March 7, 2002 | Read Time: 1 minute
A Grantmaker’s Guide to Housing Policies: a Foundation for Social Policy Investments, by Paul A. Leonard, asserts that the need for foundations to focus on low-cost housing has never been greater, in large part because the recession has made it harder for many people to afford shelter. What’s more, “an emerging body of knowledge suggests that carefully crafted housing policy can be a critical platform for achieving a broad range of social and economic policy goals,” writes Paul A. Leonard, an independent policy consultant in Berkeley, Calif., who produced this report for the Neigborhood Funders Group, an organization of grant makers interested in communty development and related issues. In addition to examining public-housing issues, the report explores what grant makers can do to focus attention and resources on policies that lead to an increase in the amount of low-cost housing and to help advance specific policies at the local, state, and national levels. It also suggests that foundations and others use their grants to stimulate nonprofit groups to advocate for low-cost housing. For instance, it suggests encouraging charities that are already pushing for public-policy changes, such as job creation or environmentally sound economic-development efforts, to add a housing component to their policy proposals.
