Build a Housing Strategy

Developing a local housing strategy is critical to addressing a community’s housing needs. A city’s mayor’s office, planning department, or housing agency can manage a local housing strategy and engage local community and non-profit organizations. Local housing strategies aim to meet a community’s housing goals through well-defined action steps. Read more about the importance of a local housing strategy here and explore the seven steps needed to develop one listed on this page.

The sections below link to resources useful to each step in developing and implementing a local housing strategy. While the order of the sections (from top to bottom) approximates the sequence of steps in creating one, readers can view these sections in any order.

Plan

Contains briefs on how to establish a process for developing a local housing strategy, including an explanation of what a local housing strategy is and how to develop one, principles for effective community engagement, and guidance on how to obtain input from a full range of local agencies.

Analyze

Contains tools and briefs on using data to prioritize and tailor local housing policies to address your community’s needs.

Act

Contains the Housing Policy Library, with detailed information on dozens of local housing policies, and the Housing Strategy Self-Assessment, a tool to identify strengths and gaps in your local housing strategy. The policies are organized based on our Housing Policy Framework.

Fund

Identifies possible funding sources for affordable housing, and describes the critical role that locally-generated revenue plays in supplementing federal resources.

Refine

Identifies trade-offs to consider when designing local housing policies and deciding how to allocate resources among competing priorities. Topics addressed include how to allocate resources between tenant-based and project-based rental assistance, how to balance the goals of promoting homeownership and increasing the availability of affordable rental housing, and whether and when to prioritize the preservation of existing affordable housing for new construction.

Bridge

Contains briefs that describes why housing matters for a variety of outcomes such as health, education, and the environment, as well as resources on how to broaden the base of support for affordable housing to build strong coalitions.

Engage

Contains resources to help localities engage community members and build partnerships to identify new ideas and enhance outcomes.

Local Housing Solutions

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