CLPHA Press Room

From the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh's press release:

The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh (HACP), along with its development arm, the Allies & Ross Management and Development Corporation (ARMDC), have invested in the HACP’s Project-Based Voucher (PBV)/Gap Financing Program since December 2015.

More than $33 million and nearly 380 PBV units of housing completed or under construction to date, the program supports innovative affordable housing developments in neighborhoods across the City of Pittsburgh. In 2023, HACP provided 12 affordable housing developers with additional conditional commitments: 313 PBV subsidies and $24 million of gap financing loans. The program encourages all levels of affordable developers, including community-based organizations, to invest in their communities by preserving and developing affordable housing. It offers vital support to qualified developers and owners by providing both development financing and project-based operating subsidies.

“We continue to use every tool at our discretion in order to meet the growing demand for affordable housing,” said HACP Executive Director Caster D. Binion. “Many local organizations are interested in developing affordable housing around the city. Expanding the Gap Financing Program gives them the opportunity to step up to the plate and take the lead in shaping the communities they call home.”

The Gap Financing tool will also be used to support Allegheny County’s 500in500 initiative announced Thursday by Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato. 500in500 is an initiative to help people in the county, including the City of Pittsburgh, out of homelessness by making 500 affordable housing units available in 500 days.

Read HACP's press release. 

The King County Housing Authority recently published their latest community report "Transforming Lives Through Housing," which outlines how KCHA is addressing their region's affordable housing crisis through improving and expanding housing opportunities, leveraging local partnerships, and serving their commnunity with respect and inclusiveness. You can view the report here.

From the Charlotte Observer:

Sometime in the early 1970s, John Crawford received an offer he couldn’t refuse.

The Charlotte Housing Authority approached him about a job working with families and children who lived in its dozens of complexes. Crawford, then a school teacher and coach, loved working with children. It was a natural fit and he accepted the offer.

But early in the gig, Crawford saw things he found troubling – prostitution, drug dealing and teens overdosing at some of the properties, making it an unsafe environment, he said.

“I wanted to change that,” he said.

‘I’m gonna get there.’ How a unique scholarship helped 4 Charlotteans get their degrees

His method didn’t surface until 1982 when a college-age resident reached out to him, the youth services director, asking for money to help finish school.

That’s when Crawford realized the need and saw a way to give youth living in public housing more control over their destinies.

It evolved into the Greater Steps Scholars, a scholarship fund which after 40 years has reached a notable milestone – 1,000 students living in public housing who have been awarded scholarships.

Many came from impoverished backgrounds whose families may not otherwise have been able to shoulder the hefty cost of higher education. For some already making a plan for college, this scholarship was a welcomed boost.

It’s the only program of its kind in Charlotte, says Aisha Strothers, the executive director of the $5 million endowment now managed by The Foundation For the Carolinas. The goal is to ultimately get to $10 million.

“The big thing here is the programming that we provide, that assists these children,” said Cecil Burrowes, The Greater Steps Scholars board chairman. “We can give you scholarships, that’s great. That gets you into the school. What happens while you’re in the school?”

The program began as the Charlotte Housing Authority Scholarship Fund, which was among many at the housing authority — renamed Inlivian in 2019 — to support economic mobility for the hundreds of families living in public housing, CEO and president Fulton Meachem told the Charlotte Observer.

Read the Charlotte Obesrver's article "40 years. 1,000 student awards. What’s next for this one-of-a kind Charlotte scholarship?"

From the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority's website:

Last week, residents of Glendale and Minnehaha Townhomes joined MPHA staff in a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) study evaluating the impact of access to childcare and educational services among public housing families. This research may help inform future, more in-depth research on the importance and efficacy of onsite educational services among public housing developments and could encourage funding for such programming at the national level.

The study is evaluating six sites across the United States covering urban and rural communities, various regions, and levels of onsite or co-located childcare and educational services. Of the six sites in the study, two are MPHA public housing developments: Glendale Townhomes (with onsite, free childcare) and the Minnehaha Townhomes (which doesn’t have any educational services onsite).

The study is being conducted by Child Trends and Summit Consulting. Together, the group is interviewing dozens of families with at least one child under 13 years-old about their access to, arrangements for, preferences on, and use of financial support for childcare.

“We want to understand what it’s like for caregivers with children living in public housing communities to find and use childcare This critical support can be hard to obtain, even for families with ample resources due to unreliable transportation, concerns about the cost of care, mismatches between a program’s hours and caregivers’ work or school schedules, as well as the challenge of finding childcare options that they trust or that align with their cultural values,” said Ashley Hirilall, Site Visit Lead at Child Trends. “Our study explores how co-locating childcare services within public housing communities could make it easier for families and children to access these opportunities that aligns with their needs and preferences.”

With a location in the Glendale neighborhood—even sharing a building with MPHA staff offices—Parents in Community Action, Inc.’s (PICA) Head Start program offers low-income families childcare at no cost. This program intends to give low-income kids a “head start,” preparing them for elementary school with early childhood education focusing on cognitive, physical, and social-emotional development. For MPHA, this type of onsite educational service is unique to Glendale. Although a majority of MPHA’s families are housed through scattered-site housing (single family homes located throughout Minneapolis), Glendale has served an estimated 2,000 families over its 70-year history.

The Minnehaha Townhomes, located in the East Nokomis neighborhood, exclusively serve families referred by Hennepin County’s Coordinated Entry program. Compared to the Glendale Townhomes, it is only a fraction of the size, offering 16 units as opposed to Glendale’s 184. Although the Minnehaha Townhomes don’t offer onsite childcare or other educational services, residents do receive case management services through the county and other partners, have an onsite playground, and have access to ample green space.

“This study is vitally important and will give HUD the evidence it needs to shape policies to improve availability of federally supported childcare—policies that are informed by families that live in public housing,” said Sarah Cunningham, Project Director at Summit Consulting. “We are so grateful to the MPHA and PICA teams, and most of all the community members for taking the time to share their experiences, needs, and preferences for childcare, to improve HUD’s understanding and inform policies to advance stability and economic mobility.”

This study could prompt more research on the need for onsite educational services among public housing developments and aid in advocating for funding for programming. For MPHA, this qualitative data will provide a window into the impact of the Glendale area’s services on its residents and inform future partnerships and investments. Child Trends and Summit Consulting hope to have the study wrapped up by early 2025.

The agency is already very familiar with the intertwined nature of housing and childhood education. Knowing that safe and stable housing is the most significant out-of-school factor for predicting student success, MPHA pioneered a partnership with City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), and the YMCA of the North to address homelessness with Stable Homes Stable Schools. This program has helped secure stable housing for more than 1,500 families since its 2019 inception.

From the Seattle Times:

Lexie Lee chose an apartment on the top floor. Hundreds of feet off the ground. Hopeful that it would be high enough to deter someone from breaking in.

Then, finally, she might feel safe.

“Even living on the fifth floor, I feel like Spider-Man is going to come through and open this door sometimes,” she said, motioning to her glass balcony door on a sunny day in May. 

Lee, a thin, dark-haired 20-year-old, is learning to feel secure on her own after several attempts at living with foster families and a childhood she said included years of abuse. But thanks to a unique federal housing program for young adults exiting foster care, she’s able to take this journey without fear of the near-threat of becoming homeless, as many former foster youth face.

The Foster Youth to Independence program is offered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help pay rent for young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 who are exiting foster care without a place to live — the situation for almost a quarter of Washington’s foster youth.

HUD officials recently announced a one-time investment of nearly $13 million this year that housing authorities can use to grow their funds for foster youth.

Seattle has been one of the leaders in using this money, which is distributed in the form of vouchers — essentially guaranteeing to a landlord that the government will pay a portion of rent. HUD officials highlighted the region’s success by announcing the investment at an apartment building in Yesler Terrace owned by the Seattle Housing Authority.

Seattle Housing Authority has issued 70 Foster Youth to Independence housing vouchers since its program launched at the beginning of 2022, according to Kerry Coughlin, spokesperson for the authority. Currently, 42 of those vouchers are in use, while 28 are assigned to people looking for places to apply their voucher. 

The authority says that it has an additional 93 vouchers left to give out for this population. 

“These are folks who have just had the deck stacked against them from the get-go,” said Sarah Birkebak, special purpose voucher programs manager for Seattle Housing Authority. 

Read the Seattle Times' article "Seattle Housing Authority program helps foster youth avoid homelessness."