Blount Belonging: An Affordable Housing Initiative
United Way of Blount County co-founded the Affordable Housing Initiative of Blount County with Foothills Community Development Corp. to identify the causes and effects of inadequate affordable housing and to discover solutions to ensure the future of a thriving, healthy community. Housing is affordable when it costs 30% or less of the household’s gross income (HUD). The nonprofit sector is finding that the housing crisis disproportionately impacts seniors and financially unstable families. However, the initiative has not had the resources to assess the issue facing Blount County’s most vulnerable. The Affordable Housing Initiative would be able to diagnose the problem and pursue solutions that would have maximum impact. The initiative plans to conduct community meetings, create educational materials, and administer a survey to collect quantitative and qualitative data about housing affordability in Blount County.