The Housing Crisis Is Also a Collaboration Crisis

Picture a working parent who does everything right, goes to work, pays bills, and cares for the children. Then rent goes up.

Childcare goes up. Groceries cost more. Transportation and utilities cost more. Perhaps child support is part of that financial balance, support coming into one household to help care for a child while the other parent works to remain financially stable and meet that obligation.

None of this is abstract for a family trying to make ends meet. Housing affordability is one monthly equation that extends far beyond rent.

Government, however, often addresses it in pieces. One agency may administer housing assistance. Another handles childcare subsidies. Another provides employment services. Another administers public benefits. And another administers child support.

Each program may be meeting its individual performance goals. But who is looking at the family as a whole?

According to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, 22.7 million renter households, 49% of all renters, were cost-burdened in 2024, meaning they spent more than 30% of their income on housing.

Housing Affordability Is More Than Rent

But rent is only part of the affordability equation. Childcare can consume another significant portion of a family’s income. In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor has found that childcare for one child can cost more than rent in some communities.

This is why the housing crisis is also a collaboration crisis.

Families Don’t Live in Policy Silos Even When Government Operates In Them

Housing agencies cannot solve childcare costs. Child-support programs cannot create affordable apartments. Workforce programs cannot control rent. Human-services agencies cannot solve every financial challenge a family faces. And nonprofit and community organizations often see needs that individual government programs may never see.

None can solve affordability alone. But what could happen if they worked together differently? Success could be measured not only by applications processed, but also by benefits issued, child-support dollars collected, people placed in jobs, or housing units created.

What if we also asked one simple question:

Is the family more stable?

For public administrators, that means looking beyond our organizational boundaries. It means identifying where our programs intersect with others, where handoffs break down, and where one policy may unintentionally create barriers to another policy’s goals. It also means listening to the families navigating these systems every day.

Most importantly, we must stop expecting families to connect systems that government itself has not connected.

Families do not live in policy silos, even when government operates in them.

A mother trying to keep a roof over her children’s heads should not need to understand the government’s organizational chart to get help. A father trying to remain employed, pay his rent and support his children should not either.

A Call to Public Service

So here is my challenge to those of us in public service: Look beyond the performance measures of our individual programs and ask where our work intersects with someone else’s. Then ask the families we serve where those connections are failing.

If a stable family is a measure of success, our systems must work together.

Collaboration cannot be something we add after programs have already been designed.

It must become part of the infrastructure of affordability.

Dr. Denise D. Hendrix, DPA, is a director at New York City’s Human Resources Administration (HRA), where she advances collaborative governance and public service innovation. With more than 15 years of experience in public and nonprofit administration, her work focuses on homelessness, child welfare, organizational leadership and cross-sector collaboration. Dr. Hendrix is an adjunct professor, public administration scholar and contributor to PA TIMES. Her research explores trust, communication and collaborative governance networks. She is currently pursuing professional coaching certification and is passionate about developing leaders who build strong organizations through trust, effective communication and meaningful collaboration.

Photo Credit: Jakub Zerdzicki, Pexels