HOUSING STABILITY ALLIANCE
March 2023 Meeting Summary and Network Next Steps
The Housing Stability Alliance (HSA) gathered in-person on March 10, 2023 for the first time since before the pandemic. Goals included: 1) provide an overview of the HSA and Housing Kent, 2) understand System Thinking v. Siloed Thinking and the impacts on collective impact and 3) share Housing Kent’s Strategic Framework for 2023, as well as the first iterations of the system mapping work and the shared measurements work as part of Housing Kent’s key performance indicators (KPI) for quarter one of 2023. There were 60 people in attendance.
Communications Manager, Tiana Hawver, opened the meeting celebrating Housing Kent turning one year old. President Eureka People shared our shared vision – that every person in Kent County should be stably housed—or better. To ensure that, the HSA will focus on increasing affordable housing, dissolving homelessness, and eliminating the racial disparities in the housing system. Eureka also identified specific and measurable goals tied to those objectives and described the Path to Housing Stability, with its distinct stages across the housing continuum. She then led the group in understanding the need for Systems Thinking over Siloed Thinking for greater collective impact.
The HSA was then presented with the first iteration of the system map. The map was developed to make the current state of the housing system visible. A survey was conducted to begin gathering data on organization type, services offered, populations served, amount of capacity to meet needs, and more. It was noted that some organizations that were sent the survey had not responded by the deadline for the first phase. There will be additional follow up to continue gathering data before it’s available on our website at the end of March.
Following the system mapping, Alex Kontras, senior director of Data & Policy, unveiled updated shared measurements. He noted that the data currently being used came from readily available public data. He reshared the original data that was the baseline for the HSA’s work to show the difference between then and now. Housing Kent is working on a shared measurement system aimed at assisting system conveners, funders, municipalities, and community members in better housing decision-making capabilities. For that to happen, the data needs to be visible to more than a select few.
Small Group Sessions
In small group session one, discussions were held to give feedback on the system mapping. Groups were asked to consider the following questions: 1) At first glance, what is your understanding of the purpose of system maps? 2) Is there anything that you like/dislike or that you find clear/confusing? 3) What improvements would you make so that the system maps will be useful tools in decision-making and how you go about your work?
During the second small group session, participants were asked to give feedback on the shared measurement system. Groups were asked to consider the following questions: 1) Share the housing-related decisions you make in your role(s); 2) Which indicators here will help you
make better decisions? 3) Which indicators do you feel are missing that will help you make better decisions? The System Map and Shared Measurements Dashboard are still in draft and not final. If you have questions or additional feedback, please contact Alex Kontras at alex@housingkent.org. The small group analysis from both sessions and the raw notes are available here.
Next Steps
At the conclusion of the convening, members were invited to an Eviction Collab Lab. These are taking place in April, with a daytime and an evening option available. There will be more details to come, including registration. Currently, the dates are April 20 (9am-11am) and April 27 (6pm-8pm).
If you have not joined one of the action teams, please consider being part of either Eviction Prevention, Data & Shared Measurement, Community Engagement, or Policy & Advocacy. To learn more about the teams, please see the contact information below for Adisa Chaney and Alex Kontras who lead the teams.
Housing our community is the responsibility of all of us. Please consider joining us to help build this coalition to make Kent County a model for a fair and stably housed community. Thank you for being part of this work.
Housing Kent Action Team Contacts
Adisa Chaney, Sr. Director of Community Engagement & Equity
Action Teams: Community Engagement and Eviction Prevention
Email: adisa@housingkent.org
Phone: (616) 358-9935
Alex Kontras, Sr. Director of Data & Policy
Action Teams: Data & Shared Measurement and Policy & Advocacy
Email: alex@housingkent.org
Phone: (616) 358-9934
