Reforming the Housing and Justice Systems
Through the Reforming the Housing and Justice Systems funding category, we invest in tackling the root causes of some of our biggest issues to create transformational change.
Supporting systems change
Launched in December 2023, the initiative is a seven-year commitment that includes both unrestricted financial grants and non-monetary support, The grants, awarded through the FOREVER Funds, were decided by the Community Foundation’s volunteer Community Initiatives Committee.
Grants totaling $475,000 annually support four organizations working to dismantle systemic barriers Fifty percent of funded agencies are led by executive directors/CEOs of color.
Grantees
Impact in action: Greater Memphis Housing Justice Project
Grantee Greater Memphis Housing Justice Project is a collaboration between the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis—an organization of Black churches working together for social justice—and the nonprofit Memphis Public Interest Law Center. Together, the two forged a renter-serving partnership that collects data, raises awareness, and changes the narrative for renters.
Learn more about how the Memphis Public Interest Law Center is supporting renters in an excerpt from our 2025 Annual Report.
Year One Update
The Reforming the Housing and Justice Systems evaluation and learning framework tracks grantee progress by focusing in key areas of systems change, from identifying barriers to sustaining long-term impact. Click to read the full report or see a summary below.
First year progress
Systems change work is slow with incremental wins and shifting strategies to adapt to changes in policy and stakeholder needs.
Greater Memphis Housing Justice Project
Focus:
Tenant organizing, eviction court monitoring, public housing policy
Key Progress:
GMHJP monitored more than 700 eviction hearings, establishing a visible presence in housing court and fostering tenant leadership across multiple apartment complexes. These efforts have helped shift local norms, ensuring tenants are no longer invisible in court. It is also tracking federal housing policy changes and developing models that connect grassroots organizing with long-term policy goals.
Learning & Response:
Pairing legal observation with trusted tenant leadership is proving effective in driving both advocacy and systems change.
Just City
Focus:
Bail reform, legal accountability,
pretrial justice
Key Progress:
Just City helped reduce Shelby County’s jail population by 15% in 2023 through bail and pretrial reform. However, a 2024 state law mandating jail time for certain charges reversed much of that progress. In response, Just City is expanding its Court Watch program, shifting to more community-centered organizing, and developing new public education tools grounded in lived experience.
Learning & Response:
Even successful reforms are vulnerable without deeper organizing to consolidate and sustain those gains. Just City is working to connect the actual experiences of justice impacted people with expert legal and justice system knowledge to build the case for additional reforms.
Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope (MICAH)
Focus:
Housing, public safety, transit equity
Key Progress:
MICAH’s 2024 Issues Convention set a bold new agenda, prioritizing housing justice and public safety. The organization is pushing for fairer tax exemption policies, monitoring public safety reforms, and creating an independent accountability plan. Clergy-led actions, youth engagement, and cross-institutional leadership are strengthening its reach citywide.
Learning & Response:
Lasting change depends on internal sustainability and shared leadership, alongside public action.
Systems Change
Systems change grants support innovations and solutions that attack root causes of complex issues. Explore how the Community Foundation became invested in the work here and learn more about our current systems below.
| HOUSING | JUSTICE |
| Housing is a foundational social determinant of health, and housing security is fundamental to the success of individuals, families, and communities. In Memphis, like the rest of the country, the experience and adverse effects of eviction and housing instability disproportionately impact Black and Latinx residents. By 2019, our eviction rate was more than twice the national average, with approximately 26,000 evictions filed. In our court system today, it is common to see more than 100 unrepresented renters evicted in an hour; renters receive favorable outcomes in eviction cases 1.3% of the time. Addressing the deep power imbalance between landlords and tenants is a critical part of improving the landlord-tenant relationship and tenant outcomes. After 2008, owner-occupied housing in Memphis decreased by more than 15% and our rental rate rose above 50%. Aggressive out-of-state investment companies are able to buy homes cheaply, and their mostly absentee ownership leads to skyrocketing rents and deteriorating housing stock. Our community is plagued by substandard housing. The National Center for Healthy Housing reported that we have the unhealthiest housing in the nation. Experts report that poor housing conditions are as significant a problem as eviction. To address root causes, we must understand the barriers to housing security and identify interventions responsive to those barriers. We must collect and share data about renters’ experiences, better understand how our housing ecosystem is addressing the barriers they face and be willing to change those parts of the system that are failing. | To address the causes of crime and realize true public safety for everyone, we must acknowledge the harm caused by the current system and reform it instead of continuing to rely on overly punitive responses to perceived risks. We must build a local criminal justice system that is fair for all people, regardless of wealth, race, or ethnicity. Criminal justice reform includes addressing racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, and recidivism. The current criminal justice system in Memphis produces stunning racial disparities in arrests and incarceration rates. Black men are disproportionately targeted, apprehended, and incarcerated by law enforcement; approximately 88% of people in the county jail are Black, while the Shelby County population is only 52% Black. Tennessee consistently has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world’s most incarcerated nation. The Memphis area has a higher incarceration rate still. Changes in sentencing laws and policy, rather than actual crime rates, have fueled the surge in incarceration and correctional supervision. The overburdened facilities housing incarcerated people have sunk into disrepair and can, at times, be patently unsafe. Over the last several decades, as the incarcerated population has grown, our response to a growing arrange of complex social challenges like addiction, homelessness, and mental health has not kept pace. To address root causes, we must create a system that produces justice for those who are harmed and those responsible for the harm. Safeguarding victims’ rights is essential to establishing a fair and equitable system for all individuals. We can build a better system if we prioritize community well-being, rehabilitation, and restoration. |