SPRINGFIELD — The city of Springfield is currently going through the process of gathering public input that will inform a five-year Consolidated Plan for Housing and Community Development.
The five-year plan, which will officially be in effect from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2029, will include an assessment of housing, homelessness, and community development needs, as well as a strategy on how to address those needs.
As part of the process of developing this plan, the city is using different mechanisms to reach the public to gather input on what should be key focuses of the plan.
One strategy is through a survey, which is currently available on the city’s website until Dec. 31, while the other mechanisms for gathering input are through stakeholder and public meetings.
At a Dec. 4 public hearing, Alicia Vaughn, a consultant from Indianapolis who is helping Springfield put together the consolidated plan, said that aside from gathering input from residents through the survey and meetings, she and the city are also using important data points to help formulate the consolidation plan.
“We do data analysis, looking at all the stats in the neighborhood and the community,” said Vaughn, a 25-year veteran of writing consolidated plans across the country. “Who can’t afford housing? How many people are housing burdened? How many can’t afford their housing? Who is homeless? How many people are homeless? What are they experiencing? What are some of the needs in the community … and then we develop priorities and goals from that.”
Vaughn noted that developing priorities and goals through public input and city data is important because the consolidated plan will be tied to four different grant programs: the Community Development Block Grant, the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, the Emergency Solutions Grant and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS.
The city also typically receives an annual amount of $6.4 million in federal housing and community development grants from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which are funds that have to be spent on low-to-moderate income neighborhoods.
Springfield received this yearly allocation in May to carry out community development activities under several HUD programs.
“We automatically get an allocation of the funding based upon a formula for each one of the programs.” Sheehan said in May.
As for CDBG, HOME and Emergency Solutions Grant funds, the city said those can be used in all areas of the city within designated boundaries. The Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDs funds must be used in the Eligible Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is made up of Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties.
Last week, the city completed its first round of community stakeholder meetings, along with a public hearing, as initial steps in allowing residents to sound off on ideas relating to affordable housing, the homelessness issue, improvements in public/community services, neighborhood vibrancy and how the city can support small businesses.
Discussion questions like who is not able to afford housing in Springfield, and how does the city address the homelessness issue were a couple of the several topics discussed at these meetings.
As for the survey, Vaughn said close to 600 people have responded to it as of press time, but the city is looking for many more to offer input.
Readers can access that survey at surveymonkey.com/r/3FL5PBL.
It is also available in Spanish.
