Triad City Beat: Dangerous housing, evictions, supply all go together
Posted on May 18, 2018
On May 10, 2018, Jordan Green wrote about links between dangerous housing, evictions, and supply in Triad City Beat:
“We wonder why people, especially children, are forced to live in dangerous housing conditions. As the neighbor of the devastated Congolese family attests, part of the answer has to do with evictions and the limited options for people with poor credit histories. And a high number of evictions has everything to do with a lack of affordable housing.
“Only two days before the five children perished at Heritage Apartments, Stephen Sills, director of the Center for Housing and Community Studies at UNCG, spoke on North Carolina Public Radio’s “The State of Things” about why Greensboro ranks No. 7 on the list of top evicting cities in the United States.
“Sills’ center estimates there are 20,000 cost-burdened families in Greensboro that spend more than 30 percent of their gross income on housing.
“’So they’re desperate to find any housing that they can at the lowest rate possible and are willing to take some pretty negative conditions of the properties in exchange,’ he said.”
Triad Business Journal: UNCG & Guilford County partner to research opioid abuse, homelessness
Posted on May 06, 2018
On May 1, 2018, Jessica Seaman of the Triad Business Journal covered the UNC Greensboro and Guilford County MetroLab Network partnership agreement:
“The focus by UNCG and Guilford County on opioid addiction and substance abuse interventions comes as North Carolina is struggling to tackle the opioid crisis. At least 1,956 people in the state died from opioid-related deaths in 2016, up 24.7 percent from the previous year, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“UNCG said the two entities will research the prevention of homelessness by evaluating eviction diversion strategies. In Guilford County, roughly 573 people made up the homeless population as of 2017. That’s down from 721 people in 2016, according to a report by nonprofit Partners Ending Homelessness.”
Many cost-burdened renters in Guilford County are one car-repair, one hospitalization, or one high-utility bill away from being evicted from their homes. Data from the newly released Eviction Lab, the first national database of evictions, shows Greensboro as having the highest eviction rate of large cities in the state and the 7th highest eviction rate of large cities in the nation. On any given day in 2016, around 13 families were evicted from their homes.
Housing instability has been shown to affect health outcomes, children’s academic achievement, employment, and neighborhood vitality. Research from CHCS has shown that more than half of those evicted find themselves homeless for a period of time.
In our current collaborative effort to address this issue, UNCG Center for Housing and Community Studies (CHCS), UNCG Economics Department, UNCG Computer Sciences Department, and the UNCG Center for Youth, Family, and Community Studies have been working with the Greensboro Housing Coalition, the NC District Courts, local philanthropy, tenants, landlords, and Guilford County Government (through our MetroLab partnership) to develop a pilot program that will divert potential eviction cases from adjudication into mediation and case management, keeping tenants in their homes while addressing both landlord and tenant concerns.
The program is being developed with tenants and landlords as Co-Investigators to provide emergency financial assistance to avoid evictions due to inability to pay utilities or rent owed in a crisis situation, landlord-tenant mediation to defuse situations potentially leading to eviction, and Landlord and Tenant Education services to help both parties understand obligations and ensure that people remain successfully housed.
New CHCS Report on Immigrant Residents of Mobile Homes
Posted on April 03, 2018
The Role of Mobile Homes in International Migration
This research project was a partnership between Kimberly Kiesewetter, a Master’s Candidate in Anthropology at the University of North Texas, and the UNCG Center for Housing and Community Studies (CHCS). It took an exploratory approach, utilizing predominantly qualitative methods with a geographic focus on central North Carolina. The initial demographic group targeted for inclusion was both migrants and refugees living in mobile homes in the US. Ultimately, twelve interviews were conducted over the course of three months, all with individuals who migrated from various parts of Mexico. All interviewees lived in the same rural county in NC and came from three different mobile home communities. Through the course of the interviewing process, certain themes began to emerge which facilitated the ability to streamline the interview guide. These themes included, 1) the unique benefits and challenges of mobile home living for Mexican migrants living in central NC, 2) the role of people’s social networks during the migration process in finding a mobile home to live in, and 3) the limited impact of mobile home stigmatization on migrants.
One of the most unique benefits of mobile homes for this particular group was the value these homes can bring in building social capital during the migration and relocation process. Mobile home ownership is one of the most affordable – if not the most affordable – pathways to home ownership in the US. The process of purchasing these homes, means that even people with very modest earning and savings can potentially achieve the American Dream of owning one’s own home. For migrants, even a modest mobile home in poor-to-fair condition can become a valuable commodity during the migration process.
High Point Enterprise: County, universities target opioid addiction
Posted on March 15, 2018
On March 9, 2018, Paul B. Johnson of The High Point Enterprise covered the new GCSTOP program:
“Opioid addiction has become a pervasive, insidious problem across the area, state and country, but Guilford County leaders and volunteers are teaming up to send a direct message: We aren’t backing down.
Guilford County and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, along with students from North Carolina A&T State University, are teaming up for a comprehensive outreach program to tackle the opioid crisis. The Guilford County Solution to the Opioid Program, known as GCSTOP, was unveiled during a press conference at UNCG on Thursday.”
Food Cards: Helping Food Entrepreneurs Access Resources and Navigate Regulation
Posted on December 06, 2017
CHCS intern, Emily Thouin, over the course of the semester worked with Kitchen Connects Greensboro to create Food Cards. These pocket-sized cards contain useful resources for local food entrepreneurs and links with applicable federal regulations for these food groups. Food cards cover the resources and regulations for the following foods: acidified food, cold-filled products, standard fruit preserves, acid foods, food prepared & sold refrigerated or frozen, fermented foods, baked goods, dried products, specialty preserves, and pasteurized juices & ciders.
Each product has a different way it needs to be prepared, stored, and preserved. On each individual card there is a definition of the product with picture examples as well of what the product may look like. On the back of the card there were links to different websites that include a resources and regulations. The links bring you to websites that help food entrepreneurs understand, in more detail, about how to prepare, manufacture, and sell the product you are wanting to make. We hope that these food cards help budding food entrepreneurs build their businesses and achieve their entrepreneurial dreams.
The cards can be printed out or there are links that can bring you to an online version of the card. Links to these food cards are found below.
Much of the focus on addressing affordable housing issue is on building more affordable housing – and rightly so, given the rapid population growth, uneven prosperity, and competitive housing market in our region. However, many communities, urban and rural, have existing housing that is affordable to low- and moderate-income families, including older single-family neighborhoods and mobile home parks. Some of this housing stock is vacant, blighted, unsafe, or at risk of being bought up and converted to higher-priced housing or other uses. This session will focus on how to use data and build partnerships to identify opportunities to leverage this existing housing to address affordable housing needs.
NC Health News: Better Housing for Better Health in Greensboro
Posted on September 22, 2017
On September 20, 2017, Catherine Clabby wrote about BUILD Health Challenge’s funding for Collaborative Cottage Grove, for North Carolina Health News:
“A research center at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro last summer repurposed Google ‘street view’ photos to survey the exteriors of 78,000 city buildings, one property at a time. The results allowed the center to map clusters of city housing in serious disrepair.
“Because mold and cockroach infestations produce allergens that can trigger asthma attacks, student surveyors took pains to note cracks in foundations and gaps in flashing near chimneys and rooflines. Both increase the chance that water and insects will invade a home.
“The effort took months. But once finished, UNCG sociologist Stephen Sills could merge maps showing clusters of poor-quality housing with Cone Health System data locating the neighborhoods housing city children who most frequently visit a hospital due to asthma attacks. The hot spots overlapped, suggesting a strong correlation.”
Collaborative Cottage Grove is a BUILD 2.0 Awardee:
“Collaborative Cottage Grove’s Community-Centered Health program is committed to the transformation of health, equitable community development, and inclusion of cultural diversity. The partners are leaders in changing housing systems to align health and housing. They are not only mapping asthma hospital visits and housing condition data to identify communities in need of support, but they are also developing an electronic referral system to link families with asthma education and housing assessments, and developing funding for remediation and rehabilitation. Cottage Grove aims to foster healthy, resident-led communities by integrating community empowerment with environmental changes and high-quality, onsite, primary and behavioral health care. These efforts will ultimately create a positive and measurable impact on hospital emergency visits and health disparities in the community.”
Two-year grant aims to improve health in Cottage Grove neighborhood in east Greensboro
[Greensboro, NC] Collaborative Cottage Grove has been selected for a prestigious national health award that will bring over $250,000 in funding to reduce the rates of preventable diabetes and asthma in the Cottage Grove neighborhood in Greensboro, NC. The national BUILD Health Challenge today announced 19 awards to teams throughout the country, with two teams from NC honored from a total of 125 applicants nationwide. Awards include $250,000 in funding combined with matching funds from Cone Health and access to expert assistance in planning and implementing projects that address the living conditions that can lead to poor health.
Public health research reveals that social, economic and environmental conditions make up approximately 50% of a community’s life expectancy and quality of life. The BUILD Health Challenge requires teams to develop Bold, Upstream, Integrated, Local and Data-driven projects that catalyze collaboration between public health, health care, local non-profits and government. Cottage Grove neighborhood leaders working with community partners will seek to improve housing conditions to reduce rates of asthma; increase venues for healthy food; and develop safer sidewalks, parks and other opportunities for activities to reduce obesity. Cottage Grove neighborhood is the area surrounding S. English Street between E. Market Street and McConnell Road in east Greensboro.
Collaborative Cottage Grove’s BUILD application stood out because of the partners’ deep commitment to building relationships with each other and cultivating strong neighborhood leadership. “Our project is centered around the needs and desires of Cottage Grove residents, who have sacrificed hours of their time to lead this community change, built trust with non-profits and government, and are the heart of our partnership,” according to Josie Williams, project coordinator at Greensboro Housing Coalition, “Community change never comes from outside, and our partnership’s strength is the diversity of talents who come together to serve each other and our mission.”
Collaborative Cottage Grove is comprised of Greensboro Housing Coalition, Cone Health, Guilford County Department of Health and Human Services, Cottage Grove Neighborhood Association, Cottage Grove Friendly Neighborhood Council, City of Greensboro, Mustard Seed Community Health, New Hope Community Development Group, Guilford Child Development, UNCG Center for Housing and Community Studies, Guilford College, NC A&T State University and Guilford County Cooperative Extension.
BUILD seeks to foster health system innovation by addressing upstream factors affecting health. It is supported by a unique collaborative of 12 local and national funders, which includes the Advisory Board, The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, the Colorado Health Foundation, the de
Beaumont Foundation, The Episcopal Health Foundation, Interact for Health, The Kresge Foundation, Mid-Iowa Health Foundation, New Jersey Health Initiatives, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Telligen Community Initiative, and The W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
