Spartan Alert

Center for Housing and Community Studies

Housing and health symposium at UNC Greensboro

Posted on May 23, 2018

Symposium offers new tools for community revitalization

The UNC Greensboro Center for Housing and Community Studies, in conjunction with the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation, will host a symposium on June 1 on the use of data to revitalize housing and health in mid-sized cities. U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson is slated to attend the event on the UNCG campus as part of the kick off for National Healthy Homes Month.

The Innovations in Planning for Better Community Housing and Health Symposium is open to city planners, community officials, nonprofits, researchers, students, advocates and other professionals whose work relates to health and housing.

The event is funded by the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro and Invest Health, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Reinvestment Fund initiative to aid U.S. neighborhoods facing the greatest barriers to good health. Symposium organizers include leaders from the UNCG Center for Housing and Community Studies, the Greensboro Housing Coalition, the City of Greensboro, Cone Health, East Market Street Development Corporation, and more.

A registration fee of $15 will cover meals and parking. For more information go to: https://chcs.uncg.edu/research/projects/innovations-in-planning-for-better-community-housing-and-health.

WUNC: Greensboro Eviction Rates Are Among The Highest In The Country

Posted on May 20, 2018

On May 10, 2018, Frank Stacio and Dana Terry interviewed Dr. Stephen Sills about Greensboro’s eviction rates, for WUNC’s The State of Things:

“Stephen Sills is the director of The Center for Housing and Community Studies at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. He says there is plenty of housing in Greensboro, but the problem is it is not affordable. The hunt for affordable housing has created a market where there is no incentive for landlords to work with tenants. If someone is evicted, there is a steady stream of people behind him.

“Sills joins host Frank Stasio to talk about the affordable housing crisis in Greensboro and how it may be spreading to cities like Rocky Mount. Sills has spoken to landlords and those who have been evicted, and he is working with the court system, researchers and advocates to create solutions.”

Read or listen to the full story here.

Rhino Times: Looking for New Answers to Old Problems with Data Mining

Posted on May 18, 2018

On May 17, 2018, Scott D. Yost of the Rhino Times covered the new UNCG-Guilford County MetroLab Collaboration:

“The county, in collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) and MetroLab Network, is taking a very deep academic dive into numbers, stats and other data in an attempt to solve problems facing the county. Homelessness and substance abuse are the first two targets of the new program, but plans are to expand the initiative to address many other county issues in the future.

“The Guilford County/UNCG partnership is only the fifth county-university collaboration in the country that’s been accepted into the MetroLab Network – a program launched in September 2015 with 21 initial city-university pairings as part of the White House’s Smart Cities Initiative. That network of partnerships is designed to use analysis of “big data” to provide brand new – often tech-based – solutions to problems faced by local governments. The federally funded Smart Cities Initiative program that includes the MetroLab Network was begun under the Obama administration in 2015 with $160 million in funding, and currently some support comes from private partners such as the MacArthur Foundation and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.”

Read the full story here.

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.”

Read the story here.

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.”

Read the full story here.

Greensboro’s Eviction Crisis

Posted on April 14, 2018

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.

Read more about this issue in our Greensboro – Eviction Brief

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.

Read the full report: Rural Immigrant Mobile Home Report

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.”

Read the full story here.

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.

Specialty Preserves:

https://www.canva.com/design/DACoUKGjC4k/nplQ7UjGoVLT7pcj95Lo4Q/view?website

Dried Products:

https://www.canva.com/design/DACn-IowexY/LXUVcP6s-coTQKB6EpOVWw/view?website

Acidified Foods:

https://www.canva.com/design/DACn9zYZLxQ/1a6jgsq_ZeBMhcsEUfQxmw/view?website

Acid Food:

https://www.canva.com/design/DACnspeRKws/5rqxFbqazmvh44bY_O-KwQ/view?website

Fermented Food:

https://www.canva.com/design/DACn980E4O4/x0Aap4pZnoLEWFnxodfSHw/view?website

Partnering to Improve Existing Affordable Housing

Posted on September 26, 2017

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.

See the presentation here: Triangle J High Point Presentation DRAFT