Subject Areas
Preserve and Rehabilitate Current Housing Stock
Increase Variety of Housing Product
Build Affordable and Attainable Housing Advocacy
Preserve and Rehabilitate Current Housing Stock
There are many programs used in Johnson County cities today that can help rehabilitate existing housing. The Housing Study provides guidance on the evaluation process along with the programs that are currently available in Johnson County (pages 299 and 308 – 309). View Housing Related Programs in Johnson County of the Johnson County Housing Study here.
A case study by the National Association of Home Builders compares the differences between conventional building codes and rehab codes looking at a single-family house in Chester Township, New Jersey. Read the study here.
Kansas City offers various home repair programs available to low- and moderate-income households. Learn more about the programs offered here.
COPA was created to prevent tenant displacement and promote the creation and preservation of affordable rental housing. Check out how it’s working in San Francisco.
Washington D.C. was the first community to enact TOPA. Between 2002 and 2013, thousands of low-income residents have been able to remain in almost 1,400 units preserved under the program. Learn how the program has helped retain affordable housing here. You can also find details on Washington D.C.’s program here.
Reduce Household Expenses
Developments near transit stops can help reduce overall costs for individuals by reducing/
eliminating the cost of single driver transportation options. The Housing Study identifies strategies for affordable transit orientated developments.
Affordable housing is highly desired around transit and lower-income populations, employers of lower-income populations, and patrons of those businesses benefit the most from transit access. Learn more about incentivizing housing around transit locations here.
MARC conducts an environmental justice analysis when they update the Transportation Improvement Plan. You can find the 2018-2022 TIP here.
Multiple programs can help reduce energy costs for individuals and families providing overall cost savings to help make housing affordable. Learn about the different programs that are available in Kansas here.
Housing Choice Vouchers can help families move to higher quality neighborhoods, improve neighborhood socio-economic diversity, and reduce homelessness, family separations, and exposure to crime. Learn more about the effectiveness of Housing Choice Voucher programs here.
Learn about the Housing Choice Vouchers Program here.
Learn about Replacement Housing Factor Funding here.
In recent years, there has been a trend in large employers making large investments into affordable housing in their communities. For example, Microsoft invested $750 million into affordable and Missing Middle Housing types in Seattle, not only for employees, but for other middle- and low-income residents. Learn more about Microsoft’s commitment here.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded five grants to test the effectiveness of supportive housing for vulnerable families. More information about the experiences of the five communities can be found here.
Increase Variety of Housing Product
Infill housing has been a successful development strategy in many communities and offers many possibilities to reduce costs by utilizing existing infrastructure. Learn how four different communities have successfully implemented infill developments here.
Creating a toolkit to allow developers and citizens know the expectations of infill housing can help reduce opposition to Missing Middle Housing options in predominantly single-family neighborhoods. An example of an infill design toolkit can be found here.
The Right Type Right Place report discusses how California can use infill housing projects to increase affordable housing, generate economic prosperity, and meet sustainability goals. Read the report here.
The cost of parking for a rental unit is 17% of a unit’s rental cost, reducing development and continued maintenance costs can create more affordable housing options. Learn more about options to reduce parking costs and discover how other communities are implementing changes to parking requirements here.
The Housing Study appendix includes a city zoning ordinance review checklist (page 314) to help communities review their current zoning and update policies based on the community’s needs. View the Ordinance Review Checklist on Page 314 here.
The Twin Cities have utilized mixed-use/mixed-income projects to help create affordable housing as their population grows. Learn more about the program and examples of projects here.
Two communities in the Washington DC area have utilized inclusionary zoning for 20 and 40 years. Learn about each community here.
Eugene Oregon has created a Missing Middle Housing handbook to help guide the development of a variety of housing types. The handbook can be found here.
Chattanooga, Tennessee created a development packet that helps decrease the approval timelines for developers. Learn more about the packet on Page 304 of the Johnson County Housing Study here.
New Holland, Pennsylvania is home to small homes clustered in neighborhoods that provide housing for seniors that require minimal maintenance and create a sense of community with shared green space and common areas. Read more about the development here.
Upzoning in communities will help create more density and should result in lower housing costs. Learn more about the advantages and challenges of upzoning here.
Multiple jurisdictions throughout the Kansas City region have completed the Communities for All Ages program through MARC to help the communities apply an age focused lens to policies and processes. You can learn more about the program here.
Universal Design guides development to help ensure housing is designed to accommodate all ages and abilities. Learn more about Universal Design here.
Madison, Wisconsin has successfully retained the diverse housing options that arose organically in the city over decades allowing the needs to be met for a variety of people at various stages of life. Read more about the success of Missing Middle Housing in Madison here.
Missing Middle Housing allows a variety of housing types intended to accommodate mixed incomes in a community. Learn more about Missing Middle Housing here.
Incentivize by Sharing Risk
The City of Grand Rapids, Michigan set an aggressive policy target for a citywide inventory of 30% affordable housing units. One tool created to help with the effort is an Affordable Housing Fund leveraged by dedicated city revenues, private contributions, and interest earnings. Additionally, a board provides recommendations for policy changes and managing allocations. Learn more here.
Affordable housing funding gaps make it difficult for rental properties to offer rentals at affordable pricing. Learn how developers are using a combination of subsidies to help reduce or eliminate the funding gap here.
CDCs run the gamut from large, well-established organizations like New Community Corporation in Newark, NJ (which owns and manages 2,000 units of housing and employs more than 500 people) to community groups that meet in a church basement. Large or small, CDCs have in common an involvement in development work. They generally have a staff and some degree of incorporation. Learn more here.
Over a five-year period NeighborWorks Northeast Nebraska has implemented a highly successful Purchase Rehab Resale program. Under the program a qualifying household identifies a home, an assessment of the home for structural stability is completed, followed by a NeighborWorks Northeast Nebraska purchasing the home to complete any repairs needed. Learn more here.
Marlborough, a community in Kansas City, MO, has created a Community Land Trust to help create affordable housing options for purchase. Learn more about the Marlborough Community Land Trust here.
Grand Rapids, Michigan has made housing a forefront policy in their community and their ongoing efforts have resulted in a Housing Strategies Toolkit listing all the available programs or initiatives in progress and what they will address. View the database here.
The voters of Charlotte, North Carolina approved a $15 million bond to develop a local Housing Trust Fund to provide affordable homes for low- and moderate-income households. Since that time, the housing trust fund has financed 5,122 new and rehabilitated affordable housing units. Learn more about how they prepared for this vote and what the results were here.
State housing trust funds are the backbone to addressing critical housing needs. Forty-seven states have created sixty housing trust funds, all of which are funded and managed differently. Fourteen states have passed legislation that encourages or enables local jurisdictions to dedicate public funds to affordable housing. The most common revenue sources collected by state housing trust funds are the real estate transfer tax and the documentary stamp tax. Learn more about the various ways states fund and manage housing trusts here. Another example here. Another example here.
Marlborough, a community in Kansas City, MO, has created a Community Land Trust to help create affordable housing options for purchase. Learn more about the Marlborough Community Land Trust here.
The Housing Trust Fund Project provides many resources to assist in establishing a Housing Trust Fund including a Publication and Resource Library.
Housing Trust Fund resources and contact information specific to Kansas can be found here.
Current financing strategies may not fully address affordable housing needs in each community leading to the need for innovative financing strategies. Learn how the Chicago Region used innovative financing approaches for affordable housing here.
Proceeds from the issuance of bonds can be used to provide affordable housing subsidies. Learn more about the process and communities that have utilized general obligation bonds for affordable housing subsidies here.
In October 2016, Greensboro, NC put to vote a $25 million bond project to fund the purchase, construction, and improvements to housing for low to moderate households. Learn more here.
Over 770 housing trust funds across the nation play an important part in providing affordable housing. Discover how housing trust funds work at state, county, and city levels and the benefits achieved here.
The Kansas Housing Trust Fund is developing a permanent supportive housing project in Lawrence, KS. Learn more about the development and how communities can apply for funding here.
Learn more about LIHTC, types of credits, the allocation process, and recent developments here.
Lawrence, KS has multiple community programs to help tenants become home owners including the Lawrence Community Housing Trust. Learn more about the housing trust and other programs here.
The HOME Investment Partnership Program helps fund a variety of activities ranging from building new homes to rehabilitating existing homes in order to provide affordable housing choices. Learn how San Jose is using HOME funding to create new affordable housing in the community here.
Community Compass helps bring together a variety of programs offered by HUD and determines how a community can benefit from the programs and provides knowledge about the various programs available. Learn more here.
Reviewing and updating zoning ordinances to eliminate outdated or inefficient requirements can help lower costs and increase affordability. Rethinking zoning ideas and examples can be found here.
The City of Shawnee has an excise tax for building out infrastructure. The city can waive the tax for development and several projects have used it. (Page 135 of the Housing Study.) Learn more here.
Revised impact fee schedules can help decrease costs for developers while ensuring needed
revenue is available to cover costs incurred by communities. Examples of how fees can be altered can be found here.
Technological advances have resulted in many alternative materials that can be used to reduce building costs. Read about some of the alternatives here.
The Chicago department of Housing released the country’s first Racial Equity Impact Assessment on a Qualified Allocation Plan for LIHTC to examine how different racial and ethnic groups are or will be affected by existing or proposed programs, policies, or decisions. Read the article here.
A comprehensive program that includes housing and social programs can help reduce the number of people experiencing houselessness. Learn how the Tiny House Village in Kansas City has become a national model for helping to reduce homelessness among veterans by combining housing options with social services here.
Shawnee, KS adopted a new codes allowing four different types of shelters in the community to help address housing for homeless populations. You can read the ordinance here.
Lenexa, KS, in an agreement with the Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church, allows the church to operate a cold weather overnight shelter through 2022 as the city works to study and update zoning ordinances to address the inclusion of shelters in the community. Learn more about the process currently underway in Lenexa here.
Build Affordable and Attainable Housing Advocacy
With strong neighborhood leadership and resident community, the Lykins Neighborhood in Kansas City was able to implement neighborhood planning strategies, build neighborhood wealth and safeguard residents against displacement as the neighborhood starts to deliver higher economic and social opportunity. Learn more here.
Rhode Island has created a Housing Fact Book that is reviewed and updated yearly to provide a state and regional analysis of affordable housing. You can review the fact book here.
Wyandotte County utilizes an action team to focuses on reducing housing barriers with equitable strategies. See Safe and Affordable Housing section of the Community Health Improvement Plan Year 2 Annual Report for to learn more about the action team and the work they do starting on page 15 of the report.
Saint Louis University has provided a housing benefit to its employees through an employer Assisted Housing Program (EAHP). The EAHP provides three benefits for
the University employees including housing information and education on home ownership. Learn more here.
Landlord University is a training sponsored by the Neighborhoods and Housing Services Department of the City of Kansas City, Missouri. Learn more here.