Build WyCo: Advancing health and economic justice through housing

The safety, stability, and conditions of where we live not only contribute to the economic strength of our communities, but to our individual and collective health. This is why Health Forward supports organizations that create safe and affordable housing and pathways to homeownership.

Build WyCo a nonprofit housing development corporation, is among the many organizations committed to these principles. By investing in the economic power of our neighbors to build communities that thrive, Build WyCo ensures that everyone can find a place to call home and stay in them.

The need for its work, and the work of other organizations like it, is well-studies and documented. On average, we spend 70% of our time in our residential environments. When faced with limited affordable housing options, families are often forced to live in lower-quality housing, exposing them to substandard conditions that worsen health.

Further, homeownership remains a primary opportunity for most Americans to generate wealth. According to the National Association of Realtors Research Group and the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, people who won their home had a median net worth 40 times that of renters.

Build WyCo’s mission aligns with this research. Simply put, it aims to partner with or invest in communities and people so that residents can build wealth and thrive for generations. Fostering equitable wealth-building pathways is especially critical in Wyandotte County, where a variety of partners are working to overcome health outcomes that have consistently ranked lowest in the state. Their collective aim is to create a future where robust health outcomes are accessible to everyone. Build WyCo recognizes that improving health rankings and economic prosperity requires dismantling systemic barriers to wealth creation.

Housing has historically been the primary means for accumulating and maintaining wealth for most families. For that reason, Build WyCo is committed to building on the strengths of all communities, including the resilient communities of color in northeast Kansas City, Kansas.

Build WyCo also recognizes that it must do more than simply build homes. “We have to make sure the people who live in those homes have the ability to stay in them and to keep them up,” said Warren Adams-Leavitt, Build WyCo’s director of resource development. “We’re building both the houses and the homeowners who live in them.”

To achieve this, Build WyCo is working to build a strong ecosystem that supports affordable homeownership and preservation of existing housing in Wyandotte County. Inability to keep up with home repairs often results in other costly fines and fees and reduces a home’s values and owner’s equity in them.

Salud Adelante contributed $100,000 to Build WyCo’s home repair and improvement program. Through it, Build WyCo helped 103 families achieve or sustain homeownership.

“Just as important: we want to welcome this community of homeowners, and others we serve, as partners in the effort to build generational wealth.” Warren Adams-Leavitt, director of resource development, Build WyCo

“We try to do what we can to help homeowners prevent foreclosures, to help keep them in their homes,” Adams-Leavitt said. “We want them to gain household wealth instead of losing it. Just as important: we want to welcome this community of homeowners, and others we serve, as partners in the effort to build generational wealth. We want to work with the community, not for the community.” That community is growing.

Last year, 398 customers participated in Build WyCo’s homeownership programs, which include pre-purchase homebuyer education workshops and pre- purchase counseling classes. A $50,000 operating and capacity building grant from Health Forward helped support these programs.

“Health Forward is helping us secure a supply of homebuyers and homeowners,” Adams-Leavitt said. “And that’s not just for Wyandotte County. People who go through our classes are free to purchase a home anywhere in the metro.” Adams-Leavitt noted that Health Forward’s support goes well beyond the check. By taking the time to listen to its partners and learn from them, Adams-Leavitt believes Health Forward has expanded its perspective on what it takes to build healthy communities.

“Their holistic approach to health, really looking at how to address the social drivers, has been a huge deal for us,” he said. “Health Forward is truly serving as a thought leader in that space and encouraging other foundations to do the same.”