Cycling Coast to Coast

While I’ve posted about biking and fundraising, one very important aspect of Bike & Build that I’ve neglected so far is our cause — affordable housing.  When I first signed up for B&B, I did a lot of cursory reading on the topic, and got very interested and excited about it.  Sadly, I haven’t done much research since then.  Even though we’re all really excited about the cause, B&B realizes that many of us may not be very well-informed, so they created the Affordable Housing (AH) Curriculum.

The AH curriculum is the second part of our sweat equity (the first part is volunteering with an affordable housing organization) that we have to complete before the start of the trip.  Ever week on the road, we’ll have group AH meetings to discuss and educate everyone on AH issues.  To help guide those discussions, everyone is assigned a specific topic and two cities (of the ones we’ll pass through on the trip) to research beforehand.  The six main themes for discussion are:

1. What is the affordable housing crisis?
2. History of housing practices in the US
3. Social Influences
4. Statistics & recent studies
5. Nonprofit organizations devoted to the cause (like B&B!)
6. The government’s role in addressing the problem

I’ve been assigned the subtopic of HOPE VI, which falls under Theme 6.  I’m also responsible for finding out more about Las Vegas, NV, and Baker, CA.  As I learn more about the topics, I’ll post some interesting facts and articles here.