Creative Housing Initiatives

We are working on several initiatives in the housing arena. We work from the belief that 'Everyone lives some place and everyone needs some place to live.' In our work, there are some key understandings important to remember:

✔ Not everyone has a place they call home. Home has a number of definitions but our working definition is "a place where you dwell, base out of, rest your head, feel secure and have a sense of place." Too many people in our communities lack this type of home.

✔ Not everyone's home looks the same, and it doesn't have to. Some live in large apartment complexes, some in duplexes and some in single family houses. Some people live in manufactured homes, tiny homes, or campers. Some live in shared housing and some rent a room.

✔ Who lives in a home varies vastly. Some differences are cultural, some are preferences and some differences are born out of necessity. Some families live multi-generationally and some people live alone. Some families are doubled-up with other families and sometimes groups of friends or roommates cohabitate in one home.

Homes -- no matter the type -- require housing and we have a critical shortage of inventory. Many discussions around housing are happening in communities across the country. Certainly not everyone agrees what the housing solutions should be, but the talks continue. In our participation in

these discussions, there seem to be some common ground and points of agreement that include:

1️⃣ We need more housing options at all price points. Building higher-end housing frees up inventory at the lower price points and gets people moving. No matter what housing is being proposed, adding units to the inventory impacts the housing continuum in a positive way.

2️⃣ The numbers have to work. Development dollars have to work and operations budgets have to be sustainable. This point gets tricky in a development and real estate environment where profit is king. We need more incremental developers and banking partners willing to contribute to the solution.

3️⃣ We need creative housing solutions. We need to expand our thoughts about what housing includes and imagine what else and where else.

I am grateful that housing is being discussed in board rooms, council chambers and living rooms across the country. Let's keep talking and find solutions that move the needle on our housing crisis.

-Mindy Muller, CFRE, President/CEO of CDP

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