As federal investment withdraws from communities already disadvantaged, city-builders are searching for ways to make progress, which may first require Americans to find common ground and reclaim a shared sense of the public good.

In this episode, recorded live at the Small Business Anti-Displacement Network’s annual conference, Dr. Lauren Smith, Vice President of Strategic Portfolios at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, discusses the role philanthropy can realistically play as federal disinvestment threatens communities. (Next City is funded in part by RWJF.)

Drawing on her background as a pediatrician and public health leader, Smith pushes back on narratives that frame well-being as an individual rather than a collective responsibility.“There’s a strong tradition in the United States of individualism, in the idea that you alone are responsible for your health and well-being, and if you just make better choices, you can obtain health on your own,” said Smith. “As a public health person and as a clinician, I can tell you that that’s not accurate, both just logically and philosophically.”

Smith calls for greater acknowledgment of policies and programs that advance the “public good” and cites a RWJF-commissioned survey that identifies common ground across political and geographic divides.“There were key aspects that people really did agree on, especially around as it relates to their community,” said Smith. “People are incredibly concerned about affordability, and that cuts across all sorts of groups—affordability of housing, affordability for their neighbors.” 

“They didn't call it displacement, but essentially they were saying, we are concerned that affordability is going to lead to displacement,” she said.