Our Approach to Housing

If you’re reading this, we don’t need to tell you that housing is a problem across North Carolina.

We also likely don’t need to tell you that the housing crisis is more than one issue. It’s a constellation of issues. And we don’t believe the need is only for “affordable housing,” whatever that means to you. We know it’s also a need for housing across the spectrum of costs, types, locations and ownership models. That’s why we call our practice area “housing” and not something more limited.

We know that you know your community better than anyone else. That’s why we bring our client-centered approach to helping you address housing needs in your community in a manner consistent with our Mission, Vision and Values. We work only for local governments and their allies so we can focus on helping you discern how to move forward in your community, given your specific needs, desires and resources.

Housing is complicated. We can help.

Our Offerings

WE CAN HELP YOU…

Gain consensus on how you might address housing needs in your community by:

• Facilitating community and board conversations to obtain input on housing wants, needs, and desired outcomes

Assemble land for housing development or community land trusts

Approach Housing Strategically through:

• Identification of barriers to housing in your community and approaches to addressing them
• Development of your Housing Plan to address multi-year priorities and identify annual action steps to achieve them. This is often the next step following a Housing Needs Analysis.
• Creation or refinement of your housing incentive program, whether in terms of providing general support for housing initiatives or targeted support for particular types of housing (such as downtown residential conversions).

Fund your efforts to support housing development and preservation, through:

• Bond elections and other local government borrowing
• Grant writing assistance for Federal, State, and private grants

Work with developers by:

• Negotiating agreements with developers for your support of their project, and then help you manage the projects.
• Drafting development RFPs and evaluating responses.
• Creating loan, incentive, or grant programs

Keep your projects on course

Once you start on a project, good project management is essential. We can fill in the gaps to help make sure everyone knows what they’re supposed to do, and when they’re supposed to do it — and to help enforce accountability in the execution.

Our sidebar sets out a list of relevant blog posts, tools, and examples of projects that you might find helpful or even inspirational.

Send us an email if you want to talk more about how we can help. We are always happy to have an initial conversation – on a no-cost, no-obligation basis – to talk about what you have in mind and how we might fit in. We are always up for a trip!