By Susan Wolfgram, co-chair of the Affordable Housing Task Force
In our current environment, working together will be more critical than ever in reducing inequities and insecurities in our community, be it housing, food, transportation, health, childcare, and more. The JONAH Affordable Housing Task Force has been deep into relationship development and collaboration the last couple of months. Examples including but not limited to:
- Health Department “Linkages to Basic Needs” partner for housing
- WI Council of Churches presentation, “Leading Change Around Affordable Housing”
- Keynote: Feed My People Network Partner Conference
- Roundtable Revival Reentry Housing Supports
- University of WI-House Day-student tenant rights and protections
- Case Study Committee for the Day Resource Center, preparing for Capital Campaign
- Housing Authority 5-year Consolidated Plan partner
- Western Dairyland Women’s Business Conference for networking
- Beyond the Bridge, Housing First, partner
- ECC Department of Human Services collaboration with Angie Stokes, Assistant Director
- Bill Hogseth, GROWW-grassroots regional partners
- Christian Phelps, Assembly person 93rd District-state affordable housing initiatives
We are also excited to welcome our newly hired Eau Claire Tenant Landlord-Resource Center Program Coordinator, Amanda Babb! Amanda is well connected in the Eau Claire community and looks forward to building relationships with our partners and the broad spectrum of community members. She brings property management and subsidized housing experience along with a comprehensive skillset with what she refers to as “people-centric.” Her first few weeks will focus on building a foundation of knowledge in the tenant-landlord space and scheduling 1:1s with our partners. Join us in welcoming Amanda!
The “JONAH Village” will continue to fight every day, as we always have, in the best interest of our most vulnerable community members.