Housing Matters: Securing a Future for our Lowest Income Families

Home Funders Breakfast Forum

While Massachusetts has been at the forefront of affordable housing production, the availability of permanent housing for homeless and other extremely low income families remains a serious challenge. Please join us as we explore how permanent housing for these families provides the platform for positive changes in health, education, employment and asset-building. In a new Home Funders’ video that will be aired at the forum, two families will share their stories about how a safe and stable place to live has impacted their lives.

The forum will also ask the question of what more can be done to create housing that is affordable for extremely low income families. Our keynote speaker, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Assistant Secretary Mercedes Márquez, and a panel of experts will explore the role of government and philanthropy in creating and maintaining affordable housing; current research on how safe, stable housing generates positive outcomes for children; and ideas for how we can continue working together to meet the demand for more deeply affordable housing for Massachusetts families in these challenging economic times.

Forum Presenters:

• Mercedes Márquez, Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Lt. Governor Timothy P. Murray
• Barbara Fields, New England Regional Administrator, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Aaron Gornstein, Incoming Undersecretary for Housing and Community Development, Massachusetts
• Xavier de Sousa Briggs, Associate Professor of Sociology and Urban Planning, MIT (formerly, Associate Director, White House Office of Management and Budget)
• Megan Sandel, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health, Boston University School of Medicine and Research Scientist at Children’s Health Watch
• Lisa B. Alberghini, President, Planning Office for Urban Affairs

To register, click here.

There is no registration fee, but space is limited. Please register no later than Friday, February 3rd.

Home Funders is a collaborative created by private philanthropy to spur the production of housing for extremely low income families in Massachusetts. The collaborative has pooled $21 million in Program Related Investments and grants to lend at very low interest rates to housing projects that pledge to set aside at least 20% of their units for extremely low income families. Current members of the Home Funders Collaborative LLC are The Boston Foundation, Hyams Foundation, The Paul and Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation, Highland Street Foundation, Klarman Family Foundation, and State Street Foundation. Home Funders has also benefited from the generous support of eighteen other contributors. For a full list of investors and partners, please click here.