Michael Brydge and his sons Dylan and Devin view food sovereignty, workforce, and housing efforts at Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation in Sharps Corner, South Dakota.

We’ve completed dozens of housing-related projects at Sweet Grass over the years — things like housing assessments, community assessments, feasibility studies, and workforce development studies — and I’ve felt personally connected to each one of them. Most people we work with don’t know that my career started in home construction. In fact, I’ve worked around housing my entire life.

Growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, my dad, granddaddy, great-granddaddy, great uncle, and great-great uncle each had his own construction company at some point — every generation up until me. As a kid, I worked for my dad every other week in the summer and made $10 a day (with a small bonus from his business partner). I split my first pile of wood in middle school. By the end of my senior year, I was leaving school early to build houses. I learned framing, trim, siding, and hardwood floors, then later roofing, windows, and decks. As an adult, I spent years working as an on-site supervisor for home construction before I ever got into research or consulting. So when I talk about housing, it’s something I care deeply about.

That’s a big part of why housing strengths and needs assessments resonate with me. For all people to have safe, affordable places where they feel a sense of belonging and can thrive — that hits home. The physicality and ingenuity of housing work connect with my problem-solving brain and spark muscle memory from past job sites. I can’t swing a hammer or use a drill without thinking about something my dad or granddaddy taught me, or a joke they told. So this is a very personal thing to me.

Our approach to housing research has always been community-based and strengths-based. We don’t ignore the grit, humor, and culture of an area, and unlike a lot of housing needs assessments done in the US, we try not to continue burdening people by making them listen to the problems they already know they have. We want to talk about the strengths people sometimes forget they have, or maybe don’t even realize they have.

A few years ago, we partnered with Minnesota Housing Partnership and the Mountain T.O.P. team in Grundy County, Tennessee, to conduct their first-ever housing needs assessment. It took me back to that part of the country (I live in Colorado now), and it was a chance to reconnect with that part of myself and honor the generations who taught me how to build. It was an opportunity to really understand what housing looks and feels like in that community — what’s working, what’s hard, and what people are proud of.

We try not to continue burdening people by making them listen to the problems they already know they have. We want to talk about the strengths people sometimes forget they have, or maybe don’t even realize they have.

In Grundy County, one of the first things we did was form a local housing advisory council. We don’t come in as experts with all the answers. We come in to listen, to learn, and to work alongside local people who know their community best. The council helped us understand what questions mattered, how to talk about sensitive issues, and what we might be overlooking. We learned from local folks that while there’s a lot of land in the area, much of it isn’t actually developable. We also heard stories that helped us understand the pride people have in their homes and land. In fact, 58% of people in the county live on their own land, and another 26% live on family land. That’s a huge strength — a foundation that can support future housing development, even if the homes themselves are outdated or need repair.

Of course, the data also showed some hard truths, like 17% of homes house more than one family, and that people spend more than 121% of their mortgage or rent on winter utilities. Those numbers matter, but they mean even more when you understand the context. Families often choose to live together and wouldn’t have it any other way, so that isn’t a negative thing. Other times, though, it’s about economics and health, and people doing what they can to get by. Whatever the reason, we still wanted to highlight that data because those numbers meet the federal standards for overcrowding, and that could mean extra funding from federal and state entities to develop more housing.

A team of Mountain T.O.P. volunteers install a metal roof.

After cutting back the vinyl siding, Mountain T.O.P. volunteers prepare for window replacement — an effort that will cut heating and cooling costs while increasing natural airflow in the spring and autumn months.

In the end, the final community assessment showed the need for more than 650 affordable and rehabilitated homes in Grundy County alone. This led to the creation of the Housing Hub, a nonprofit dedicated to providing affordable homes, homeowner education, and workforce development in the South Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee. It’s an incredible feeling to see research turn into something truly actionable and impactful. And when I think about that work, what stands out to me most is the spirit of partnership. That word gets thrown around a lot, but for me, it’s real. Partnerships are what make lasting change possible. When people have good information about their community and they have ownership of that information, they start building new relationships, finding creative solutions, and seeing opportunities they didn’t see before.

After the project was complete, I was interviewed by Julie Keel (from Mountain T.O.P.) and Sophia Wickersham for their podcast The Housing Hub. Julie mentioned I was able to “swing a hammer” while I was in Grundy County. She said, “I think that was the first time we had someone from a consulting role come and swing a hammer.” What an honor — to be the first. I might come from a family of framers, but in a way, I’m still doing the same thing: helping communities build up what’s strong, what’s possible, and what’s next.

For more information, listen to The Housing Hub podcast interview and view the Grundy County community strengths and needs assessment.

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