As COG's Housing Program Manager, Hilary Chapman finds, supports, and encourages solutions to the region’s shared housing affordability and homelessness challenges.

That’s done through staffing the COG Housing Directors Committee and Homeless Services Committee, but also by helping to shape and shepherd projects that grow out of questions and conversations with COG members and partners. For example, what role does racial equity play in efforts to end homelessness?

Chapman came to COG six years ago. Before COG, she spent nearly a decade as an affordable housing developer, working with public housing authorities nationally through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) HOPE VI program to redevelop distressed housing units into mixed-income communities. 

After a rural upbringing, she studied city planning as a grad student at MIT and specialized in housing and community development.

“It’s work that forces you to see the forest for the trees,” said Chapman. “I get to be involved in lots of different conversations and ideas that may intersect health planning, transportation modeling, or land use.” 

Here are a few highlights of her recent work:

A COG initiative seeks to increase the region’s stock of affordably priced housing to ensure a prosperous future. Chapman’s shaping and informing those conversations.  

Late last year, a COG analysis revealed the region needs 100,000 housing units above what is forecast through 2045 to accommodate both current and future workers and residents. The COG Board responded, directing staff and the region’s housing and planning staff to determine what it would take to address the shortage.

Chapman sees herself as a “thoughtful collaborator” in this effort.

She works alongside COG colleagues and the region’s planning and housing departments to gather data that is useful for supporting and shaping conversations among policymakers and other decision makers. Lately, she’s helped to determine the number, type, and location of new housing units needed to close the gap.

“I think it would be particularly meaningful if we could reach an agreement about implementing a new tool or strategy that could make significant improvement in our ability to produce more housing in the region,” said Chapman, noting that that type of solution might look different in each jurisdiction.   

She helps the region track and better understand homelessness. 

Chapman works with the COG Homeless Services Committee to coordinate the regional point-in-time (PIT) enumeration—a one-night count—of persons experiencing homelessness.

Chapman and the region’s Continua of Care (CoCs), programs that make up the homeless services system, determine what questions, aside from those required by HUD, will be included on the (PIT) survey. COG and its members see value in gathering additional information about these residents, like foster care involvement, for example.

Once the survey is complete—Chapman helps in the field on the night of the count—she conducts a regional analysis using data from the jurisdictions.

“It’s helpful to recognize that there are people in every jurisdiction facing a housing crisis,” said Chapman. “That’s a shared experience, so that means there’s an opportunity for shared solutions.”   

The PIT enumeration and report has helped the region track areas of progress within certain subpopulations and highlight effective strategies. For example, the data confirms local, state, and federal strategies to reduce the number of veterans experiencing homelessness are working. The region has reduced incidences of veteran homelessness overall since 2014.

The 2019 regional report will be available later this spring.

She cultivates partnerships with other organizations, recognizing there is no one solution to the region’s housing challenges.    

Chapman regularly collaborates with non-government housing and planning partners to ensure COG’s work is informed by other important efforts, and vice versa.

She serves as a Leadership Council Member for the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance (NVAHA), and a participant and convener of the Housing Leaders Group of Greater Washington. She participated in ULI Washington’s Regional Land Use Leadership Institute and serves as co-Chair for ULI Washington’s Housing Initiative Council.

Outside of work, Chapman volunteers with the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project.

“The way our communities look today took many years, shaped by decisions that governments made,” said Chapman. “To improve communities or make sure investment decisions benefit different communities equitably requires proactive efforts. It won’t happen on its own. ”