Practitioner Events

The Housing Mobility Training Institute is designed for staff that are new to housing mobility, to build connections and skills that will equip and empower them to contribute to a successful mobility program. Offered annually, the Institute features instruction from program practitioners, participants, and landlord partners, as well as researchers and advocates. In the first three years of the Institute, we have trained individuals and teams representing more than 60 organizations and agencies across the country.

The Institute is interactive and focuses on foundational topics, such as trauma-informed pre- and post-move services; mobility-oriented Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) administration; landlord outreach, recruitment, and retention; participant leadership; and the historical and policy context of housing mobility. If you are working toward creating a housing mobility program, or if your organization already has a program but has brought on staff that has never before attended the Institute, this opportunity is for you or your team members. Please stay in touch for when we announce the 2026 Institute.

In 2024, we held our first in-person Practitioner Gathering, bringing together housing mobility practitioners from across the United States at their request, to build community and create space for them to confront a challenge together.

Last year, in response to insights from mobility program staff, the event explored how to minimize and address racial and class-based discrimination experienced by their participants. We brought together mobility programs, and agencies that were developing programs, to share their experiences supporting participants in the face of discrimination, learn from program participants and other mobility practitioners, and gain additional inspiration and direction from researchers and anti-discrimination professionals.

Central topics were:

• Preparing families for moves to neighborhoods in which few of their neighbors are likely to share their income level and racial/ethnic identity and supporting them once they’ve moved
• Advocating for families when they encounter discrimination
• Working with institutions to make the communities that participants choose to move to more welcoming

In 2025, the policy landscape has been evolving on a daily basis, and it is more important than ever to convene practitioners dedicated to advancing housing mobility and expanding choice and opportunity for low-income families. Our 2025 Gathering was on October 16th at 430 N. Michigan Avenue, 2nd Floor, Chicago, IL, 60611. We explored school selection tools for housing mobility programs, discussed HCV Homeownership and mobility, learned about policies to preserve participant choice in face of PHA shortfalls, and practiced peer collaboration and problem solving. 

2025 Practitioner Gathering Agenda