How can we better predict and plan for changes that affect one critical aspect of community development, like gentrification, displacement, or housing shortages? Many government officials, nonprofit leaders, and foundation program officers come to us with this question, often after investing in large data dashboards or completing housing needs assessments with metrics or strategies that quickly become outdated. Why? Because the housing market and development trends are constantly changing, and many of these dashboards and assessments are only looking at one trend or metric from one point in time.
At Community Science, we know that effective community development requires adaptability, equity, and a deeper understanding of local contexts. We’ve developed our process for equitable community development concerning gentrification, displacement, and housing (Figure 1) to go beyond static metrics and one-size-fits-all solutions. We continually partner with government officials, nonprofit leaders, and foundation program officers throughout this process to create flexible strategies that are proactive, equity-driven, and grounded in actionable insights.
Our equitable community development involves a four-step process:
- Start with Stories and Goals. Every project begins with understanding the “why.” We work with you to unpack your story or motivation behind wanting to learn more through data and research. Whether you’re addressing gentrification, wanting to attract new residents, balancing affordability, or looking for a way to increase housing development, we dig deeper to identify the key motivations and variables underlying your stories and goals.
- Calculate the Trends. Data is essential for strategy development — but only when it is focused and actionable. This step is the typical quantitative analysis inherent to most housing assessments or community development projects, except our added focus of identifying our partners’ underlying stories and motivations in the first step cuts through the noise and uncovers meaningful trends (i.e., prevents you from drowning in data). We rely on a series of staple metrics (e.g., population growth, housing unit change, median household income of residents) as well as metrics directly related to your stories and goals (e.g., measures of gentrification and displacement, employment growth, number of vacant properties). We also provide tools and guidance so you can confidently use data in the future.
- Ground-truth with Experts. Numbers tell part of the story, and local experts tell the rest. By engaging residents, community leaders, and other stakeholders, we ground the data in local contexts and ensure your strategies reflect the lived experiences and unique dynamics of your community. This is where most analyses and assessments fall short as they do not work to contextualize quantitative findings with qualitative realities. For example, an analysis of publicly available data can show that the population has grown in a town over the past five years, but that trend does not unpack the reasoning behind the growth or if has occurred equally across all neighborhoods. A new employer could have recently relocated to the town and new residents moved in for a new employment opportunity, or one section of town saw the construction of a new compound of multi-story apartments. Only local experts can contextualize the trends. This step centers equity in our approach and makes the process more inclusive as well as proactive since local contexts often reveal future trends that have yet to emerge in quantitative data.
- Prioritize What Can Be Done. Not all strategies are created equal. By synthesizing the trends and centering local expertise, we help you prioritize strategies where you have the greatest agency and control, ensuring tangible progress within realistic timeframes. We work with you to make your goals concrete and reachable. If our partner discovers that much of the success of the strategy will only be determined by external factors or trends that may not continue to exist, then we challenge them to change or tweak their strategy so that they have more control over the measurable successes.
Recognizing that change is constant in community development, we built our approach to be cyclical and adaptive. Sometimes, our codeveloped strategies with our partners can lead to new questions, stories, visions, or — many times — our partners want to hear more from their local community experts on related topics or trends. This is why our process is cyclical. New strategies may yield new stories or refined goals that require further analysis and ground-truthing. We work with you until you are satisfied with the findings and codeveloped solutions.
Your Community, Your Goals, Our Know-how
By combining hard data, equity-focused insights, and actionable strategies, we’ve helped government officials, nonprofits, and foundations tackle challenges ranging from rural housing shortages to workforce development strategies for major urban centers. Most importantly, we center the voices of those directly impacted, ensuring sustainable and equitable outcomes.
Ready to move beyond outdated assessments and dashboards to build a more equitable and dynamic future for your community? We can work with you to create strategies that evolve with the needs of your community while staying rooted in equity and impact. Learn more about our equitable community development process concerning gentrification, displacement, and housing in our upcoming December 2024 webinar.
Have a challenge? Get in touch with us.
About The Author
Michael “Mike” Shields, Ph.D., Managing Associate has expertise in social science research and equitable community development. He is passionate about forging impactful partnerships with nonprofit and community organizations, government agencies, private entities, and academic institutions to effect change in their communities. Mike excels at translating complex research topics and products about community development into accessible insights for different audiences, especially those with little technical or specialized knowledge about research or the relevant issue.