Is Student Homelessness in the United States Inevitable (Part 2)? A conversation with Amy Van of the Tacoma Housing Authority

By Andrew

We believe in meeting people where they are and learning from leaders accelerating opportunity in their local communities.  

As a follow up to our post on student homelessness, we spoke with Amy Van of the Tacoma Housing Authority (THA).  Amy leads THA’s education work which has been recognized for its life changing holistic programming and innovative partnership work to combat student homelessness.

For Amy, this work is personal. She grew up on Section 8 and believes that her family's experience in a housing authority afforded them a chance to gather their bearings after immigrating from a war torn country. She attributes her public housing experience to providing the stability and motivation that her parents needed to work towards employment and ultimately, homeownership.

Amy’s early life experience sparked her interest in the education system and the more she worked on education policy and advocacy issues, the more she understood how important other sectors are to short and long-term student success. Yet, Amy often encountered these sectors operating within their own vacuum; missing out on the benefits of shared data, strategies, and resources to better meet the holistic needs of students and families.

We had the chance to catch up with Amy about THA’s education programming and her reflections on opportunity work at the intersection of housing, education and employment.

Why were you drawn to the work you are currently doing?

Oftentimes, we hear about non-classroom related issues that hinder a student’s learning, such as students coming to school hungry, or exhausted because they did not have a home to sleep in, or stressed because of their family or social environment. The issues outside of the classroom affect a child’s wellbeing and their learning. We know that our communities suffer when people do not receive an education, are homeless or housing insecure, and are living with health complications with little to no access to adequate healthcare.

I was immediately drawn to the partnership between THA and the Tacoma Public School (TPS). It was exciting to see two very different institutions tackle the issue of family homelessness together. THA recognized the importance of how its housing resources can not only help to provide stable housing for a child and their family, but can also be the basis to interrupting generational poverty when combining efforts with the school district to help each child succeed.

What is the underlying philosophy of using housing as an opportunity lever?

At the bare minimum, housing offers some level of stability for people. Meeting the basic need of shelter allows the individual to then work toward other goals, including finding employment, earning an education, raising healthy families, and playing a role in enriching and supporting their communities.

What are common misconceptions about the work of housing authorities and the people they serve?

Because the word “authority” is in our name, we’re aware of the perceived power dynamic between us (as an agency) and the people we serve, namely those who are low-income, living within poverty and/or part of a historically marginalized group of people. On the one hand, there’s the view that the programs we manage are done “to” people, rather than “with” the people. I think historically, there is truth to that. However, more and more, THA and other public housing authorities are working hard to invite the families and community members we serve to the table when decisions are being made. That, and treating the folks we serve as experts in their own lived experiences who can inform us on ways to improve the work we do.

Public housing authority recipients are often viewed from a deficit-based perception and sometimes narrowly reduced to their economic status. This is far from the truth. These folks are parents, students, wage-earners and builders of assets, and their diversity enriches the surrounding community.

There are plenty of success stories that highlight the level of resiliency, wisdom and strength that is true of the children and adults we serve. Unfortunately, we do not hear them enough.

Most people know about the mobility work THA has taken on in partnership with McCarver Elementary, what is misunderstood about that project? Note: The Elementary School Assistance Program is a unique partnership between McCarver Elementary School and THA to reduce student mobility.

Housing stability is important. However, housing alone is not enough to eliminate the barriers families have to achieve a stable and self-sufficient life. It takes housing, coupled with access to educational opportunities, gaining employment and a living wage, and overcoming household traumas or health challenges, to help a family realize their goals. This takes many different sectors to lean in and share resources so that families can get the supports they need to ultimately thrive without our assistance.

Further, environmental context is key. Tacoma’s housing market has been booming for the past few years, yet the downside is that we find ourselves in an affordable housing crisis. With limited supply of affordable housing, navigating properties or landlords willing to accept families using our subsidies is challenging. It takes a lot of relationship building and creativity from the agency to create housing opportunities. As a Moving-To-Work (MTW) agency, we are able to leverage that status and try creative strategies like partnering with developers to buy down the affordability of apartment units as a way to incentivize development and maintain housing affordability.

How did you build partnerships with national non-profits, banks, the public schools etc., (what are some relevant tips, tricks, best practices)?

THA’s Executive Director, Michael Mirra, had the foresight and boldness back in 2009 to do more with the housing dollar than what is typically within the scope of a housing authority. THA’s education project seeks to support the educational success of the children of families we serve, with the hope that they will gain access to opportunities and will no longer need our assistance when they become adults. Additionally, we hope to strengthen and celebrate the successes of Tacoma Public Schools. We see these investments as a good use of our resources.

Within that same vein, the willpower among organizational leadership to partner, use resources in creative ways, and test out different strategies that allow us to go the distance in our housing and education efforts. We’re fortunate in Tacoma to have a community of leaders who believe in the value and benefits of collaboration. There is strong desire among folks in different sectors, like local government, finance, human services, housing and education to find a common goal and collectively leverage our strengths and areas of expertise to strive toward that goal.

Ultimately, partnership work is meaningful, but it’s not easy. There has to be long-term commitment by all partners to do this to work well. Commitments must be able to outlive short-term grants from external funders. Formalizing relationships through MOUs and data-sharing agreements is also fundamental in ensuring that we hold ourselves and our partners accountable.

Telling the story to funders - what's the narrative? 

THA’s work with the education system is rooted in the belief that it’s possible to use the housing dollar to support the educational outcome of the children we serve while also strengthening the successes of our local schools. That said, investment from funders supports the ability for us to assess, develop, implement, learn and adapt as we journey along this housing and education partnership. For example, housing families experiencing homelessness through the (McCarver) Elementary School Housing Assistance Program has shown us that students who have stable housing have an easier time learning in school, and as a result, their attendance improves and they begin performing better on reading assessments.

Further, we’re seeing significant engagement among the adults of the households with educational, employment, and behavioral health services. However, we’re adapting to what we know that is true about the challenges of finding affordable housing in any given Tacoma neighborhood. Therefore we’ve made changes to the program to allow families to opt into their neighborhood school or school of choice, which helps to eliminate the burden of transportation when families find housing outside of their school of origin. With additional resources, we can sustain our ability to meaningfully assess and allot resources to improve the work we do. In the short amount of time since we’ve launched our education initiatives, we’ve seen promising impacts that tells us these investments are worthwhile.

What component of the Education Project has the most upside? Why?

Tackling the issue of poverty must be done through a multi-generational approach. That is, efforts to improve household economic mobility and educational outcomes must address the needs of the children as well as the adults in the family. Our best teachers are our families, both youth and adults, as well as community partners and service providers. Collaborating and learning from these folks has helped us think outside the box when it comes to problem solving.

What are the three most important lessons other communities can learn from THA's work?

• Your community has assets, reach out and talk to them, learn from them, and leverage them.

• There’s always room for improvement. It is worthwhile to assess, learn and adapt.

• Recognize that the work will be hard, but avoiding the work altogether will make your work harder.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity and brevity.