Leaders Reflect

What would philanthropic leaders have told themselves in December of 2019 that would help prepare them for what was to come in 2020 and 2021? Read more

Eric Burmeister

executive director, Polk County Housing Trust Fund  

Dear Eric,

“Other duties as assigned.” In our workplaces, team members sometimes share that expression with a wink and a nod, lamenting busy work, or a menial task. But over the last year that expression has kept rolling through my mind in a whole different way – as the only way we could deploy the scale and the scope of what it took to bring our mission to life through a crisis. After our experience in the pandemic, “other duties as assigned” now brings to mind some of the most real and urgent work we have ever done to serve the community.

In 2019, the Polk County Housing Trust Fund, the nonprofit I am part of, was riding a wave. As an organization committed to advocacy for and funding of affordable housing, we were front and center in community discussions and studies of local housing needs and in designing policies to mitigate inequities caused by past racist actions. Critical stuff – and we were all well-equipped within the various aspects of our jobs to accomplish the work.

March 2020 changed everything. Research and weighty policy discussions seemed futile in a world we no longer recognized – a closure of educational spaces, public forums and government meetings. The door to the institutions we depended upon (the public sphere) to be effective advocates slammed shut. We were about to discover the necessity and power of other duties as assigned.

Creative thinking and risk-taking led some of our work into the virtual world. Staff members who had scant experience in aspects of distance learning jumped into mastering the technical skills of virtual delivery. The result was that attendance at our educational programs doubled or tripled in size. Undesign DSM, the centerpiece of our housing justice work around systemic racism and redlining, became a popular online resource for teachers coping with their own virtual classrooms. Adults quarantined at home searching for stimulating viewing with an opportunity to interact with presenters and one another found it on Facebook Live. Companies seeking new ways to cultivate corporate culture while working remotely asked for presentations tailored to their employees, and our staff created a five-part video series. Other duties as assigned.

While PCHTF was adapting well – even thriving in a pandemic environment – it was clear those we hoped to help with our work were not. The pandemic exposed the raw truth of housing insecurity in our country and our own community. Far too many people were one missed rent payment away from homelessness. They had no emergency savings account, and with employment situations changing sometimes daily, no employment security. The social safety net that already leaves people and families behind had never faced a test like this. What use is good housing policy if there is no income to pay for housing? How would we rise to a challenge on a scale we never wanted to imagine? Other duties as assigned.

The end of the first round of eviction moratoriums on Aug. 1, 2020, brought a rush of landlords to the Polk County Justice Center to begin eviction proceedings for unemployed tenants who were now several months behind on rent. There was no defense. The rent was owed. How could we prevent mass homelessness for families already underwater financially? The idea was simple -- “pay the rent” but the execution needed to be breathtaking in both scale and speed. How is it possible to stand up a new rental assistance program on less than two weeks’ notice? Other duties as assigned.

With almost no experience in program design or direct client service, staff accepted the challenge from the Polk County Board of Supervisors: “Stop all the evictions by Sept. 1.” The county provided the dollars but left it to PCHTF, Iowa Legal Aid and the Continuum of Care to make the rules. If you are laser-focused on a program result, how do you design the program rules? Other duties as assigned.

First, don’t make rules – set guard rails. Each family facing homelessness has its own story. None will be identical and none can check all the same boxes on an application form. In fact, get rid of forms. Face-to-face interviews are much more effective and much faster. Second, empower team members to make decisions at the front lines. Emergencies don’t allow excessive time for invasive verification of every client detail. When documentation is required, accept what the family has; each will have different paperwork. Technology can be helpful – old emails or texts from employers may be the only thing to verify pre-pandemic employment. Tenants can often show them to you on their phones. And last but not least, be compassionate; assume the tenant is telling the truth rather than trying to prove they aren’t.

For the Polk County Housing Trust Fund, “other duties as assigned” is now a liberating phrase to address the challenge of housing equity and insecurity in a way and on a scale we’d never imagined. Our employees and partners are empowered, and our culture has shifted toward innovation and action. We felt what can happen when we remove barriers of bureaucracy and “other duties” becomes a way to break through barriers. We experienced what is possible when we enable people to do the right things at the right time and for the right reasons. And it made a difference. Between September and February over 1,000 eviction cases were dismissed and 2,300 people, more than 1,000 of them children, were able to stay in their homes during their moment of greatest need. Let’s hold tight to this new way of business. 

Why is philanthropy important to our community?

Philanthropy is important because it is simple. As Polk County Housing Trust Fund discovered in its Justice Center Project, philanthropists, especially individuals, have little or no bureaucracy.  Individual donors have no committees, they have no requirements for reports, and they have no rules that hamper delivery to folks in need. They are focused on the ends, not the means. Philanthropists permit quick and creative responses to communities in emergencies.