Connect Home USA: The Power of Public-Private Cooperation

Across the country, community leaders, local governments, nonprofit organizations, and private enterprise are collaborating on ConnectHomeUSA to develop solutions to close the digital divide for Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-assisted individuals.

Funded by public-private cooperation and ran by local public housing authorities, ConnectHomeUSA provides residents with free or inexpensive in-unit internet connectivity, a free or inexpensive computer device, and the training necessary to utilize these tools. ConnectHomeUSA communities thus give children, adults, and seniors living in HUD-assisted housing access to 21st-century online opportunities, ranging from education to healthcare to fintech.

ConnectHome arose from an effort to close the "homework gap" for students in grades K–12 living in public housing, when HUD established the ConnectHome pilot program in 2015. Public housing students often have access to the internet while they are at school, but when they return home, it is frequently unavailable, mostly because internet service, devices, or both are too expensive. HUD chose a total of 28 communities to take part in this pilot. In all, these twenty-eight public housing authorities assisted in connecting about 20,000 homes to the internet, often receiving funds from business sector stakeholders who had pledged assistance for this activity.

Riding the success of the pilot program, HUD, in collaboration with EveryoneOn, led the design, execution, and growth of a new program—the ConnectHomeUSA we know today. Established in 2017, ConnectHomeUSA provides a platform for local authorities, nonprofit groups, for-profit businesses, and community leaders to collaborate and develop customized local solutions to bridge the digital divide. The program extends affordable access to low-income families and ensures that high-speed internet follows our kids from their classrooms back to their homes. In order to fulfill its objective of growing to 100 cities by 2023, the project has so far welcomed 100 localities from all throughout the country into the program, most recently enrolling 13 additional towns. This growth will help ConnectHomeUSA boost the proportion of online residents by at least 15% annually. Around 75,800 previously unconnected families have been connected to the internet through the efforts of both initiatives, and more than 30,000 devices have been handed to communities across the nation. This corresponds to an estimated $26.9 million in leveraged value.

In order to expand their programs across the country and create additional technical assistance tools, HUD will continue working on and improvingConnectHomeUSA model. In fiscal year 2023, there are plans to provide a number of case studies on their previous connection initiatives as well as a new edition of the ConnectHomeUSA Playbook. In order to address a community's demand for high-speed internet, affordable devices, and digital literacy training, public housing authorities and stakeholders can use the ConnectHomeUSA Playbook as a step-by-step guide to develop a comprehensive digital inclusion program and close the digital divide in their respective communities.