1.2 Key Steps
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What Are the Key Steps Involved in Developing a Local Housing Strategy?
Six Steps to Establish a Local Housing Strategy
Click on each step in the circle below to identify the six steps involved in creating a local housing strategy. The rest of this training will cover these steps in more detail.
ANALYZE YOUR LOCALITY’S HOUSING NEEDS:
- It is important to clarify the nature of the problems you are trying to solve.
- Focus both on illuminating the locality’s housing challenges and understanding their likely causes.
- The Housing Needs Assessment Tool provides a ready source of data on local housing conditions. A companion brief describes how to identify and use local data to supplement the data from the tool. The next section of this training provides guidance on how to conduct a housing needs assessment.
DEFINE POLICY OBJECTIVES:
- It’s important to identify the specific policy objectives the locality wants to address in its housing strategy.
- It’s also important to decide which objectives the locality plans to prioritize. We’ll discuss the process of identifying and prioritizing policy objectives later in this training.
IDENTIFY A COMPREHENSIVE AND BALANCED
ARRAY OF LOCAL POLICY TOOLS:
- To effectively address their housing challenges and achieve their policy objectives, localities will likely need to adopt multiple housing policies as part of a comprehensive approach. For example, a strategy that focuses only on providing subsidies for dedicated affordable housing is less comprehensive than one that combines subsidies with tax incentives, zoning incentives or requirements, and permitting reforms.
- It’s important to also adopt a balanced approach. For example, addressing both homeowners' and renters' needs and considering how to align the overall housing supply with demand and expand the supply of dedicated affordable housing. The Policy Framework, covered in Part 2.3, can help you adopt a comprehensive and balanced array of local policy tools.
IDENTIFY FUNDING SOURCES:
- To fund your housing strategy, you’ll likely need to identify multiple funding sources.
- Start by fully utilizing federal and state housing subsidies and tax credits.
- Then, develop local dedicated funding streams that generate revenue automatically for affordable housing, such as housing trust funds. One-time infusions of funds, such as general obligation bonds, can also be helpful. We’ll discuss more later in the training.
DEVELOP A PLAN FOR IMPLEMENTATION:
- Identify a lead person or agency for coordinating implementation across agencies.
- Identify which agencies will administer new programs.
- Ensure the locality has the capacity to design/administer new programs.
- Determine the roles to be played by non-governmental partners.
- Create a timeline.
ESTABLISH GOALS AND METRICS TO TRACK PROGRESS:
- Specifying goals and tracking progress toward them are important steps for ensuring accountability for results.
- Generally, localities track multiple metrics as no single metric is able to capture progress across the entire range of policy objectives. We’ll discuss how to establish goals and track progress later in this training in Part 4.2.