Publication Category: Communications

The development of affordable housing is a complicated process with lots of moving pieces that often involves gaining community approval. In April 2015, developers and others attending our Solutions for Housing Communications convening in Seattle told us that one of the biggest hurdles they face is garnering public support for affordable housing developments. Accordingly, the purpose of this brief is to offer expert advice to help developers and advocates with the community engagement process.

This toolkit summarizes approaches tested over the course of ten years through polling, focus groups and in successive legislative sessions.

This brief is designed to provide affordable housing advocates and practitioners with information on how to effectively communicate about affordable housing with the public and policymakers. This brief draws from 35 research studies related to affordable housing communications and summarizes key findings about public opinion, messages, and suggestions for further research that could add to our understanding of how to communicate effectively about housing affordability.