer volume of these clinics throughout the United States.

Breakout Session: Aligning Health and Housing Systems with Data Analytics – PHAs and Managed Care

CLPHA works with the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) and UnitedHealthcare (UHC) Community & State (UHC's Medicaid enterprise) to facilitate the Aligning Health & Housing Systems (AHHS) Project, with financial support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AHHS Project brings together six large public housing authorities and Medicaid managed care plans in three states: Ohio, Texas, and Washington, to share and analyze data and jointly develop a community health intervention based on insights from that analysis. This session provided an overview of the unique multi-sector, multi-site project as it ends a one-year planning phase. CLPHA's Steve Lucas, CSH's Ryan Moser, and UHC's Andy McMahon discussed the origins of the project and the potential of PHA partnerships with Medicaid managed care organizations, before the participating housing authorities each talked about their experiences. Christina Hodgkinson of Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority, Sonja Nelson of Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority, Rodolfo Rodríguez of the Housing Authority of the City of Austin, Katie Jakubcin and Jonathan Zimmerman of Houston Housing Authority, and Katie Escudero of King County Housing Authority presented on the panel Seattle Housing Authority is also participating in the project but was unable to participate.

The panelists described varied experiences with different state Medicaid MCOs as well as lessons learned. Data sharing was a challenge but a worthwhile accomplishment--the sites have been able to see what kind of emergent health and healthcare challenges their UHC Medicaid member residents face. Even those agencies who had engaged in extensive health data collaborations before are learning new things, since UHC brings unique healthcare data to the partnership. As a result, each PHA worked with their MCO partners to identify priority health areas to explore further and develop interventions to implement. The PHA panelists offered words of wisdom to other PHAs seeking to engage partners like UHC by breaking down complex concepts, finding creative and practical ways to discuss detailed health data, and partnership strengthening exercises to implement at the outset.

Learn more about the Aligning Health & Housing Systems Project

Breakout Session: Health and Housing Research Symposium (Video Recording)

The final Health Track session centered on two distinct bodies of research that each illustrated the ways researchers are conceptualizing and engaging with "health and housing" in the present context. Facilitated by Peggy Bailey of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the session featured Dr. Craig Pollack of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and Dr. Dan Treglia of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice. Dr. Pollack presented his research about childhood asthma that investigated common asthma triggers in substandard housing. His team has explored housing mobility as a public health intervention and evaluated families who move to housing with lower exposures to asthma triggers. The presentation brought together a compelling combination of topics: public health, place/built environment, medical expertise, and housing mobility.

Dr. Treglia's presentation highlighted another way to conceptualize "health and housing." His team studied the projected explosion of aged homelessness through 2030 in three major cities: New York City, Boston, and Los Angeles. Not only does homelessness rapidly escalate already negative health status for older adults and the elderly, but their healthcare needs become increasingly complex and costly. The researchers suggest that the cost of providing housing interventions to this burgeoning group of aged individuals experiencing homelessness is less than the anticipated care costs without a housing intervention. The study illustrates a common aspiration of making a cost case for housing vulnerable individuals and populations in addition to paying for care. Given the scale of this impending need, the researchers suggest that significant action proportionate to the size of the problem is required.

Partnership Track

Breakout Session: Building Internal PHA Capacity for Cross-Sector Partnerships (Video Recording)

A key challenge facing housing authorities engaged in cross-sector collaboration is how to create and sustain capacity. Facilitated by Keely Stater and Kelly McElwain of the Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation, the session highlighted two housing authorities that have created capacity in different ways: the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) and the Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA). Both agencies consciously prioritized cross-sector partnerships and programming with support at all levels of the respective agencies. Kyle Hanson and Alyssa Erickson from MPHA discussed their agency's approaches to both education and health partnership building and collaboration. Though the agency has worked with community partners for decades, their recent efforts to work with other sectors have been part of MPHA's strategic planning for the future. MPHA's approach starts with getting buy-in "from the top down," with executive leadership driving much of the initial effort and bringing others in to help identify needs and service gaps and develop necessary partnerships. Some of their specific initiatives include a new "voucher-like" program for students experiencing homelessness, as well as re-establishing and strengthening the agency's human services program for all residents. In Austin, HACA's Sylvia Blanco and Rodolfo Rodríguez talked about the rapid evolution of HACA's health and wellness ecosystem work, which started with a vision for the work but came to life by hiring a staff person dedicated to health and joining with a strong health partner in Dell Medical School, represented by Dr. Freya Spielberg on the panel. In the past year alone, HACA has conducted a detailed community health needs assessment in partnership with Dell Med, hired community health workers to drive their work (fueled by a significant new grant), and collaborated with UnitedHealthcare's state Medicaid plan as part of the CLPHA/CSH/UHC Aligning Health & Housing project around data analytics and community health interventions. HACA's rapid growth and capacity building is a testament to leveraging existing staffing to securing additional resources, including grants, and deepening rich partnerships with important health sector partners with significant interest in public and affordable housing.

Breakout Session: Creating Moves to Opportunity

Alison Bell of the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities (CBPP) gave an overview of the history of mobility programs and how lessons from previous and ongoing mobility programs have informed the mobility demonstration that was recently funded by Congress. Through a competitive process, HUD will fund awards for the mobility demonstration that include $5 million for new vouchers and $20 million for supportive services that will help families access opportunity neighborhoods. On the research side, Sebi Devlin-Foltz of Harvard University’s Opportunity Insights (OI) provided more detail from an applied perspective on opportunity mapping and how it can be used in different work.

Starting with key findings from Moving to Opportunity (MTO), Devlin-Foltz reported that researchers leading the MTO experiment found improved physical and mental health for adults and children, better educational outcomes for children, and less exposure to toxic stress. While there was no effect on adult earnings or employment, recent work from Raj Chetty and colleagues found important long-term effects for children. In addition to the MTO studies, the other arm of OI’s work has been to identify what neighborhoods are most likely to lead to the kinds of outcomes that the MTO research found in the long-term for young children. Using census and IRS data, OI’s mapping provides unique data on how neighborhoods impact children and what neighborhoods meant for adult outcomes. OI is also studying “bargain opportunity neighborhoods,” which could produce the best long-term outcomes for children most efficiently. Following Devlin-Foltz, Sarah Oppenheimer from the King County Housing Authority and Andria Lazaga from the Seattle Housing Authority provided an applied example of how they have used the opportunity maps in the CMTO experiment. Oppenheimer and Lazaga described how the opportunity maps surprised them and made them reconsider assumptions about the kinds of neighborhoods that they have viewed as opportunity neighborhoods. Questions during the Q&A portion included inquiries about the process of the mobility demonstration and concerns about using historical data to measure neighborhood transitions and current childhood outcomes.

Breakout Session: Leveraging Special Purpose Vouchers

During the session, HUD program staff Ryan Jones and Ashley Matthews, working on Family Unification (FUP) and Section 811 programs, respectively, provided an overview of upcoming award competitions and how they have used evaluations and PHA feedback from previous awards to change program criteria to improve the program’s effectiveness. Noting that in 2018, the 811 program received its first major funding increase in many years, PD&R is conducting rapid cycle evaluation of the 811 program to determine if any program changes might improve outcomes. Martha Egan from the Center for Medicaid and CHIP services described evaluations of the 811 program and similar housing programs serving people with disabilities. Both Matthews and Egan highlighted lessons learned from those programs that have informed the 811 program. Specifically, they showed that an effective program requires a high level of coordination between the PHA and service providers, a centralized tracking and data sharing agreement, and portability or a large jurisdiction in order to expand geographic choice of voucher holders.

Denise Wise, CEO of the Housing Authority of San Buenaventura (HACSB), focused on the important program best practice of expanding neighborhood choice. By forming a regional partnership with agencies in their community, HACSB has ensured that 811 voucher holders can port across the area, which is important in a high-cost area like Ventura County. Wise described HACSB’s process to form their partnership and the kinds of details that needed to be worked out in order for the partnership to be successful, , such as consistent waitlist preferences across agencies. Following up on other best practices, Kristen Cane of the Housing Authority of Snohomish County described their collaborations with partnering service providers for the FUP and 811 programs and the challenges that they have navigated over the years. Questions during the Q&A portion touched on the waitlist and referral process for 811, the best way to address racial equity for families served through FUP, and best practices for forming a regionalization partnership with neighboring PHAs.

Breakout Session: Peer-to-Peer Working Roundtables

During the Peer-to-Peer Working Roundtables, Summit attendees met in small groups to discuss specific topics in a more intimate setting. This session gave participants an opportunity to hone-in-on partnerships, strategize and elicit feedback from those involved in similar work across the country, and troubleshoot around challenges and roadblocks. The roundtable discussion topics included: Centering Resident Voices in Health and Housing Partnerships, Identifying your PHA’s Resident Health Priorities, Using Technology to Address Resident Health Needs, Working with key Community Health Partners, Data Sharing to Improve Educational Outcomes, Data Sharing with Anchor Institutions, Student Privacy, Metrics or Healthy Communities, Navigating HIPAA in Health-Housing Data Collaborations, Partnering with Public Health Departments with Data Collaboration, Early Childhood Education, Educating Homeless Youth, Literacy and Grade-Level Reading, and Out-of-School Time. One attendee commented, “The roundtables were my most favorite part of the Summit. It provided structured networking that was targeted at exactly why I came to the Summit.” Participants found it helpful to dig into the nitty-gritty of data and metrics, health-housing partnerships, and education-housing partnerships alongside a range of experts and practitioners working in this space.

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The Housing Is Initiative, led by the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, helps build a future where systems work together to improve life outcomes.

Fragmented service delivery systems and sioed policymaking often fail to address the needs of low-income individuals and families holistically, resulting in stagnant outcomes and costly inefficiencies. CLPHA’s Housing Is Initiative is based on the premise that systems can better meet these needs and improve life outcomes when they work together.

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