Street Blocks to Alphabet Blocks: The Housing-Education Connection

The pandemic reminded us how education and housing affect each other. Now some advocates are fighting to make sure no one forgets it.

Schools affect their neighborhoods—if community developers don’t harness that connection for equitable change, someone else will.

Some community development organizations have added education to their traditional focus on housing and economic development. By partnering with local school districts, they’re looking for ways to support families and children in their neighborhoods. How’s it working?

Many housing organizations are finding that educational programs are a logical—and valuable—addition to their offerings.

In the face of teacher shortages and out-of-reach housing prices, efforts to provide educators with affordable housing options are taking shape across the U.S. Shelterforce looks at some of the emerging models and how they’re working so far.

College-focused rapid rehousing aims to support students facing housing instability all the way through graduation.

A common refrain heard by locals opposed to new housing developments is that area schools can’t absorb the increase in students they’ll bring. As the nation approaches an “enrollment cliff,” the data tells a different story.

When Baltimore got funding for a round of school renovations, the state directed it to design schools that would also advance neighborhood revitalization—and it learned some lessons about why that’s not always so simple.

Schools could be kept open despite falling enrollment if planners took a wider view of communities.