POAH and their partner organizations have designed and implemented a trauma-informed framework that demonstrates the need to share power with residents of affordable housing. Investing in the empowerment and inclusion of residents in the design and management of their homes:

• acknowledges and works to redress the harms of generations of resident exclusion and trauma related to housing systems;
• creates safer, more accessible housing that reflects residents’ needs and lived experiences, helps to prevent more harm, supports resilience through ongoing stressors and trauma, and sparks joy and pride;
• builds stronger relationships and trust between staff and residents and improves resident engagement and leadership; and
• aims to improve resident well-being, housing stability, and economic security.

Recommendations for Housing Providers and Management Companies 

1. Adopt an organization-wide strategy. Trauma-informed housing is a holistic approach to centering the well-being of residents and staff. The model encourages housing providers to go beyond training and to identify and change policies and practices that may create unintentional harm or stress for residents. This strategy requires shared values and goals as well as collaboration and buy-in from staff across an organization. Housing providers can begin by reading about trauma-informed housing (POAH has created a resource list) and conducting an internal assessment. Providers should consider assembling a collaborative working group of staff from across their organization to help guide the effort. 
2. Engage residents as leaders at both property and organization levels. Housing providers should engage residents as full partners in planning and designing for development or redevelopment, setting policies, and designing resident services and amenities. Additionally, providers should consider ways to engage resident voices and reflect residents’ expertise in organization-wide strategies, for example, through organized resident advisory boards or councils or through regular feedback mechanisms like surveys, focus groups, or fellowships. Housing providers should also use existing funding sources to invest in trauma-informed resident engagement and compensate residents for their time in ways that do not put residents at risk of losing government benefits. 
3. Adopt a trauma-informed lens to staff support. Housing providers can transform working environments to better support staff who engage with residents and improve resident-staff relationships. Supports can include human resources benefits like mental health days, employee assistance programs, or other free counseling services. Housing providers should offer safe spaces for staff to share feedback and ideas for improvement without fear of judgment or retribution. In this way, leadership can model how to share power within the organization, further supporting efforts for frontline staff to share power with residents. 

Recommendations for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and Other Funders and Regulators

1. Support awareness and adoption of trauma-informed housing among public housing authorities and multifamily housing providers. As the agency that provides funding and oversight for local housing authorities and affordable housing providers, HUD is positioned to support the integration of trauma-informed principles into the practices of all types of affordable housing providers. Leveraging its reach across its digital channels, HUD can endorse a trauma-informed approach to housing and share resources. HUD can also support training that increases housing professionals awareness and skills, both by working with housing providers to promote or sponsor trainings and by creating additional flexibility in existing grant funding programs (such as Resident Opportunities and Self-Sufficiency, Family Self-Sufficiency, or Section 202 Service Coordinator grants) that would allow for funds to cover training costs. HUD can work closely with industry organizations like Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future, Housing Partnership Network, National Affordable Housing Management Association, Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, and other intermediaries who can play a critical role in educating and empowering their members in trauma-informed approaches to housing design and management. Lastly, HUD can make clear in its messaging that trauma-informed practices belong across the housing system, not in resident services alone. This shift would increase the likelihood that other owner/operators would embrace trauma-informed housing across development and management.
2. Reduce administrative burdens that create barriers for residents and frontline staff. POAH’s engagement with residents and frontline staff identified several opportunities to reduce administrative burdens that create unnecessary stress and friction for residents and staff, including income certifications, leases, house rules, and physical inspections. By offering more flexibility in existing regulations, HUD could encourage owners to maximize flexibility for residents by allowing longer reporting timelines, online lease renewals, digital signatures, and more. HUD and state housing-finance agencies that administer Low Income Housing Tax Credits can allow increased flexibility by reducing the frequency of income certifications for eligible households. HUD and state housing finance agencies can also renew alignment efforts to reduce duplicative procedures such as redundant unit inspections. This change would decrease unwanted traffic in residents’ units, a common source of stress for many residents and an administrative burden for many frontline staff.
3. Proactively support resident engagement and empowerment. HUD could incentivize owners to support resident empowerment through a range of strategies. For example, HUD could require resident feedback in building design or service planning, thereby codifying resident power over decisions that directly impact residents. HUD could also offer a funding opportunity to support resident organizing and extend funding for service coordination to owners of multifamily properties, as these owners typically have to seek outside funding to cover costs associated with staffing resident empowerment activities in their properties.
4. Integrate trauma-informed practice into reinvestment programs. In its regulatory role, HUD can incorporate trauma-informed housing approaches into the technical assistance it provides through programs like the Rental Assistance Demonstration and the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative as well as guidance on design, service provision, and property management. HUD can encourage grant recipients, including public and multifamily housing providers, to adopt trauma-informed practices such as engaging residents in early phases of budgeting, design, relocation, and service planning. This strategy would ensure the plans reflect residents’ needs and vision and, in the long run, can result in stronger resident buy-in, more sustainably and accessibly designed properties, and smoother operations and staff-resident relations.

To center trauma-informed housing principles will require a culture and systems shift and an investment of time, resources, and relationships. Drawing on concepts and learnings from POAH and their partners as well as input from the stakeholders who participated in the roundtable, we developed the above recommendations to bring this new equitable framework of trauma-informed principles to the field. By adopting this vision for trauma-informed housing—and by making it the standard, rather than an aspiration—the broader field of affordable-housing providers could advance equity and improve outcomes for their organizations, residents, and communities.