Students team up to address affordable housing
Winners of Carolina Across 100’s POV Challenge created a story map and a short film to share perspectives on housing instability.
As part of Carolina Engagement Week, Carolina Across 100 invited students this spring to share their points of view around affordable housing in North Carolina for the 2025 POV Challenge.
Launched in 2021, Carolina Across 100 is a five-year pan-University initiative that partners with communities in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties to address their greatest challenges and opportunities.
The initiative’s latest focus is housing. Our State, Our Homes is an 18-month program to help communities in 22 counties analyze challenges and implement strategies to address affordable housing and related issues.
In the POV Challenge, 12 teams responded to prompts to raise awareness about the state’s affordable housing challenges and the strategies communities are using to address them. The teams comprise 37 undergraduate and graduate students across 24 different majors.
They submitted written reports and responses in other formats — data visualizations, dashboards and infographics, music, videos and podcasts — that will be shared across Carolina Across 100 community teams.
“The community teams in Carolina Across 100 have learned a lot from the creativity and thoughtfulness of POV Challenge submissions. Whenever you’re able to engage with students, they bring a new lens to look at the issues and a whole new mindset for responding,” said Jacob Hunter, lead data and policy analyst with ncIMPACT.
Intersections with hurricanes, mobile homes
Student winners Marah Maaita, Sophia Ryan, Sara Honaker and Samantha Hamburger created a story map on affordable housing, mobile homes and hurricanes. (Submitted photo)
One of the two winning teams was a group of four classmates in a course on conceptualizing and modeling access to health care: Samantha Hamburger, Marah Maaita, Sophia Ryan and Sara Honaker.
But Hurricane Helene’s impact in western North Carolina shifted their focus from health care access to the intersection of hurricanes, affordable housing and mobile homes. They shared their research and the experiences of mobile home residents in the state through data, maps and personal stories in a submission called “Affordable Housing, Mobile Homes and Hurricanes Story Map.”
“The competition served as an applied way to extend my own learning while generating something useful for others,” said Hamburger, a Master of Public Health candidate.
“I enjoyed seeing everyone’s passion for advocating for affordable housing in North Carolina,” said Maaita, a second-year doctoral student in health policy management. “It was also incredibly moving to see the stories shared during the competition and learn about the amazing work being done by local communities and organizations across the state.”
Short film on housing instability
Kiersten Johnson and Gage Austin combined their skills in the other winning team. Johnson had a concept for the project and needed someone with experience in film and editing. She focused on research, songwriting, directing and music production, while Gage handled filming, editing and refining the visuals.
Student winners Gage Austin and Kiersten Johnson produced a music-driven short film on affordable housing. (Submitted photo)
They were drawn to the open-ended nature of the POV Challenge. “It gave us the ability to combine storytelling, music and filmmaking to raise awareness of North Carolina’s housing crisis,” said Johnson, a senior dramatic arts major. “Using music and film allowed us to connect with audiences emotionally while incorporating real data to highlight the urgency of the issue.”
Their submission, “Affordable Housing Music-Driven Short Film,” tells the stories of four individuals struggling with very different aspects of housing instability.
“I hope that by winning this competition, our video will provide further outreach to educate and inform others of the crisis at hand in North Carolina,” said Austin, a junior journalism and communications major. “I enjoyed combining my creative strengths with Kiersten’s to create a project unlike any I had made before.”
