Grounded Solutions Network
San Antonio, TX, Indianapolis, IN, and Richmond, VA
Challenge
Often, affordable housing receives significant attention from local policymakers only when housing costs reach crisis levels for the cities’ middle‐ and upper‐income earners, well after rising prices have displaced low‐income communities of color from city neighborhoods where they have long resided. Grounded Solutions Network created the ForEveryoneHome program to change this pattern. The 18‐month initiative targeted three cities (San Antonio, TX; Indianapolis, IN; and Richmond, VA) for early policy interventions to protect affordability and diversity and reduce displacement of residents. A key part of the process was empowering the communities of color most likely to be victims of displacement by involving them in shaping the program’s anti-displacement strategy.
Grounded Solutions Network hired local community engagement consultants in each city to design and implement a public engagement plan. They contracted with Community Allies, in partnership with Prosperity Labs, to serve as a thought partner and advisor for community engagement.
Approach
The Community Allies / Prosperity Labs team approached this project on two levels, both individually supporting the local engagement teams and facilitating coordination between the three locations to encourage peer learning and the sharing of best practices. We therefore met regularly with the individual leaders, serving as a sounding board for issues they experienced as they worked to bring together disparate entities, overcome historic divides, and effectively advocate for and empower the populations most impacted by policy shifts. We also attended local working group meetings to provide a national perspective on the importance of honoring the expertise of lived experience and provided opportunities for webinars, white papers, and guest speakers to help build the communities’ engagement skill sets. On the second level, we gathered the local engagement consultants in regular convenings, forming a learning cohort to share experiences, identify commonalities and differences from place to place, and to gain support and insights from their peers.
Results
The three cities faced common challenges as they worked to empower impacted communities, but each location had its own unique flavor and cast of characters. By working individually with the local consultants, we were able to help them to overcome barriers to community empowerment. Because policymakers were brought together in working groups with community members and support organizations, those in power acquired a felt sense of the circumstances that lead to displacement and felt a sense of ownership over the struggle to address both immediate impacts and root causes. These community engagement efforts galvanized players across past divides and around an agreed-upon slate of community-informed housing policy initiatives and they began to identify resources to advocate for and implement those initiatives. Meanwhile, in their connections with a cohort of peers across geographical lines, they found expert advice and camaraderie. Coming out of the process, Grounded Solutions Network published reports that disseminated learnings about community-engaged policy solutions to help inform other cities’ efforts.
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