Housing Choice Scoping Session Summaries

Six Housing Choice Scoping Sessions took place during Fall 2004 in conjunction with APA chapter conferences. The goal of the sessions was to identify real world affordable housing problems and opportunities, covering variations that exist from region to region. The sessions focused on current innovative practice, marking a departure from the standard descriptions of, and approaches to, the problem in the 1970s and 80s.

The half-day sessions brought together six to 12 participants for a facilitated discussion focused on two principal questions:

1. What is the unique nature of the affordable housing challenge in the region and what makes it different from other regions of the country?
2. What tools are available, or should be available, in the region that hold out the most promise for helping to meet the housing challenge?

APA chapters and the APA Housing and Community Development Division assisted APA in the selection of scoping session participants. Session invitees were selected to represent the disciplines that are most directly involved in affordable housing planning, production, and retention at the local level. Participants represent urban planning, NGOs, the design professions, CDCs, affordable housing production entities, and the development community.

Each session was facilitated by APA staff and tape recorded for transcription. APA Research, using the transcripts and detailed notes taken by scribes at each session, developed the session summaries posted here.

Several of the scoping sessions were followed with an APA chapter conference session the next day at which the findings of the scoping session were presented and further comments solicited from the audience to help refine or expand findings.

Housing Choice in North Carolina (pdf)

Housing Choice in Southern New England (pdf)

Housing Choice in the Oregon-Washington Region (pdf)

Housing Choice in the Midwest (pdf)

Housing Choice in Texas (pdf)

Housing Choice in California (pdf)