The Opportunity Starts at Home (OSAH) campaign participated in the 2024 Mid-Fall State Conference held in South Carolina by OSAH state partner South Carolina Association of Community Action Partnerships, Inc. (SCACAP) in partnership with South Carolina Head Start Association. The conference brought together hundreds of community action, weatherization, and Head Start staff, along with experts and community partners to learn about the latest developments in their fields. During the event, OSAH Campaign Coordinator Julie Walker shared insights into the national affordable housing crisis, its impact on South Carolina, and available NLIHC advocacy resources. Julie also discussed the national multi-sector OSAH campaign and detailed how OSAH state partners work to grow their coalitions and advance federal housing solutions.
Julie joined the “Partners and New Resources Panel” held during the second general plenary session on the opening day of the conference. In her remarks, she provided an overview of NLIHC’s mission, the national affordable housing crisis, and national and state specific data from NLIHC’s publications The Gap and Out of Reach. She also discussed the OSAH campaign’s founding in 2018, the campaign’s national Steering Committee and Roundtable, and its policy agenda. She highlighted the work of OSAH’s 31 state partners, including SCACAP, in diversifying their states’ housing coalitions to other sectors and working to engage national policymakers on OSAH’s policy priorities. She concluded with a call to action for attendees to engage with NLIHC and SCACAP’s state housing campaign, asserting that “this crisis can’t just matter to housing advocates. It needs to matter to everyone, because housing impacts pretty much every outcome that matters.”
The panel was moderated by Karen Brackett-Browning, executive director of Carolina CA, Inc. Additional panelists included Michelle Medeiros, deputy director of HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes, and Viva Webb, Share the Light Program Manager at Duke Energy. Ms. Medeiros and Ms. Webb shared information about the grant opportunities available through their organizations. The panel concluded with questions from the audience.
Visit SCACAP’s website to learn more about the conference.