1.3 Who to Involve
Who Should Be Involved in Developing a Local Housing Strategy?
There are a number of key players whose involvement will be critical to the development and implementation of a comprehensive local housing strategy. The players identified below all bring knowledge, expertise, political capital, and community networks to the table, which can be very important for a strong local housing strategy. Many communities have different municipal structures and department or agency titles; therefore, the titles below may not exactly match your community.
Click on each person in the table below to learn more about their role and how their involvement can contribute to creating a comprehensive local housing strategy.
Planning and
Zoning Commission
Planning Department
Housing Department
Homeless Services Department
Building Department
Public Housing
Agency (PHA)
Nonprofits and
Mission-driven Developers
Market-rate Developers
City/Town Council Members
Mayor/Town Manager
Community Members
Other Local
Organizations
Who actually prepares a locality’s local housing strategy?
It depends. In some cases, the local housing strategy is developed by a municipality’s staff – for example, through an interagency working group led by the Office of the Mayor or City Manager or by an individual agency, such as the housing or planning department. In other cases, the municipality contracts with an outside consultant to help with the strategy’s development. However, a successful local housing strategy process must be spearheaded by an individual or agency that can serve as an effective “process champion.” An ideal leader will have the convening power to bring together multiple agency partners and stakeholders to support expanding the local housing supply. For example, it could be a mayor, county executive, city council member, or city manager.
We’ll discuss these options in greater detail later in the training. For now, it’s important to emphasize that whether the strategy is developed with the aid of a consultant or entirely by local government staff, it’s essential that it reflect the policy decisions of the municipality. It’s also important to engage community members and key stakeholders in the process to ensure the final strategy reflects a broad range of input.
When and how does a locality bring a consultant on board?
Using a consultant to assist in developing a local housing strategy is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Localities can engage consultants for various parts and at different points in a local housing strategy’s development. They should review the key steps to developing a local housing strategy, identified previously in 1.2 Key Steps, and assess their capacity to perform distinct tasks to help determine at which point outside support may be helpful in the process.
The locality must know what services it needs and which aspects of the strategy development a consultant will lead or support. If the locality has some uncertainty about how it might divide tasks between itself and the consultant or inexperience engaging in this type of strategy and planning exercise — when advertising its request for proposals (RFP) — the locality can provide a more flexible scope of work and ask the consultant to offer their recommended approach to the strategy development.
Hiring a Planning Consultant: A Guide to Preparing a Request for Proposals provides step-by-step guidance on developing an RFP and evaluating prospective consultants. It also includes checklists for ensuring that RFPs are complete and questions to ask consultant references.
Working with a consultant to develop a local housing strategy will be discussed more in Part 3 of this training. You can also read this brief, Working with a Consultant to Develop a Local Housing Strategy.