Biggest Challenges Faced by a Project Director at PATH Ventures

I work for a homeless services nonprofit, which comes with many challenges. The idea that nonprofits often operate with far fewer resources than for-profit companies is absolutely true. We have to make do with less, with fewer staff and funding, compared to what a for-profit company might have. This can be challenging at times.

However, the bigger challenge is that the work I do is often politicized. The funding we receive can come from the city, state, or county, and these funding sources are often approved by voters. Essentially, the entire affordable housing industry is very dependent on the political environment.

If political fortunes change and our budget from the state is reduced, that can be very difficult. When we have limited public resources, it intensifies the competition between other nonprofits doing similar work. This is unfortunate, even though we're all trying to achieve the same goal of increasing the affordable housing stock.

Working in homeless services specifically, I find that in addition to my role as a real estate developer, I'm also dealing with misinformation about homelessness in the media and among the public. I have to combat this because people vote and protest, and as a developer, we want to maintain good relationships with our neighbors and continue using public funds.

We must consistently work to ensure people understand that homelessness is a housing issue. Rents are high because there isn't enough housing. While there are many reasons people become homeless, including fallacies about drug use and mental health, homelessness is fundamentally a housing issue.

That's why we are building housing. We have to be consistently thinking about how to message, communicate, and address narratives that distract from the core of our work.