Giving Compass' Take:

• Community Foundation H/Z shares how they are supporting the development of affordable housing in their area through Housing Next. 

• How can affordable housing be part of a larger sustainability strategy for cities? What stakeholders need to be involved in the decisionmaking process for affordable housing developments? 

• Find out why providing housing is the most impactful way to help the homeless.

Housing Next is a bold effort working to decrease the number of people spending more than 35 percent of their income on housing, as that is one of the biggest contributors to financial instability for local families. Recognizing that this issue was at a crucial tipping point,

Community Foundation H/Z made a $500,000 investment — the largest grant in the Foundation’s history — to equip Housing Next for maximum impact over the next five years.

“I don’t think any of us can solve this problem on our own,” said Ryan Kilpatrick, Housing Next Director. “Housing impacts employers just as much as nonprofits and governments. It affects our ability to attract and retain talent.”

Achieving Housing Next’s vision will involve increasing the supply of housing units by working with local units of government to collectively clarify their vision for the types of affordable housing developments they desire for their communities and establishing the regulatory environment that will allow those developments to happen. It will also involve assisting developers in accessing public and philanthropic resources to fill financial gaps that might otherwise prevent projects from moving forward.

To accomplish this, Housing Next encourages mixed-income and mixed-housing type developments that offer a range of sizes, configurations, and price points to meet different housing needs and budgets.

Read the full article about Housing Next at Medium.