People’s Housing+ (PH+): 

Driving Momentum for a One-Stop Shop for Affordable Housing

People’s Housing Plus (PH+) emerged as a transformative initiative following the strategic merger of three New Orleans-based affordable housing organizations: Home By Hand, Crescent City Community Land Trust, and Tulane Canal Neighborhood Development Corporation in January 2023. DMS Communications began working with PH+ to develop an overall strategy for leveraging earned media and various social media platforms to raise PH+’s public image.

Situation

PH+’s mission is “foster multi-generational wealth to combat systemic racism” ensuring that Black New Orleanians not only have access to affordable housing, but also opportunities to create generational wealth through homeownership.

Social Media and Earned Media Strategy

The challenge was to introduce PH+ not only as an organization that not only develops affordable housing but also as a thought leader in affordable housing..

DMS Communications developed a comprehensive strategy:

Developed and implemented earned media strategy that focused on introducing PH+ to New Orleans public, PH+ events and PH+’s CEO Oji Alexander as a affordable housing thought leader

• Explaining New Orleans affordable housing crisis
• PH+: Showing PH+’s work in affordable housing
• Demonstrating PH+’s expertise within the affordable housing sector
• Promoting PH+’s events like the “Building by Boiling” and “GiveNOLA Day”
• Shed light on the history and current issues of racism in home buying.
• Explain the significance of generational wealth and its connection to homeownership.
• Display ongoing projects and construction updates.
• Conduct interviews with team members to introduce them to the audience.
• Highlight PH+ board members’ contributions and roles.
• Emphasize the critical importance of affordable, resilient, and stable housing in New Orleans.
• Educate the audience on the importance of financial wellness.
• Offer insights into homebuyer counseling and post-purchase considerations, such as avoiding foreclosure and aging in place.
• Keep the audience informed with timely updates on affordable housing news and industry developments.
• Share relevant earned media articles and news related to the industry.

Social Media Results

• Followers Gained: More than 500 new Instagram followers.
• Reach Metrics: Instagram posts reached more than 20,000 users  
• Shares: PH+‘s content strongly resonated, resulting in 250 shares
• Results Highlights: Positive user-generated content, increased awareness and engagement among a younger demographic, and sustained engagement post-launch. Bottom line: people seeing PH+ as an active organization working to create and sustain more affordable opportunities in New Orleans.