Housing and Working Families Convening

Overview
With support from the MacArthur Foundation, the Brookings Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy and Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing hosted a two day convening on Housing and Working Families. This two-day event was designed to inform the Foundation’s grantmaking in the housing and working families arena, as well as advance conversation and collaboration between these two often disparate areas. This convening involved nearly 40 participants from the research, policy, advocacy, and industry communities.

Goals

1) Help bring together individuals and organizations from the housing community and working families community with expertise in the areas of research, policy development, and implementation, in order to build synergy between them and encourage collaboration in their efforts.

2) Identify promising opportunities for further research, policy analysis, and reform that surface and support the link between housing and other social outcomes.

Agenda

Thursday, June 19

12:00 Welcome and Introductions

Erika Poethig, The MacArthur Foundation

Bruce Katz, Vice President and Director, The Brookings Institution, Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy

Nic Retsinas, Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies

Introduction to Housing and Working Families

Presenter: Barbara Sard, Center on Budget Policy and Priorities

View Barbara Sard’s housing overview Powerpoint Presentation (4.3MB)

1:00 – 3:15 Session One: Setting the Context

Moderator: Margy Waller, Visiting Fellow, The Brookings Institution

I. Who are the Working Poor and Why are they Poor?
Presenter: Isabel Sawhill, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution

View Isabel Sawhill’s Excel Presentation (99KB)

II. How Social Policy Has Changed the Landscape for Working Families
Presenter: Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution

View Ron Haskins’ Powerpoint Presentation (123KB)

III. A Look Into the Lives of the Working Poor
Presenter: Xavier Briggs, Harvard University

View Xavier Briggs’ Powerpoint Presentation (79KB)

3:15 – 3:30 Break

3:30 – 5:30 Session Two: Working Families and Housing Needs

Nic Retsinas, Moderator

I. What Does It Take to Make It? The Self-Sufficiency Standard and Housing Needs
Presenter: Diana Pearce, University of Washington

II. The Housing Needs of Working Families
Presenter: Barbara Lipman, Center for Housing Policy

III. Working Communities
Presenter: Eric Belsky, Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies

View Eric Belsky’s Powerpoint Presentation (451KB)

5:30 – 6:00 Break

Friday, June 20

8:00 – 8:30 Overview of Day 2

8:30 – 10:00 Session Three: Housing Policy for Working Families

Bruce Katz, Moderator

I. History, Current Law and the 108th Congress
Presenter: Barbara Sard, Center on Budget Policy and Priorities

View Barbara Sard’s Powerpoint Presentation (673MB)

II. EITC and Housing Affordability
Presenter: Michael Stegman, University of NC at Chapel Hill

View Michael Stegman’s Powerpoint Presentation (1.7MB)

10:00 – 10:15 Break

10:15 – 12:30 Session Four: Next Steps

Presenters: Bruce Katz and Margy Waller

I. Next Steps on Research
II. Next Steps on Convening
III. Next Steps on Policy Development

12:30 Adjourn