Presented at the 2017 TEDxUNC event at Memorial Hall: CEF’s Co-Founders / Co-Directors sharing the transformative story of a group of college students and shelter residents who built a community organization and financial tools that support sustained transitions out of homelessness. The CEF Advocacy Choir sings to close out the talk, with an original song about the joy of finding a home after experiencing homelessness.
photographs by TEDxUNC
John Miller and Advocate Audrey Boyles celebrate a successful moving day in 2012.
The following is a guest post by Durham resident and CEF Member, John Miller, who is an avid writer and advocate at www.blindtravel.net/ , where this post was originally published.
When Gentrification Arrives At Your Door
Or renovation. Rapid re-creation of a whole neighborhood. Call it what you want, the effects are the same.
We’ve all read the stories. Person, hard working, toward the lower end of the economic ladder, suddenly finds him or herself homeless. As we read this, we sit back and wonder to ourselves how this could have happened so quickly. Well I would venture to say that our current rental structure can contribute.
I have resided in my current large community here just northwest of downtown Durham for over four years. Each year, the costs have increased by about 20 to 30 dollars. Not too bad, right?
Except this year, they’re gonna hit me with the haymaker! They have been engaged in a steady process to re-design all of these older units to make them trendier, and probably more amenable to modern appliances. And let’s call it what it is, more expensive.
I get it. Located close to two medical facilities, Duke Hospital and the VA Medical Center, as well as that major university within easy walking distance, there is lots of money to be made in this area. And as guardians of the community (however all that internal stuff works), they have a responsibility to get that money flowing into their coffers if at all possible.
But what are those of us who are barely hanging on supposed to do? It’s a question I probably ask at least once a year, and every year it becomes demonstrably worse. Affordable housing is simply disappearing, and especially from places that need it the most for instance near said medical facilities and along transit lines. An example of this need? I have (had? well I think she’s still here somehow) a neighbor who moved into her apartment and lived there for 25 years so that she could have easy access to Duke Hospital in the event of somewhat regular heart emergencies. My guess is she has some kind of special dispensation that will allow her to remain there for as long as she pleases.
Certainly other than that though, I have noticed that this place has become a lot quieter. Most folks started packing up and moving out a good while ago, and my guess is it will be a while before the upper incomers start trickling in, once all of the reconstruction work has been completed.
As for me, this is not a tremendous deal. This is because I would have been moving on by January anyway, so that I can begin life as a married man. To transfer for the six or seven-month gap between now and then (I must depart by June 24th,) I have to pay these fine folks an additional $330 a month. That is a sixty (60!) percent increase, and would mean I would be living a lot closer to significant disaster due to any unexpected occurrence than I wish to experience. It seems silly though to relocate to some entirely unfamiliar venue for such a short period, and even if I decide to do that I am not sure where that would be as most of Durham, the Bull City’s prices have crept in that general direction. In any event, I have a couple of weeks to figure this out, on top of possible needs for other employment, grad school, and other general living interests. Chaotic, to say the least. But, it’ll all work out somehow because it has to. Wish me well.
Read the update to John’s apartment situation on his blog in his latest post: http://www.blindtravel.net/on-rites-of-passage-20-years-since-high-school-and-apartment-follow-up/
Thank you to the over 70 participants from partner agencies that attended the workshop CEF co-hosted with the Common Cents Lab focused on “Using Behavioral Economics to Explore the Transition to Housing.”
Together, we brainstormed about how behavioral economics might help nonprofits think creatively about building better programs and smarter solutions to support individuals moving out of homelessness. The incredible team at the Common Cents Lab shared an introduction to the principles of behavioral economics, and led the group through an interactive workshop to put those principles into action for better program design.
Behavioral economics is “the study of how people really make choices–not in a simplified economic model, but in the textured and rich reality of daily life, and draws on insight from both psychology and economics” (CFED).
CEF is working with the Common Cent Labs this year to apply these learnings to our partnerships with shelters to promote increased engagement with CEF’s matched savings accounts in a way that supports Members in achieving short-term savings goals and builds longer-term saving habits. Through our last joint project with the team, we implemented a new way for Members to track progress towards their savings goals through a punchcard and tested its efficacy through a randomized control trial. Every time Members in the trial group made a deposit, they received a punch, and received gold tokens and new levels of punchcards after each card was filled. An article is soon to be published by the research documenting the promising results of this study… Just for a preview: “Members who received the punchcard to track their deposits completed 30% more of their goal than members who were in the control condition” (Guzman and Tepper, full article to be published late spring 2017).
Indiana received the very first punch on a CEF Savings Card! This piggy- themed punch card developed with Common Cents Lab, tracks each deposit and captures progress towards her goals!
We are excited to continue learning throughout this year with the team at the Common Cents Lab! Since the workshop, partners have shared that they are still really thinking about how behavioral economic analysis such as “tunneling” or “friction costs” can be addressed in their own work. Building on the incredible momentum of bringing 70 of our partners into the room together to explore these concepts, we got feedback from participants on where to go from here in our collaborative learning, and will be exploring other topics in the months to come — such as “Manage Cash Flow after Housing Transitions,” and “Overcome Barriers to Banking.“
Your gifts always go a long way at CEF, but between now and May 31st, they will go even further! Thanks to a generous $10,000 matching challenge from the Stewards Fund, your donation may be doubled.
Check out this recent newspaper article featuring Steven, a current CEF Member who started a Facebook fundraiser for CEF that he is running through his birthday in July. Steven’s goal is to raise $1,000 for CEF, sharing “I understand how hard it is for a lot of people to donate, but CEF helps so many people in the community… I’m just trying to help them in a way — to give back.”
Thanks for coming to the Party on April 13th!
CEF is seeking an Advocate Program Coordinator! In this position, you will coordinate the activities of 60-80 volunteer Advocates and 4+ volunteer leadership teams for CEF’s Durham County programs and services. You’ll serve as a key leader for CEF’s overall programming in Durham County also collaborate with CEF’s Chapel Hill office to shape volunteer training and programming with a counterpart program coordinator.
Click Here to learn more about the position and to apply!
Presented at the 2017 TEDxUNC event at Memorial Hall: CEF’s Co-Founders / Co-Directors sharing the transformative story of a group of college students and shelter residents who built a community organization and financial tools that support sustained transitions out of homelessness. The CEF Advocacy Choir sings to close out the talk, with an original song about the joy of finding a home after experiencing homelessness.
photographs by TEDxUNC
Join us Sunday, April 2nd from 1-2pm at UNC Memorial Hall to hear Co-founders and Co-Directors Maggie West, Jon Young, and Janet Xiao share the story of how a student group transformed into a non-profit and a community that strives together towards better solutions and supports for individuals experiencing and at-risk of homelessness. The CEF Advocacy Choir and will be unveiling a new celebration song, that captures the joy of moving from homelessness into housing.
TEDxUNC is an all afternoon event from 12-6pm, with speakers of all kinds speaking about topics related to the idea of home. CEF’s presentation will be at the end of the 2nd section called “Boroughs” that is happening from 1-2pm. Please come at 1 pm if you can to catch our talk!
You don’t need tickets to attend – it’s open to the public at Memorial Hall. Hope to see you there!
Members and Advocates, join in a special part of the talk by singing with the CEF Advocacy Choir. Contact us at (919) 200-0233 or reach out to Yvette at yvettem@communityef.org to join in!
Seven Duke employees, including Strahm, bought homes last year with help from the Homebuyers Club. Thirty other employees received Homebuyers Club certificates because they completed at least eight hours of homebuyer education classes. The certificates can qualify the employees for additional financial help from the club’s community partners such as Habitat for Humanity, which builds affordable homes for low-income families; Reinvestment Partners, which provides housing counseling; the Community Empowerment Fund, which offers savings opportunities and financial education; and SunTrust Bank. These partners, along with Duke staff, help employees on the path to improving their credit, saving money, and connecting with lenders and realtors.
Yvette sings a challenge to the OC Commissioners—repping CEF & this community’s need for affordable homes #makeroomorange
