Housing Policies

At Vitalyst Health Foundation, we know the importance of housing on healthy communities.  People who are not chronically homeless, but experience housing instability like falling behind on rent or couch surfing are more likely to experience poor health. The COVID-19 pandemic put many of our community’s most vulnerable residents even more at risk of maintaining housing. That’s why we collaborated with partners to create the Rental Assistance Collaborative.

To read more about the collaborative, read our Spark Report, Building Healthy Communities: Tenants Eviction Assistance Project and Maintaining Stable Housing.

As we work to find ways to the housing crisis, we are exploring different ways to achieve attainable housing. To learn how school districts can provide attainable housing, read our Spark Report, How School Districts Can Create Attainable Housing Opportunities. 

Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) Academy Institute

Vitalyst was joined by other funders in supporting the 2022 Housing Institute, which will address issues of homelessness with a focus on serving households with high needs in Arizona. The Institute will help housing partners learn how to develop housing with supportive services to prevent and end homelessness, as well as how to grow capacity to deliver high quality housing and services to our most vulnerable community members.

COVID-19 Policy, Systems and Environmental Grants

In response to the unprecedented impacts of COVID19, the Vitalyst Board of Trustees authorized an additional $1 million drawdown of the Vitalyst endowment. Part of the drawdown was used on policy, systems, and environmental change grants. Below are some of the grants Vitalyst funded.

• $50,000 Policy, Systems and Environmental Change grant to Activate Food Arizona. Funding will support the development of a roadmap to guide future activities around the use of SNAP benefits for online purchases. This multi‐year roadmap will ensure other retailers, especially small, independently-owned and rural grocers, are not left out of the process.
• $50,000 Policy, Systems and Environmental Change grant to Arizona Basic Needs Coalition. Funding will support: 1) partial staff time for public policy staff to encourage state agency participation in increased data sharing and barrier reduction activities; 2) a part-time consultant to conduct a qualitative and quantitative assessment; 3) technology, including social media ads and virtual meeting space; and 4) participant reimbursement to incentivize participation.
• $50,000 Policy, System, and Environmental Change grant to Local First Arizona for Arizona Recovery Center. Funding will support an emerging LFA effort to establish the Arizona Recovery Center. This Recovery Center will be guided by a collaborative team of statewide leaders to aggregate funding opportunities and tools, prioritize resources, provide guidance and information, and communicate strategically to maximize equity and impact.

Advocacy and Public Policy Capacity Building

After consulting nonprofits, the number one greatest need was for help on advocacy to shape public policy.  Vitalyst created Advocacy and Public Policy grants to provide consultants and technical assistance and coach nonprofits on advocacy techniques as well as draft policy briefs and a health advocacy report.

Podcasts

The Vitalyst Spark Podcast is now available every other week. Through this channel, we bring together diverse voices on issues affecting communities across Arizona. It also allows a more interactive conversation about issues.

Redistricting

Civic participation and opportunity is foundational to community health and well-being. In a democratic system, it all starts with fair representation and inclusive voice within government. Representation and voice are at the heart of redistricting, which is implemented by many cities after the Decennial Census.

To learn more about redistricting, read our Spark Report Why Redistricting Matters.