EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

MHP and its Center for housing data team have created several tools that are exportable to communities large and small across the nation that are wrestling with the housing crisis: 

·         DataTown – housing and demographic information for all 351 MA communities, including a feature that allows users to compare communities.

 

·         Transit-Oriented Explorer (TODEX) – allows users to review densities around all 261 Greater Boston transit stations, with a recommendation that 250,000 more units could be created if the overall unit average around these stations were boosted from the current six units per acre to 10 units per acre.

 

·         Residensity (coming in Aug-Sept) – An expanded version of TODEX that makes it possible for users to do analysis and draw zoning districts for every parcel of land in Massachusetts.

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

The Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) has created a user-friendly resource that helps communities to analyze housing data to assess what their community needs: https://www.housingtoolbox.org/assessing-needs 

“A housing needs assessment is one of the first things we recommend because it focuses a community on understanding its housing needs and how it can use local, state and federal resources to build housing to meet those needs.

The Massachusetts Housing Partnership’s housing toolbox was created to be an A-Z clearinghouse of resources we have created to guide communities through the affordable housing development process, from understanding need to creating zoning to providing local funds to support affordable housing development efforts,” said Ruston Lodi, MHP Director of Public Affairs.

 

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

“More than 10,000 Baby Boomers are turning 65 every day for the next 11 years,” Barry Long, of Marketplace Sotheby’s International Realty said.  

“Now we need to mainstream this so every MLS in the country lists features of homes that are accessible, adaptable and visitable.”

Accessible is move-in ready, adaptable is a home that can be readily adapted to accommodate a person with a disability and visitable is a home where a wheelchair user can visit a neighbor through a level entrance, one accessible bathroom and adequate space to move about the first floor.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION MUST

INCLUDE PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

We’re all in this together. Proud to share this wheelchair accessible Mobi-Mat image from South Beach. 

Combine people with disabilities, people of color + LGBTG community and we have a majority.

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

A two-year process resulted in Form 6B – something all REALTORS in Washington State have Access to. Listing agents fill out the form and a buyer’s broker can download it. 

In the first 15 months the form went live, there were 158,000 listings in the state. 

Barry Long, of Marketplace Sotheby’s International Realty was hoping 500 REALTORS would use the form, but more than 4,000 did – a success story right out of the gate.

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

Barry Long, of Marketplace Sotheby’s International Realty, said he and Tom Minty, of John L. Scott Real Estate, soon realized that accessibility wasn’t a hindrance, it was the very definition of residential real estate sales – that “every different human being is looking for a house that fits their unique needs.” 

Because Long has outfitted his own home to his needs, he knew that a simple check box on an MLS that a residence is “accessible” would be virtually worthless.

“So we rated accessibility in terms of approach, entrance, living space, kitchen bedroom, bathroom, utilities, elevator, ramps – we broke it down so a REALTOR who doesn’t know anything about accessibility can find out the accessible aspects for a property,” he said.

EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

“We approached the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and they were great. They said `we don’t know ho to do this, but we’ll give you access to the back end of our data base.’,” said Barry Long, of Marketplace Sotheby’s International Realty. 

We worked with the Northwest Universal Design Council and figured out how to break down a property – how to assess each room or element for accessibility. 

We researched what makes a house easier to use: if you use a manual wheelchair, power one, are blind, deaf, have autism, development disabilities or are neurodiverse.”