Legislative Priorities & Best Practices – Affordable Housing in the News

Housing is a key driver of health, but a lot of people in the Dan River Region pay more for housing than they can afford, and many go without.

Local, state, and federal policies can alleviate or aggravate the housing crisis. Groups across the region are concentrating on various aspects – sheltering, housing rehabilitation, wrap-around services, local ordinances, etc. For example, Third Chance Ministries is hosting a conversation later this week for community partners to explore what a collective-action approach to transitional housing would look like in Danville.

Meanwhile, a growing number of jurisdictions across the country are implementing policies that criminalize homelessness.

“Our analysis demonstrated that public policies criminalizing homelessness continue to prevail because homelessness is fundamentally understood as a problem of deviant, criminal individual behavior. We argue that reframing understandings of homelessness from one of criminality to a human rights issue gives way to more dignified, just, and effective solutions, such as the Housing First Model.” – Tasneem Owadally, Quinn Grundy

You can read the full 2023 paper, From a Criminal to a Human-Rights Issue: Re-Imagining Policy Solutions to Homelessness in which they “suggest that community health nurses can serve a key role in disrupting these criminalizing discourses across domains of policy, research, and practice by advocating for holistic, rights-based, and equity-oriented policy solutions related to homelessness.”

It brings to mind the work of the Dan River Region’s own REACH Community Health Workers.

You are invited to learn more about the Housing First Model and explore the following resources as you participate in conversations and actions regarding housing policy.