Live at the Forum on Linking Housing, Transportation and Workforce Policies
Join us on Friday, March 26 from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern (10 a.m. - 12:00 pm. Pacific) to learn about two new policy briefs on regional coordination of housing, transportation, and workforce policies. The policy briefs, written by the Center for Housing Policy in collaboration with the Metropolitan Planning Council, are based on a series of listening sessions that took place in the Atlanta and Twin Cities regions to convene local and state government, the workforce sector, housing and transportation agencies, and advocacy groups to discuss positive examples of coordination across silos, as well as challenges to working across policy areas more closely.
The Live at the Forum event will feature Emily Salomon, Center for Housing Policy and Robin Snyderman, Metropolitan Planning Council. The event will also include Susan Adams, Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, Inc. and Caren Dewar, ULI Minnesota who will link their on-the-ground experiences in Atlanta and the Twin Cities to the themes outlined in the new policy briefs.
About the Reports
How Transportation Reform Could Increase the Availability of Housing Affordable to Families with a Mix of Incomes Near Public Transit, Job Centers, and Other Essential Destinations, explains how reauthorization of the federal transportation bill can incent the improved coordination of transportation, housing and land use policy to ensure that families across a range of incomes have access to affordable housing as well as efficient, accessible transportation options.
Regional Coordination in Atlanta Metro and in the Twin Cities: Understanding the Challenges and Opportunities of Coordinating Housing, Transportation and Workforce Policies, draws from the discussions held during the listening sessions and the information shared about the experience of coordinating land-use, transportation, and workforce policy in the Atlanta and the Twin Cities regions.
The Live at the Forum event will feature Emily Salomon, Center for Housing Policy and Robin Snyderman, Metropolitan Planning Council. The event will also include Susan Adams, Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, Inc. and Caren Dewar, ULI Minnesota who will link their on-the-ground experiences in Atlanta and the Twin Cities to the themes outlined in the new policy briefs.
- Hear about the initiative: The two-part event begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (10:00 a.m. Pacific) with a 30-minute conference call, where major findings from the report and initiative will be presented. The call-in number is (712) 432-1001 and the access code is 452746624#.
- Interact with the authors: Immediately following the call, from 1:30 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern (10:30 a.m. to 12:00 pm. Pacific), Emily Salomon, Robin Snyderman, Susan Adams and Caren Dewar will be online to answer your questions. All questions should be posted to this thread, and you are welcome to post at any time before or during the event. Questions will be answered on a first-come, first-served basis until time runs out, so post early to be sure yours is addressed.
About the Reports
How Transportation Reform Could Increase the Availability of Housing Affordable to Families with a Mix of Incomes Near Public Transit, Job Centers, and Other Essential Destinations, explains how reauthorization of the federal transportation bill can incent the improved coordination of transportation, housing and land use policy to ensure that families across a range of incomes have access to affordable housing as well as efficient, accessible transportation options.
Regional Coordination in Atlanta Metro and in the Twin Cities: Understanding the Challenges and Opportunities of Coordinating Housing, Transportation and Workforce Policies, draws from the discussions held during the listening sessions and the information shared about the experience of coordinating land-use, transportation, and workforce policy in the Atlanta and the Twin Cities regions.
Tags: live at the forum
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ryan Sherriff on -
Based on the challenges and opportunities mentioned in the brief, Regional Coordination in Atlanta Metro and in the Twin Cities, what lessons can you offer that would be applicable to other regions trying to coordinate housing, transportation and workforce policy?
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Permalink Reply by Caren Dewar on -
Ryan, I'd encourage you to check out ULI MN's web site...minnesota.uli.org. Our work plans and presentations are posted there. Lots of info. Caren Dewar
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Permalink Reply by Susan Adams on
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Ryan ---- In Atlanta, our metropolitan planning organization (the Atlanta Regional Commission) has played a lead role in coordinating a TOD working group, comprised of local governments, MARTA (our local transit authority), CIDs, key nonprofits and other stakeholders. The TOD working group is a focused effort to address the actions that must occur to bring about more TOD at MARTA rail stations.
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Permalink Reply by Shelby Mertes on -
In Connecticut, we don't have a transit authority like other places do. Our state Dept. of Transportation develops our transit projects, but they haven't managed development around stations. I'm wondering if we need an entity that can acquire and prepare properties and do hands-on development - or if we can get by without that, and use zoning, financial incentives or other "carrots" to get private developers to build what we want. Any thoughts?
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Permalink Reply by Lynn Ross on -
One of the new briefs describes how reauthorization of the federal transportation bill can encourage improved coordination of transportation, housing and land use policy to preserve and expand the availability of affordable housing near transportation options. What are some approaches that state and local governments can take to incentivize the coordination of these policy areas? Do you have any specific examples?
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Permalink Reply by Robin Snyderman on
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And, as you gathered from from the call, we think the Livable Communities Act provides meaningful incentives to encourage this kind of comprehensive planning and implementation activity. We also have found employer-assisted housing (EAH) is a great way of engaging employers in the silo-busting necessary to truly link housing and transportation decisions to support the bottom-line needs of area employers and employees both. Check out this blog by my colleague, Samantha DeKoven, which applauds the Livable Communities Act but which also suggests adding in some language to encourage employer and EAH engagement: http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/blog-post/5703. More on EAH is also at www.reachillinois.org or www.metroplanning.org\eah
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Permalink Reply by Center for Housing Policy staff on -
The MPC executive summary that Robin Snyderman mentioned, which describes how private-sector participation in employer-assisted housing strategies can be leveraged to advance the goals of sustainable communities, can be found here. The executive summary also discusses the findings from the listening sessions that took place in the Atlanta and Twin Cities regions.
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Permalink Reply by Kate Allen on
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are examples of EAH that create workforce housing ALSO assisting in creating more very-low-income housing?
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Permalink Reply by Robin Snyderman on
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In Illinois, there are some terrific incentives for employers who support workers earning less than 80% AMI, including a matching fund that can double the downpayment assistance provided by employers, as well as tax credits (fifty cents on the dollar, rewarding the employer investment in everything from housing counseling to rent subsidies to downpayment support). More on IL public incentives can be found via the public incentives tab on the left side of www.reachillinois.org. There are also some encouraging examples of employers supporting new housing developments and policies that serve lower-income households. Check out this article, for example, referencing land donated for affordable rental housing next to the train stop in the affluent community of Lake Forest: http://www.metroplanning.org/news-events/article/3543. The employers have been key to the local dialogue. I can't list all of the success stories, in this forum, but please visit www.metroplanning.org/eah for more examples, and for contact information so you can contact us directly!
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Permalink Reply by Rachel Devlin on
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Are there any examples of regions that are using Section 8 tenant based vouchers as part of a workforce housing strategy that is place-based?
Additionally, are there examples of places where Section 8 vouchers are being utilized in a formal tie with workforce training efforts? And if so, are these strategies place based? -
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Permalink Reply by Robin Snyderman on
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I love this question! We've created a few pilots, in Chicagoland, to demonstrate how public housing resources can advance local and regional plans! Unfortunately, the Section 8 program has a bad name in many places, but enlighted municipal leaders know there's a tremendous need for resources that bridge the difference between what their lower income residents and workers earn, and what housing they can afford. Check out www.regionalhousinginitiative.org for one such example. Six of our region's public housing authorities have pooled some of their tenant-based vouchers to support more mixed-income housing near good jobs and good transit and good schools. The state's tax credit program provides incentives. FYI, for one of the participating public housing authorities, it was the voice of area employers that prompted them to participate. The employers essentially said "hey, we're providing downpayment subsidies to people who can't afford to own here, but our waiting lists are huge. Help the renters!" I should also post the evaluation by Dr. Paul Fischer of a recent Portability Pilot we did with Housing Choice Partners and three public housing authorities. This pilot demonstrated how a third-party, mission-based nonprofit can help families using HCVs move to better neighborhoods, near jobs and transit, while also reducing the portability headaches inevitable in the process(for both housing authorities and HCV families). Please call or email if you'd like to learn more. We think there are some promising opportunities to scale up lessons learned from these pilots in pending HUD budgets!
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Permalink Reply by Rachel Devlin on
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I saw it Robin - thanks. I've followed your links and am reading now, but haven't yet seen anything about workforce training supports being linked to this. Is the preference only for those already working or already engaged in training, or are there efforts around preferences for people who want to work with the local worksource system or another training program to become employment ready and need support for training and locating employment?
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© 2012 Created by Center for Housing Policy staff.
