“Housing Drives”: Greater Lansing Tri-County Housing Assessment & Strategy

Greater Lansing MSA, Michigan

Tri-County Regional Planning Commission (“Tri-County”) and its partners heard from community leaders and businesses that the Greater Lansing tri-county region (Clinton, Eaton, and Ingham counties) did not have enough attainable housing for current and future residents and they had no assessment or documentation of the specific needs.

Our Approach

Tri-County received an Economic Development Administration (EDA) grant to study the region’s housing needs and hired Development Strategies to complete a housing needs assessment and strategy. The study was branded HousingDrives because housing impacts so many aspects of our daily lives: our quality of life, our financial health, our economy, and the wellbeing of our families and neighbors. Understanding this, an important aspect of the study is the outreach strategy. Development Strategies partnered with Piper&Gold, a public relations firm, to craft engagement and outreach through social media with the goal of expanding the conversation around housing, and building support for the future implementation of recommended strategies.

An innovative element of the project is the in-house production of strategic videos designed to get the word out about the project, and to get stakeholders thinking about how housing challenges impact them. The videos are accessible at any time via the project website and through social media postings and allow the community to engage the material at their leisure.

PROJECT WEBSITE – HousingDrives