The Genesis of a Medium-Sized City's Affordable Housing Strategy

Mark Young reports from the city of Bradenton about the efforts of Catherine Hartley, the city's director of planning and community development, to streamline the city's codes to prioritize affordable housing.

Hired in April, Hartley has spoken consistently for the need to tackle the issue of affordable housing. Next month, the city council will begin to put some of those words to action by hosting "a series of workshops to streamline codes to make [affordable housing] easier."

Hartley is also pushing for incentive programs for affordable housing developers as well as for low-income families to "purchase and renovate vacant homes within the city as part of an infill development program."

Affordable housing standards under federal and state guidelines are income-based, so Hartley would like to see the city push toward a possible home buying assistance program using existing grant programs like the community development block grant and State Housing Initiative Partnership program.

Hartley and the city of Bradenton are also looking to the model provided by their home county of Manatee, which recently "reappointed 11 members to its affordable housing advisory board," and in September, "the committee began looking at the county’s codes in the same way the city will now do."