For Immediate Release: 10/26/23
For More Information, Contact: John Feehan, YWCA Greater Newburyport, jfeehan@ywcanewburyport.org
60 Residents Attend Kickoff Meeting Of YWCA Housing Choice Coalition On Oct. 25th
Newburyport, MA – Over 60 local residents attended the YWCA Housing Choice Coalition kickoff meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 25th at the YWCA Greater Newburyport headquarters. “The mission of the YWCA Housing Choice Coalition is to support housing equity and justice in the Greater Newburyport area,” says YWCA Greater Newburyport Executive Director John Feehan. “The housing crisis in this area is real and citizens want to know what they can do to address it.”
Whitney Demetrius and Monica Keel of CHAPA (Citizen’s Housing and Planning Association) spoke and addressed questions about housing concerns. CHAPA, which began in 1967, is a biproduct of the civil rights movement and exists to encourage the production and preservation of affordable housing and foster diverse and sustainable communities. YWCA Greater Newburyport received CHAPA’s Municipal Engagement Initiative grant from CHAPA to establish the YWCA Housing Choice Coalition, made up of concerned citizens, agencies and governmental entities. The Coalition’s charge is to change the narrative around affordable housing and promote its development in our local communities.
CHAPA representatives spoke of its successes related to affordable housing in other communities and shared statistics on the steep housing burden that renters face in this area.
The next meeting of the YWCA Housing Choice Coalition will be on December 14, 2023 at the YWCA Greater Newburyport headquarters at 13 Market St. in Newburyport (and via Zoom). The Coalition is open to anyone who is interested in developing solutions to the housing crisis. To join, please contact the YWCA at 978-465-YWCA (9922) and your name will be added to the distribution list.
YWCA Greater Newburyport is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. We view affordable housing as crucial to that mission because women cannot become empowered unless they have a safe place to live and removing barriers to housing for all people is an important component of eliminating racism.
YWCA Greater Newburyport was founded in 1883 and began offering affordable housing in 1885. Today, it provides 77 units of affordable housing to formerly homeless households, households in which one member is disabled and to the lowest income households. For more information, visit the YWCA Greater Newburyport website at https://www.ywcanewburyport.org/.
