This article highlights and supports the work that's being done in the community to satisfy the Well Being of People dimension of our Prosperity Indicators Initiative. A WORD FROM YOUR CHAMBER PEOPLE BUSINESS COMMUNITY Employer-Assisted Housing Benefits You & Your Employees H ave you ever had an employee comment on the lack of housing or difficulty finding housing close to work? Has the cost or lack of housing affected the work performance of an employee or affected your hiring and retention efforts? Ever had an employee leave or not accept a job because of housing challenges? If you haven't experienced these challenges, count yourself lucky. In our Fall/Winter 2016 edition of Thriving! we shared more information on how housing affordability is impacting our community and recently received input from employers at our Prosperity Indicator Issue Conversation on Housing Affordability and Employer Assisted Housing highlighting these challenges and more, but it also presented solutions that could help the employer community think about how they can address this issue in our community. Nearly one in three families in Lancaster County has difficulty finding and keeping housing they can afford, and the Prosperity Indicators report showed that 29% of local homeowners with a mortgage are spending 30% or more of their income on housing costs, and 46% of renters are spending 30% or more on rent. When housing costs are excessive, it means individuals have less money to spend on other things they need and even less to invest in our community. Housing is a crucial component of economic competitiveness and a spatial mismatch between where job growth is taking place and where people can afford to live creates costs for employers as the local labor pool contracts and employee turnover rises. It's safe to say that employers have a stake in creating housing opportunity while increasing the competitiveness of their businesses and the areas in which they are located. 60 | LANCASTERTHRIVING! | Summer/Fall2017http://www.lancasterchamber.com/article.aspx?page=prosperity-indicators#.WZtM-2dK270 https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/lancasterchamber/thriving_fallwinter_2016/index.php#/48