Agenda - Council - 06/28/2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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M1 []se housing 'DvestDleDtsfQbuild fYDlQReequitable region By 2010, one in eight of our region\u residents lived in an Area of Concentrated Poverty. Areas of Concentrated Poverty often suffer from a lack of private investment, poorer performing schools, an absence of job opportunities, higher crime rates, and lower -quality housing stock. But this does not necessarily make them undesirable places to live or invest. These neighborhoods often have many desirable qualities that are sometimes overlooked: access to a variety of transportation options, rich neighborhood history, deep community relationships, diverse housing stock, and proximity to downtown job concentrations. Public interventions should increase the likelihood of private investment by addressing educational opportunities, crime, and the quality of the housing stock as well as by spreading the message that these neighborhoods have many assets, too. As this document is housing plan, not broaderanti-povertyplan, the strategies described here will focus on housing investments alone. The decline of private investment is one of the most destructive outcomes facing a community with 8high concentration 0fpoverty. The social and supportive services that often arise to address the problems of the community (job programs, public assistance offices, supportive housing) only strengthen the perception that investment is a losing proposition. Thus adestructive cycle is created. Public and nonprofitinvestments—in both development and services —become concentrated in neighborhoods where the need now exists. Market -rate investment in neighborhoods with concentrations of low-income households comes toseem risky for both the private and public sectors. Conversely, improvements toanimpoverished neighborhood,ouchaotranoitinveotrnent, may inflate the cost of housing and displace residents living in poverty just as conditions are improving. While the scale of the actual problem may be less than what residents perceive, housing choices are reduced when households are priced out of their neighborhood. Moreover, the fear of gentrification reveals the real challenge of creating communities that provide a full range of housing options. Lower -income neighborhoods may be as wary of market -rate development as higher -income neighborhoods are of affordable housing. Magnifying these challenges are the very real market forces that resist investing inhigher- income h0uSing0pti0nSinneighb0rh00dSperceivedt0bedec|ining8ndpub|icreSiSt8nce to subsidizing market -rate developments in areas deemed risky for private investment. Equitable development creates healthy vibrant communities of opportunity where low- income people, people of color, new immigrants, and people with disabilities participate in and benefit from decisions and investments that shape their neighborhoods. Sustained authentic public engagement with all residents is key to equitable development (see more on In addition to attracting a mix of investment to Areas of Concentrated Poverty,creating a more equitable region requires simultaneously increasing housing choices for low- and moderate -income households outside of Areas of Concentrated Poverty. Providing a full range of housing choices throughout the region requires a balanced approach: adding affordable housing in higher -income areas, maintaining 8 mix 0fhousing affordability in areas fWo:omwrmmes