Suzannah Young’s Post

Monday night's community conversation on affordable housing, hosted by People United and The Gathering Spot, was nothing short of inspiring. 🙏🏽 As I listened to the panelists and engaged with fellow attendees, it became clear that our collective goal is to build a city that works for everyone, a city of opportunity for all. The event shed light on the remarkable progress Atlanta has made in addressing affordable housing. Over the past two years, we've delivered an impressive 5,000 units, with another 4,000 underway. 📈 This achievement is not just significant for Atlanta; it sets a powerful example for cities across America. But affordable housing is more than just numbers. 🔢 It's about creating vibrant, thriving communities where every resident has the opportunity to succeed. As Terri Lee, CEO of Atlanta Housing, aptly put it, "If we keep talking about units and don't seize the opportunity to use housing as a catalyst for economic freedom, then we've missed the mark." 💬 The conversation delved into the heart of the issue, highlighting the importance of ensuring that no one pays more than 30% of their income towards housing and transportation. This is especially critical for families earning less than $30,000 a year, who often struggle to find affordable options in today's market. Affordable housing isn't just a policy; it's a fundamental human right. It's about providing stability and security to those who need it most. And as we work towards this goal, I want to commend Mayor Andre Dickens for his unwavering commitment and leadership. Special thanks to the panelists and hosts—Ryan Wilson , Julius Thomas, Courtney English, Dr. Eloisa Klementich, CEcD, and Terri Lee—for their invaluable insights and dedication to this important cause. 👏🏽👏🏽 Let's continue this conversation and work together to ensure that every resident of Atlanta has access to safe, affordable housing. #AffordableHousing #CommunityConversation #AtlantaLeadership

Key takeaways and talking points from the Housing Community Summit: Thousands of housing professionals descended on ACC Liverpool this week for the #HousingCommunitySummit, a new event hosted by the National Housing Federation and Chartered Institute of Housing. Here are the key talking points.

Good housing is essential for personal stability and community well-being. Our latest article explores the social impact of quality housing on families, highlighting the importance of stable homes for financial stability, health, and education. Our latest article highlights two innovative UK projects, Goldsmith Street in Norwich, and Hackney New Primary School & 333 Kingsland Road, which set new standards for affordable housing and community integration. These projects highlight the significant social return on investment (SROI) and their potential to uplift communities. Read the full article below to learn how these housing initiatives are transforming the lives of families and how we can create a more equitable society through quality housing. The Positive Social Impact of Quality Housing for Families: https://bit.ly/4f869Fi #QualityHousing #SocialImpact #CommunityDevelopment #AffordableHousing #HousingInnovation #UKHousing #HealthAndEducation #FinancialStability #BetterLiving

Our first policy briefing of the new academic year comes from Philippa Hughes, on enabling community-led housing England. The new government has set ambitious targets to increase rates of housebuilding. To achieve this, a range of diverse providers and models will need to be enabled. Community-led housing could play an important role in diversifying housing supply and raising standards. The community-led housing sector needs access to support to scale up. However, as a number of funded programmes have recently ended, support hubs have struggled to be sustainable. The short-term funding cycles in community-led housing have overburdened organisations and made it difficult to attract and retain skilled practitioners. The sector needs secure, long-term funding and revenue models to be sustainable. Intermediary models are crucial in supporting community-led housing, but it is also important that the independent character of community-led housing is maintained. Funding bottom-up community activity can lead to experimentation and deeper community engagement. https://lnkd.in/e8mWbu3k

Here is a response from our Springboard attendees on Affordable Homes, when presented with the question "𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗟𝗧𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲?" 🔑 "Envision Community Shared Ownership of housing for the benefit of everyone" 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? #AffordableHousing #HomesForAll #EqualOpportunity #SafeAndSecure #CommunityMatters

Great new Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place policy briefing by the excellent Philippa Hughes! Check it out below.

Community leaders, housing advocates, developers, government officials, and concerned citizens all have a role to play in shaping the future of housing in the Poconos. Join us for More Front Doors: The Pocono Housing Summit on Wednesday, November 20, 2024, at Kalahari Resorts & Conventions from 12:00 pm to 6:30 pm. More Front Doors is intended to align regional views on what housing solutions should look like and to empower the partners and processes the region needs to manifest those solutions. The summit will include... Keynote Speaker – Ira Goldstein: Senior Advisor of Policy Solutions at Reinvestment Fund, a results-oriented, socially responsible community investment group. Dr. Goldstein will share insights to inspire innovative approaches to solving housing challenges by recognizing the interconnectedness of housing with education, health, economy, workforce, and criminal justice systems. Governor Shapiro’s Housing Plan Directive – Rick Siger: Secretary of Dept of Economic and Community Development will share information about Governor Shapiro’s housing plan and how local input is critical to developing the state-wide plan. Panel Discussions: Engaging panels with local and regional experts that delve into critical topics such as sustainable housing development, policy reform, affordability strategies, and the impact of housing on community well-being. Interactive Workshops: Hands-on sessions dig more deeply into the topics that surfaced in the panel discussions. They provide attendees the opportunity to collaborate on real-world solutions, learn best practices, and develop actionable plans to address local housing issues. Networking Opportunities: Dedicated time and space for attendees to connect, share ideas, and build partnerships that can lead to meaningful change. View the full agenda and register now on MoreFrontDoors.com to help us tackle critical housing challenges in the region! #PoconoMtns #PoconoMountains

Lots of stimulating conversation at last week’s Community Land Trust Network conference. Some key take-aways (hopefully accurate) • collaboration and partnership were top of the agenda for how to scale community ownership/stewardship (we’ve got lots of thoughts on this! https://lnkd.in/gxXiNe6p ) • Lots of lessons to learn from Kennet CLTs partnership with Bellway Homes, and Aster Homes are the largest RP partner to rural CLTs… • …but only 20% of local authority officers feel they have the support they need to work in a different way - Pooja Agrawal / PUBLIC PRACTICE • meanwhile Daniel Hill highlighted that 80% of homes built by the largest housebuilders are run by private management companies - a model that has been highly criticised by the Competition and Markets Authority • all of this raising questions for what community led management/stewardship models could look like (we’ve lots of thoughts on this too!) - one option being Public Commons Partnerships, nicely framed as “public sector access to finance with community led governance” (forgot the speaker, sorry). Looking forward to picking these ideas up at Housing 2024 this week!

How can we regenerate the UK’s largest specialist housing for older people? While attending the #HousingCommunitySummit, Lois Beech shared key insights from a new report on regenerating #ShelteredHousing. With key recommendations on funding, policy changes, and better planning, the future of housing for our #AgeingPopulation could be transformed—but financial hurdles remain. Curious to learn more about the proposed solutions and next steps? Read on at https://lnkd.in/eYqf7KiU Chartered Institute of Housing National Housing Federation

🚨🚨🚨🏘️📖 today and with great pleasure Localis (think tank) publishes an essay collection "Building by consent: housing by popular demand" https://lnkd.in/ehBi-5Zh The premise to the collection is that while popular consent to development won’t by itself provide the total answer to the agenda per se, it should, as a factor, however, prove to be a crucial stepping stone to success. So, with a view to the near future and the start of the next political cycle, Localis has asked a wide range of policy experts, local government leaders and industry bodies, to sketch their plan for what a successful planning system that generates community support for development might look like. The contributors to Localis’s essay collection set out ideas for a hope-filled future in which the new homes and developments our country needs might be built in harmony with existing communities and in line with the contours of place. Our fourteen essays cover a lot of ground from diverse experiences and backgrounds, as planners, local politicians, policymakers and developers and covering contexts from the rural to the very urban, greenfield to brownfield. What unites them is a need for planning that is well-resourced to deliver the quality of results and outcomes we want to see, strategic in scope to integrate at scale and engaging and empathetic enough to carry local populations with them. 👏👏👏👏👏 👏👏many thanks to all our contributors and essaysists. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 Catriona Riddell | Samer Bagaeen FRICS MRTPI (Prof.) | Richard Blyth Royal Town Planning Institute | Andrew Taylor FRTPI Vistry Group | Andy von Bradsky | Cllr Darren Rodwell leader London Borough of Barking and Dagenham & Local Government Association housing spokesperson | Cllr Linda Taylor leader Cornwall Council & vice chair LGA Conservatives | Joe Harris leader LGA Liberal Democrats Group | Stephen Jones director Core Cities UK | Samuel Chapman-Allen chairman District Councils' Network | Cllr Sinead Mooney Surrey County Council | Paul Miner CPRE The countryside charity | Kerry Booth Rural Services Network | Anna Clarke The Housing Forum Especial thanks to Andrew Taylor FRTPI & Vistry Group for kindly sponsoring our collection 👏👏👏👏