The Housing Opportunity and Services Together (HOST) Demonstration aims to strengthen public and mixed-income housing communities through intensive services for vulnerable families. Drawing on our survey of HOST participants, this brief illustrates the first two sites, a Chicago public housing development and Portland mixed-income community, and discusses challenges to HOST's community goals. HOST builds on the housing authorities substantial investments in improving the developments and Portlands high collective efficacy. However, residents express concerns about neighborhood resources, perceive major community problems with violence and social disorder, and suffer from poor mental health -factors that could stymie HOST's individual and community objectives.