Shannon Meadows, director of Community Development for the city of Springfield, said those are the tip of the iceberg as city officials look long term to improve housing options.
“The long-term goal of the Housing Solutions Consortium is to invest in housing all across the city to create a balanced market for all households,” she said. “We have a lot of things on the radar long term that have not yet proceeded to the policy or implementation phase.”
>> Springfield using new tools to stabilize neighborhoods
Much of the focus now is on expanding and successfully implementing such efforts as the Community Reinvestment Area (CRA), which covers half of the city.
“We have this program that enables people to purchase and buy a vacant lot in the CRA and build a house on it,” she said. “The tax value of the lot is abated — meaning it remains the same as it was when vacant — for 15 years, saving the homeowner thousands of dollars.”
Meadows said state, federal and local governments have programs already in existence that can help, too.
For example, “we need to educate people about the Homestead Exemption and tax rollbacks, that can make home ownership a reality for many more members of the community,” she said.
The city’s Community Development Department staff launched the Engaged Neighborhood program in 2018 in the southwest quadrant of the city, which Meadows said is a long-term commitment that won’t be just a “one and done.”
“The current Engaged Neighborhood is still early in the process and will probably be 7 to 10 years for realization,” she said. “We’re not quite ready yet to designate our next targeted Engaged Neighborhood. That may happen in 3 to 5 years, but long term we want to touch every part of the city with the engagement effort.”
As part of the Engaged Neighborhood drive, the city will soon launch neighborhood meetings in various city schools.
“We are so excited to be involving children in the neighborhoods as part of this,” Meadows said. “We want them to see themselves as having an impact on the future of their neighborhood and capture some of the positive energy they already have for their neighborhood school.”
The Community Development Department is also on the verge of launching a campaign that will help pave the way for neighborhoods throughout the city to envision a future that honors the past and paints a vision of investment and involvement for the future. An announcement about the project will be coming at an upcoming City Commission meeting, Meadows said.
“We’ve taken major steps in the past 36 months with some of the programs we’ve introduced,” Meadows said. “It’s a big deal. We are continuing to build relationships with owners, occupiers and investors so that we can do things right and improve the housing market and improve the neighborhoods in the city.”
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