Dear Invest Health city team members and friends,
As our Invest Health Field Building grant work wrapped up in September to close out a 3-part virtual format of what was to have been the May in-person Missoula (MT) convening, we are grateful for the participation and resilience of the ten teams over the past year. The continued health and economic crisis required us all to reassess and adapt our strategies, but through it all, teams have leveraged the Invest Health platform and learning community to share lessons, resources and models for improving the community investment system and building more equitable communities.
We are also excited to share that our monthly communications will be continuing as we transition into the next phase of Invest Health, focused on sustaining the Invest Health network and expanding learning to other small to mid-sized cities so all residents can live more equitable, healthier lives. There will be more to share in the upcoming months as we begin our planning, but in the meantime, please visit the www.InvestHealth.org website, if you haven’t recently, as we reorganized content in the past year. Continue sharing the work that your Invest Health city team has catalyzed, as others may be learning from your achievements, challenges and innovations!
Sincerely,
Jennifer Fassbender and the Invest Health Program Team
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Opportunities
[Webinar] Race Equity and Housing Justice During and After COVID-19
Join Ta-Nehisi Coates, author and correspondent for the Atlantic, for a discussion of racial equity and housing justice in light of the current global pandemic hosted by the National Low Income Housing Coalition on October 6 at 1pm EST. To register, click here.
[Conference] Opportunity Finance Network – Finance Justice
Register now for the CDFI industry’s premier event for mission-driven finance! This November, join OFN and more than 1,500 community development financial institution (CDFI) practitioners, funders, investors, and advocates as they gather virtually for the annual OFN Conference. To register, click here.
[Webinar] Overcoming Barriers to Bringing ADU Development to Scale
Join Enterprise and a group of housing experts for a discussion on opportunities and challenges to bringing accessory dwelling unit (ADU) development to scale to boost affordability and housing type options. This webinar will feature opening remarks from Enterprise’s CEO Priscilla Almodovar followed by presentations on Enterprise’s latest research on Overcoming Barriers to Bringing Accessory Dwelling Unit Development to Scale, California’s recent regulatory changes in support of ADU development, and the LA Más Backyard Homes Project. The virtual event will be concluded with a Q&A session facilitated by Enterprise’s VP of Policy Development Andrew Jakabovics. To register, click here.
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Resources
National League of Cities COVID Action Tracker
The scale of this global crisis is unprecedented, and so is the scope of the local government response. These extraordinary efforts will have far-reaching implications for public health, municipal services, and local economies that we are only beginning to comprehend. National League of Cities’ goal is to ensure mayors, city leaders, and other local decision makers have the information they need to lead their communities through this crisis. They aim to highlight and uplift the efforts of local leaders. To learn more, click here.
Where to Prioritize Emergency Rental Assistance to Keep Renters in Their Homes
The pandemic’s economic and health impacts are exacerbating the nation’s afforda ble housing and homelessness crises—adding more low-income renters to the millions already at risk of eviction and homelessness and widening racial disparities in housing instability. As states and localities allocate emergency rental assistance funds to help renters avoid losing their homes, local leaders must decide where to prioritize their resources. To help inform those decisions, the Emergency Rental Assistance Priority Index was developed by the Urban Institute. The index estimates the level of need in a census tract by measuring the prevalence of low-income renters who are at risk of experiencing housing instability and homelessness. To do this, it examines neighborhood conditions and demographics, incorporating instability risk factors before the pandemic as well as the pandemic’s economic impacts. To learn more, click here.
Four Lessons for Advancing Racial Equity through Place-Based Initiatives
The COVID-19 pandemic, like many crises before it, has disproportionally affected Black and Latinx communities, once again exposing the ingrained racism limiting people’s access to health care, employment, education, and stable housing. Achieving deeper racial equity in communities across the country requires taking on existing power structures and working to change the systems that sustain racism. Urban Institute is looking at how a new set of place-based initiatives is working to change these systems through three avenues: structural changes in policies, practices, and resource flows; relational changes in networks and power; and transforming attitudes. The initiatives studied bring together actors across public, private, and nonprofit sectors to tackle systems shaping access to housing, health, education, public infrastructure, and other life essentials. This work happens across multiple locations, creating a patchwork of many local, cross-sector site teams pursuing similar goals. To learn more, click here.
Social Determinants of Health in Rural Communities Toolkit
 This toolkit compiles evidence-based and promising models and resources to support organizations implementing programs to address social determinants of health in rural communities across the United States. This toolkit will supplement and expand on previous work in this area including the RHIhub Social Determinants of Health for Rural People topic guide, and several RHIhub evidence-based toolkits for rural community health including the Care Coordination Toolkit, Community Health Workers Toolkit, Food Access Toolkit, Health Networks and Coalitions Toolkit, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Toolkit, Services Integration Toolkit, Telehealth Toolkit and the Rural Transportation Toolkit. For more information about rural community health programs, including how to develop and implement a program, click here.
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City Team News
Greensboro, NC: The Invest Health Greensboro city team hosted a “Housing Hangout” virtual convening with experts from National League of Cities, Center for Community Progress, Reinvestment Fund, and Fannie Mae to discuss the state of our nation’s housing market for renters and homeowners, and to explore the various efforts to address foreclosures, evictions, homelessness, and housing insecurity impacting millions. To watch the recording, click here.
Riverside, CA: Neighborhood Partnership Housing Services, p art of the Invest Health Riverside city team, created a Community Land Trust (CLT) as part of a holistic framework to develop, preserve and protect affordable homeownership opportunities in neighborhoods throughout the Inland Valley. The NPHS CLT is integrated into NPHS’s holistic approach to real estate development with a focus on creating, preserving and protecting the affordability of housing developed by NPHS and its partners. This framework is comprised of three Social Instruments that are interconnected and work together to successfully create and preserve affordable homeownership while creating equity and wealth in low-income communities and households. To visit their website, click here. To learn more about the important role CLTs can play in equitable community development, please click here to read the NextCity article, “How Community Land Trusts Can Help Heal Segregated Cities”.
Keep sharing updates on your work, including special events and news media pieces to us using this online FORM. We look forward to hearing from you and the notable news your Invest Health city team is creating!
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