As the city of Springfield develops a plan for spending millions of dollars on community development, it's asking residents and local workers to chime in.
Officials hope to include the feedback in the city's next "Consolidated Plan for Housing and Community Development" activities — strategic planning that'll influence how approximately $6.4 million in annual, federal grants gets allocated for the next five years.
The dollars come by way of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which requires cities like Springfield to show their work on how the dollars might be spent, as well as getting feedback from the public ahead of time, according to Tina Quagliato Sullivan, the city’s Deputy Development Officer for Housing, Community Services and Sustainability.
“So, the survey is for both folks who live in the city and folks who work in the city,” she told WAMC. “We're asking them to fill it out: it's available in English and Spanish. It's very short, it will not take a lot of time. It's very easy to read and to interact with and we're thinking that that will actually be probably our most direct connection to resident input.”
The survey is online, on top of in-person forums the city held this month, with stakeholders ranging from housing advocates to landlords to mental health specialists and more.
“I really think it's important that we invest in permanent supportive housing,” said Olivia Bernstein, Senior Director of Supportive Housing at the nonprofit Mental Health Association. “We see the need in the community. I have multiple phone calls a day - there are people asking at every coordinated entry meeting ‘Is there any permanent supportive housing? Is there any available?’ and I am now at the point where I have to say, ‘No, we're full.’ We are happy to house more people, we have the services to do so, but we need the subsidies to continue expanding.”
Bernstein and dozens of others attended a forum with a special emphasis on housing and homelessness matters.
All throughout a meeting space in downtown Springfield, attendees walked from station to station, prompted with questions like "Which populations are most challenged to afford housing?" or "What barriers do you experience in your work to develop affordable housing?"
By the end of the forum, the large posters with the prompts were loaded with Post-it notes, with feedback calling for everything from more rental assistance to better outreach to those in need of services and housing.
Katie Talbot is a lead organizer with Neighbor to Neighbor, a group devoted to community building and advocating for tenants and more.
“I think the city needs to put money into the Low Income Housing Trust Fund and actually get that up and running, so that the folks [who] currently live in the city and … are struggling to stay in the city because of affordability, different code violations, things like that - if we actually put the money into that pot, the housing trust, then that would actually allow the folks that currently live here to stay here.”
From housing to dealing with graffiti to lead paint abatement, the funds have potential to improve quality of life throughout parts of the city.
A previous version of the city’s last plan put forward dozens of projects that would benefit from the HUD grants, which include the Community Development Block Grant and the HOME Investment Partnerships Program.
According to a final action plan document detailing the 2020-2024 consolidated plan, dollars would previously head to projects like almost $450,000 for a first-time home buyer program and $425,000 to support an emergency rehabilitation program, assisting 23 households.
Following the forum, Springfield’s Director of Housing, Gerry McCafferty, tells WAMC that while stakeholders gave numerous responses, some common themes emerged.
“There’s underlining that we need more housing, we need more affordable housing, we need more housing for people who are homeless, so, there was thoughts about ‘How do we spread dollars out to be able to do that?’ ‘How do we support developers?’ and there was definitely consensus around a need to support local developers, that they are much better for all of us, if we're supporting the folks here to be creating housing, as opposed to people coming in from outside.”
Other forums focused on public and community services, as well as economic development, plus a general public hearing.
If you weren’t able to attend, residents and those who work in the city of Springfield can submit feedback on the city’s website. The deadline to submit is Dec. 31.
