Stability Starts at Home: Preventing Crisis Through Integrated Housing and Food Systems

This post is part of the Forward With Families series.

Forward With Families is a multi-year strategy led by Ascend at the Aspen Institute to amplify ideas and initiatives that make life affordable, economic mobility possible, and security attainable for every family in America.  This strategy drives policy and systems leaders at every level to act on proven and promising solutions to ensure resources go farthest for the children and families who need them most.

For families, housing and food shape daily decisions about work, school, health, and caregiving. When housing is unstable or food is unreliable, every other system families depend on begins to fray.

Nearly half of renter households in the U.S. spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, leaving little room for unexpected expenses or emergencies. Families facing housing instability are far more likely to experience food insecurity, health disruptions, and school instability for children. These challenges don’t occur in isolation, and families feel the compounding effects quickly.

When systems focus on prevention rather than crisis response, families tell a different story.

What Stability Looks Like in Practice

Developing innovative housing solutions through multi-sector partnerships

• In the New Jersey Department of Children and Families’ Keeping Families Together initiative, families involved in the child welfare system receive supportive housing alongside coordinated services, an approach shaped by leadership, including Assistant Director Kerry Anne Henry. By bridging housing, child welfare, and family supports, the initiative shows what becomes possible when agencies work together with families at the center, preventing homelessness rather than responding after it occurs.
  

Bridging supports across social service agencies

• Prevention is also driving cross-sector partnerships. The CHIME initiative — led by FamilyAid under the leadership of President and CEO Larry Seamans — centers lived experience in its design and governance, bringing together families, public agencies, and private partners to strengthen housing stability before crisis hits. 
  
  By aligning services across housing, food access, education, and family well-being — and adapting across municipal, state, and federal systems — CHIME has catalyzed dozens of new collaborations and expanded organizational capacity to better support children and families experiencing homelessness.
  
  
• Originally developed to support single mothers and their children through education and stable housing, the Jeremiah Program has expanded its impact by developing a public–private housing partnership framework that advances more inclusive housing policies for single-mother families. Implemented across nine cities in Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, Texas, Nevada, North Dakota, and Minnesota, the framework aligns housing providers’ operational needs with families’ need for stability, pairing affordable housing with education, renter supports, and resident voice. 
  
  Grounded in direct feedback from participating mothers, the model emphasizes clear partnership agreements, renter education, and long-term sustainability. By redesigning how housing systems partner with families, this work is helping transform housing from a point of instability into a foundation for economic mobility and community strength.
  
  

Why This Matters Now

Prevention works, and families can feel the difference. 

Across communities, early, coordinated supports are keeping families housed and stable. These models make clear that homelessness and food insecurity are not inevitable. When systems invest early and work together, stability becomes a platform for mobility.

Moving Forward With Families

What’s already working across states and communities points to a clear path forward: invest in prevention, align systems, and center families in the design of housing and food solutions.

Forward With Families elevates these proven and promising approaches and helps move them from practice to policy so families don’t have to reach crisis before support arrives.

How are you moving families forward? We invite you to share your work to help map the momentum and spark new opportunities for connection, collaboration, and support. Tell us how you’ll take action here.