Adequate housing – like highways, healthcare and retail establishments – is necessary to achieve desired growth and quality of life in a region. For that reason, the Tri-State Development Summit established the Housing Task Force in 2005.
According to the Housing Assistance Council’s analysis of the 2001 American Housing Survey and the 2000 Census of Population and Housing, more than 5.5 million households in nonmetropolitan parts of the United States (about one-quarter of all non-metro households) rent their homes. The analysis goes on to conclude that the gap between housing costs and incomes is the most significant problem with more than one-third of rural renters (about 1.9 million households) cost burdened – that is, they pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing.
The Housing Task Force’s mission is to provide affordable workforce housing in the tri-state area. This includes:
- Increasing affordable housing options for the region’s workforce
- Providing counseling to first-time homebuyers
- Identifying funding sources for housing development throughout the region
The creation of affordable workforce housing can increase community pride, help attract industry and increases property values and the community tax base.