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Philanthropy Needs to Invest in the Infrastructure of Mobility

As the Clinton Global Initiative convenes leaders around systems change, philanthropy should treat housing stability as essential infrastructure for education and economic mobility.

“Systems change” may be philanthropy’s most overworked phrase. As foundation leaders, public officials and social-impact organizations from around the world convene in New York for the Clinton Global Initiative this week, the concept of systems change—redesigning the underlying policies, incentives and institutions that produce problems, rather than just reacting to their consequences—will undoubtedly feature prominently. That principle only matters, however, when it produces concrete changes in institutional practice.

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Systems rarely fail only at the point of crisis; they fail in the gaps between the institutions meant to create opportunity and those meant to provide stability. If philanthropy is serious about mobility, it has to look beyond discrete investments in education, employment or health and ask what underlying conditions determine whether those investments can actually take hold. Youth homelessness offers a particularly clear example of what happens when that connective tissue is missing.

Philanthropy and government invest heavily in schools, scholarships, job training and career pathways, yet often treat housing instability as a separate problem to be addressed only........

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