Why an Affordable Housing Trust in St. Louis County is Long Overdue.

In our post-Ferguson world, it’s easy to focus on the negatives within many local communities. And more often than not, we assign the blame to our local governments and the fragmented nature of our many local municipalities. It’s only natural. The seemingly ridiculous nature of our political jurisdictions is a long-running, self-critical local narrative. On first blush, our many city aldermanic wards, county municipalities, school districts, and other bodies makes our region look like a disconnected mess. But the idea that consolidation is the answer to all our local problems is

A story of change, hope and of people who care deeply about their community. A story of hard working people who do everything they can to overcome their daily challenges.

For those of you who know me, I am generally optimistic and dare I say hopeful as I don’t let things out of my control bring me down. With that in mind, I plan on entering 2018 as I always do – with a sense of optimism and hope.

Recently I heard an interview with the great writer, teacher, thinker, and activist Nikki Giovanni. She spoke passionately about her upbringing in a poor family with many challenges, but she was so amazingly clear that “we were loved.”  Her clarity and exactness in how she said it has stayed with me.  The biggest part of my job is to tell the story of Beyond Housing and the 24:1 Initiative, but Ms. Giovanni’s story made me realize the dominant refrain in my storytelling has been about the deficits in neighborhoods and families – all the things that are missin

I recently had a wonderful - albeit painful - reminder of the beauty in the everyday things of life. After waking early one ordinary Saturday morning, feeding the dog and cats, and enjoying my cup of coffee, I read a column by Omid Safi, the D--irector of Islamic Studies at Duke University, entitled “The Spirituality of the Ordinary is Luminous”. In it, Safi describes the wonder in the “extra-ordinary” experiences of life, whether they be places, relationships, or our spiritual journeys. He states: “It is easy to love the extraordinary. It is easy to pursue a spi

On a recent beautiful spring day in St. Louis, I had a rare break and decided to take a walk during the lunch hour. I was even dressed for it, wearing comfortable jeans and a Beyond Housing shirt - another rarity. I walked out of our beautiful new offices and headed east, toward Barack Obama Elementary School and Vetter Place Senior Apartments. As I got closer to the school, I began to hear the wonderful sounds of kids playing outside. Their jubilant laughter was heartwarming and infectious. When I arrived at the school, there had to be at least 100 kids playing outside One group included abou

Subsequent to the latest global tragedy in Manchester, England they were several posts reminding us about the famous Mister Rogers quote of “look for the helpers”. The story behind the quote was that as a child, Mister Rogers was frightened by the news reports he saw about the tragic things happening when he was a child. To calm him, his mother told him to always look for helpers and that they were always nearby. Good people are always coming to help when bad things happen. As we think about this notion and whatever tragic event that we can recall, helpers are always there. In Man

My normal mode of operation at my job is not to look back at anything we accomplished in the past, but rather to look ahead to what else needs to be done.

I recently drove to Louisville to visit a dynamic organization named IDEAS xLab that joined us as one of seven communities nationally in winning the Culture of Health Prize from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2016. Their work uses the arts in community building in a way that would be wonderful to replicate through Beyond Housing – but more   about them in moment. The roundtrip drive to Louisville from St. Louis takes about eight hours, so there’s plenty of time to notice the signs along the way. On the ride home westbound on Hwy.64 somewhere in rural Indiana I drov