In ecology, a keystone species is one whose influence is disproportionately large relative to its abundance. Remove it, and the effects spread throughout the ecosystem. Restore it, and the benefits extend across species, habitats, and natural processes that may appear only loosely connected.
Here in Haywood County, this concept is more than an academic metaphor. We live beside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where the restoration of native species has been visible for a generation. In 2001, the National Park Service released 25 elk into Cataloochee Valley, followed by another 27 in 2002. Today, approximately 270 elk live in Western North Carolina, including about 150 that spend at least part of the year inside the park. Their return has become one of our region’s most recognizable examples of how intentional restoration can renew something that had been missing from the landscape. Housing plays a similarly foundational role in the human ecosystem. it functions like a keystone in that the condition of a community’s housing affects nearly every other measure of its health.
A safe, stable, affordable home is more than shelter. It determines whether children can remain in the same schools, workers can live near their jobs, older adults can age safely in place, and families can afford food, medicine, transportation, and child care. When housing fails, the consequences do not remain confined within four walls. They move downstream into classrooms, hospitals, workplaces, food pantries, shelters, and social-service agencies.
The data demonstrate the scale of that effect. Nationally, 22.6 million renter households were cost-burdened in 2023, meaning they spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing and utilities. That represented half of all renters. More than 12.1 million renters spent over half their income on housing. Among renters earning less than $30,000, the median amount remaining after housing expenses was only $250 per month. That remainder had to cover food, health care, transportation, clothing, and every other necessity.
Homeowners are not immune. In 2023, 20.3 million homeowner households were cost-burdened. Among homeowners earning less than $30,000, nearly three-quarters faced that burden. Rising property taxes, insurance premiums, utility costs, and home-repair expenses increasingly threaten people who may own their homes but lack the income necessary to maintain them.
The pressure is equally visible here. The 2021Western North Carolina Housing Needs Assessment found that 41.5 percent of Haywood County renters were cost-burdened and 20.2 percent were severely burdened, spending more than half their income on housing. Among homeowners, 19.4 percent were cost-burdened. The assessment estimated a Haywood County rental gap of 923 units under the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency methodology, including a 643-unit gap for seniors. A separate HUD-based methodology placed the county’s rental gap at 1,043 units.
Those figures are not merely housing statistics. They help explain why families seek food assistance despite having working adults in the household, why employers struggle to recruit and retain workers, and why older residents defer necessary repairs. In the regional assessment, roughly one-third of surveyed employers said they would hire additional staff if more suitable housing were available. Employers also identified housing affordability and quality as barriers to attracting employees.
Housing stability produces benefits in the other direction as well. Research synthesized by Habitat for Humanity associates affordable homeownership with greater financial stability, educational attainment, civic participation, and health. Children of low-income homeowners were found to be 11 percent more likely to graduate from high school and 4.5 percent more likely to complete postsecondary education than children of comparable low-income renters. Homeowners were also 1.3 times more likely to participate in neighborhood groups or civic associations. Weatherization of older homes reduced energy costs for low-income households by 12.4 percent in the first year.
These relationships do not mean that a house alone guarantees health, educational success, or financial security. They mean that stable housing creates the conditions in which those outcomes become more attainable. Conversely, unstable or unaffordable housing makes progress across multiple areas more difficult and expensive.
That is why housing should be understood as a high-leverage charitable investment. A contribution to affordable home construction does more than produce a building. A contribution to critical home repair does more than replace a roof, correct an electrical hazard, or install an accessible entrance. These investments help preserve family income, prevent displacement, support aging in place, stabilize school enrollment, strengthen the workforce, and reduce demand on emergency and charitable systems.
If you want your charitable contribution to multitask, start with housing. If you want one gift to address several downstream problems instead of only one immediate symptom, support organizations that build affordable homes, preserve existing housing, complete critical repairs, and create responsible pathways to homeownership.
Housing will not solve every community problem. But without adequate housing, nearly every other problem becomes harder to solve. Like a keystone species, its strength supports the health and resilience of the entire system. A community that invests in housing is not choosing one cause over all others. It is reinforcing the foundation beneath them.
Jared Iraggi, JD
