The civic unrest in Ferguson has brought new light to a report Development Strategies completed in 2012 for the Office of Community Development of the St. Louis County Department of Planning. The focus of our study is on the provision of quality affordable housing and the role it can play in addressing anti-poverty efforts.
The final report included not only measures of the pace and scale of foreclosures and the quality and condition of affordable housing, but analysis of the factors that lead to differences in the quality of affordable housing, the demographic variables that correlate with affordable housing, and the policies that could lead to better outcomes and uses of limited public funds. Early in our investigations, Development Strategies determined that the problems and solutions related to affordable housing extend far beyond anything that can be addressed simply within the context of the building and real estate industries. Affordable housing is affected by poverty, economic development, education, crime, and a host of other variables. It is for this reason that our study goes beyond basic “nuts and bolts” housing tools to address the many issues that lead to the delivery of substandard housing to the marketplace.
The full report is available here.
Development Strategies’ presentation is available here.
