I often speak to groups at conferences, and the topic varies, of course, depending on the interest of the group - affordable housing, green building, urban forestry, volunteerism. Lately, as I’ve prepared for these presentations the same theme always seems appropriate: If you had considered it two years ago - or 20 years ago for that matter - would you have ever dreamed we would find ourselves in a time when the issues of 1) housing and community development, 2) volunteer service and 3) sustainability would be garnering significant attention in the nation’s conversation? I can honestly say that I would not have bet one thin dime that this possibility would be our reality.
While it’s astounding that we are talking about these three issues at all, it’s even more surprising that we are seriously discussing how interconnected they are. Solutions to the enormous problems we are currently grappling with will come more easily by combining the resources that are available under each of these umbrellas. Here’s what I mean: We have a housing crisis because we weren’t buying homes that we could afford to live in over the long term. If we think beyond the initial expenses of getting into a house to consider how much it actually costs to live there (heating and cooling it, running the appliances, getting to work, keeping up the place, etc.), issues related to environmental sustainability immediately arise, such as energy and water conservation; public transportation and commute alternatives; using less and recycling more; and trees and gardening. And if volunteer service is an essential component of the plan to survive and recover from the current economic crisis, we should bring the benefits of thinking green to our projects. In fact, the President’s United We Serve initiative just announced that it’s going green.
As we see Washington putting the policy discussions into action with legislation like the Kennedy Serve America Act, the Recovery Act, with its focus on energy efficiency, and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, I can’t help but hope that the results live up to the possibilities for solving the problems facing our cities and the families living in them. Each of us has the opportunity to use these new resources to do more, but if we intertwine our efforts in housing, volunteerism and the environment, we can grow the positive effects in our communities exponentially, both immediately and into the future. Let’s hope we don’t waste this moment we’ve all been waiting for.
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