Affordable Housing Development Survey: Public Meetings Aren’t Reaching the Community

When building affordable housing, developers want to contact community members, help them understand what’s happening, and hopefully engage their support. Public meetings are the typical tool used for such outreach.

A recent community survey issued by coUrbanize hit on a problem, however. Specifically, public meetings aren’t doing the job. Or, as one respondent noted, “We don’t seem to be connecting with people the way they want.”

Lack of Change, Lack of Time

The survey listed multiple reasons why these public meetings aren’t working. For example, in half of the projects, community engagement doesn’t result in plan changes.

“We were surprised to learn that only half of real estate developers and planners had made changes to their plans, based on community feedback,” Karin Brandt, CEO and founder of coUrbanize, told Connect CRE. “When community engagement doesn’t meaningfully impact plans, and people don’t believe their participation is meaningful, they’re less likely to participate in the future.”

Furthermore, many community members don’t have the time or energy to attend. Finally, there is a definite language gap between developers and community members, many of whom are minorities or non-English speakers.

Why the Public Meetings?

An obvious question is: If public meetings aren’t effective, why do affordable housing developers continue to use them? Brandt explained that public meetings are a required part of the approvals process, so developers must spend time and money on them.

It was thought that moving the meetings online via Zoom might help with outreach. But that hasn’t helped either. “It hasn’t been the silver bullet many planners thought it would be for reaching traditionally excluded groups,” Brandt observed.

Brandt added that another issue is that developers and planners don’t understand how to use digital tools for outreach effectively and efficiently, one that also provides opportunities for the community to contribute their own feedback.

The Solution—Go Beyond Zoom

Brandt suggested that engagement opportunities shouldn’t be restricted to a single point in time, like a live council meeting or Zoom gathering. Instead, multiple tools should be used to gain community trust and to offer the opportunity for feedback.

For example, Burbank Boulevard Senior Housing partnered with coUrbanize to develop its Mercy Housing. coUrbanize’s digital tools provided information about the development online while encouraging feedback from residents with limited English proficiency and those who couldn’t attend public hearings or meetings. The setup allowed community members to post comments online and even to text their ideas to planners, who took them seriously. Community residents felt involved with the project, while the development team received the needed support.

“Real estate developers and planners should take advantage of online tools that can translate and collect feedback in a community member’s language of choice,” Brandt said. Using text message integration, social media ads and QR codes can provide feedback to a project website. In the meantime, “developers and planners can provide community members with a 24.7 outlet to engage with the project team and make their voices heard,” Brandt said.