Housing Hurdles: Strategies for Combating Public Opposition to Affordable Housing in Carver County

Abstract

This project was completed as part of a year-long partnership between Carver County and the University of Minnesota’s Resilient Communities Project (http://www.rcp.umn.edu). Carver County contracted with Maxfield Research to complete a comprehensive housing needs assessment, which assessed the market supply for senior housing, workforce housing, and housing for homeless populations. Although Maxfield identified a clear need for affordable housing throughout the county, many residents and public officials are opposed to affordable housing. The goal of this project was to identifying strategies to address affordable housing opposition and promote policies to develop and preserve affordable housing. In collaboration with project leads Brenda Lano and Allison Streich from the Carver County CDA, a team of students in PA 5261: Housing Policy, identified strategies and gathered evidence to dispel affordable housing myths and increase support for development of such housing. The students' final report from the project is available.