How Can Local Philanthropy Quickly Facilitate New Tools for Housing Affordability

This week GOPC hosted the first webinar in our series “Keeping People in Their Homes” a series exploring strategies for promoting neighborhood stability in the time of COVID.  Each webinar in the series addresses themes of neighborhood stability by focusing on strategies well-suited to a variety of actors, including mission-driven developers, local governments and non-profit community advocates.

This week’s webinar was entitled “How Can Local Philanthropy Quickly Facilitate New Tools for Housing Affordability” and focused on the role that philanthropy can play in supporting neighborhood stability, particularly in the time of COVID. Panelists shared the strategic responses of several local community foundations to COVID-19, including a multi-foundation partnership established to more quickly target the neediest areas, the establishment of a rent assistance fund, a community helpline, and other community response efforts.  We also heard about a philanthropy-driven fund to support the affordable housing preservation in Columbus, OH.

If you were unable to attend the webinar, here is this weeks panel discussion.

Panelists for this webinar were:

  • Jennifer Roller, President of the Raymond John Wean Foundation

  • Sue Lehman, CEO, Findlay Hope House (Findlay, Ohio)

  • Lark Mallory, General Counsel, Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus and Franklin County

The panel was moderated by Matthew Martin, Community Research and Grants Management Officer, The Columbus Foundation.

There are three more webinars in the series.  Please see the links below to register or for more information.