Seven50 FHEA

Seven50 FHEA Outreach Strategy and Recommendations

Outreach Strategy• As part of the development of the South Florida region FHEA, outreach was conducted by the Consultant to regional and local partners.• Input throughout the entire Sustainable Communities grant process was garnered. • This input included methodology design and issue identification as well as gathering of fair housing history and data.

Outreach Strategy• Through numerous regional and local meetings, the draft FHAE and Regional Analysis of Impediments (RAI) reports were reviewed.

• With the support of the regional consortium including the Seven50 Executive Committee, Task Forces and the broadly defined fair housing network, the completed FHEA (a combination of the draft FHEA and RAI) is a document that provides an analysis of housing inequalities in the South Florida region, and most importantly will serve as a catalyst for dialogue and implementation of methods to address these inequalities.

Outreach Strategy• The first draft of the FHEA was released January 24, 2013 to over 500 regional and local partners at the second Seven50 Regional Summit in Miami.

• A break-out working session was held with approximately 120 participants who reviewed the findings of the draft FHEA and discussed their ramifications and strategies to address them.

• Project outreach continued with calls to 31 CDBG Entitlement communities to discuss their Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing reports.

Outreach Strategy• Discussions were also held with HOPE, Inc., South Florida’s premier fair housing agency.

• In April, 2013, the Consultant presented the initial findings of the FHEA and RAI to over 200 local fair housing stakeholders in Broward and Miami-Dade County at HOPE-sponsored events.

• The participants spent time responding to surveys as well as small group discussions on the findings and made recommendations to address them.

Outreach Strategy• As the draft FHEA was finalized, the Consultant engaged our consortium through its Executive Committee and working committees to be a sounding board for the report. • Simultaneously, the Consultant worked with other regional partners to conduct outreach meetings and discussions including regional partners such as:• The South Florida Community Development Coalition, • The Broward Alliance for Neighborhood Development, • The South Florida Regional Planning Council, • Regional Transportation Working Group, • And the Florida Funders Network.

Outreach Strategy• Throughout the process, the strategy was to inform as well as gather input for the FHEA framework. • While the Seven50 consortium was proficient in giving policy recommendations for the FHEA, it was key to get “everyday” proponents of affirmatively furthering fair housing to give feedback not only in the form of policy recommendations but also in the form of implementation strategies that fair housing, community development and housing agencies and community-based organizations would like to see.

Outreach Strategy• On May 17, 2013, a day-long “Opportunity in the Region” session was held in Fort Lauderdale along with three satellite sites in Miami-Dade County, Monroe County, and Palm Beach County. • The session was streamed live on the web. • Approximately 165 people attended the session where they reviewed the FHEA and RAI findings, discussed the key indicators and the spatial location of low and high opportunity communities and recommended specific priority approaches to addressing significant issues.

Outreach Strategy• The FHEA process has been fortunate to receive feedback from other SCI grantees and Policy Link throughout the FHEA process including Policy Link’s national meetings in Detroit and Baltimore as well as their Equity Profile for the region.• The final report will be presented to the launching of the South Florida Regional Opportunity Network on June 11, 2014. • The creation of the Regional Opportunity Network is one of the principal recommendations of the Seven50 Plan.

Outreach Strategy• The FHEA will serve as the foundation for implementation of recommendations by the Regional Opportunity Network and will provide the initial benchmark for a periodic update to understanding progress on the indicators identified as well as new indicators that were not covered in the report.

Strategies and Recommendations

• Previous sections of this report have indicated the areas of

low opportunity highlighted by racially-concentrated areas

of poverty.

• The maps and analyses in this report have defined these

areas as well as areas of opportunity, provided evidence of

housing disinvestment, and that regional and local public

policy has only minimally improved the situation.

• This section recommends approaches and strategies that

regional, county, sub-regional, and municipal governments

as well as private sector interests and non-profit

organizations should undertake to solve the challenges

presented by segregation and disinvestment.


• Seven50 envisions that “more housing and workplace choices are made available in response to emerging trends.” • These choices include affordable housing that is accessible to quality jobs and supportive services such as education, training, healthcare, healthy foods and transportation. • The analysis in previous chapters indicates that the region is making slow progress in realizing that goal with multifamily, rental, and affordable housing concentrated primarily in older, more urban communities.


• African Americans and Hispanics remain largely

segregated in these parts of the region particularly in

Miami-Dade County, Broward County and pockets of

Palm Beach County.

• To address these conditions, the region needs to

create strategies and policies that welcome residents

of all races and incomes to reside in communities with

high quality schools, transit, jobs, and supporting

assets that create a quality of life for all.

• These assets must also be improved in low

opportunity and disinvested communities.


• An initial step should be for local governments

(counties and municipalities) to use the findings of

this report to reexamine their own impediments to

fair housing choice.

• In the long run, it will be beneficial for counties

and the region including private and alternative

sector entities to focus planning, policy tools, and

public and private resources on the specific areas

identified on maps in previous chapters of this

report as areas of opportunity.


• There is currently no consistent ongoing regional coordination of fair housing planning or activities in the South Florida region. • Also, there is no regional authority to compel the implementation of regional fair housing programs and policies. • The FHEA is the first attempt at regional coordination on these issues.

The FHEA provides three major recommendations that focuses on long-term, sustainable approaches and strategies to achieve fair and just inclusion in a more equitable South Florida region:

• Fair Housing Equity

•Greater Access to Opportunity

•Affordable Housing

Fair Housing Equity• Increase the capacity of staff at the municipal, county and regional levels as well as private, alternative and quasi-public organizations to better integrate issues of equity and opportunity into their policies, programs, and plans.

• Agencies must utilize data collection methods and adapt training resources to support integration of fair housing into planning and funding decisions.

• Strengthen regional and sub-regional coordination of fair housing assessment and enforcement particularly by increasing funding of non-profit fair housing organizations (e.g. HOPE, Inc.).

• Agencies must allocate resources for coordinated regional enforcement of fair housing and civil rights laws and to further fair housing.

Fair Housing Equity• There must be vigorous, region-wide enforcement of fair housing and civil rights obligations, including not only the rooting out of discrimination, but also the duty to further the purposes of Title VIII. • Adopt regional fair housing goals and monitor outcomes through the coordination of entitlement jurisdictions (i.e. Community Development Block Grant recipients) and housing and equity stakeholders in creating a HUD-recognized Regional Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing that leads to regional goals and outcomes and monitors success.• Promote diversity and prevent discrimination by supporting and expanding fair housing educational efforts.

Greater Access to Opportunity• Create sustainable connections that link people and places in ways that achieve equity. Public, private and alternative organizations must create structural connections between people and places that advance equity. • Utilize this FHEA’s opportunity mapping analysis to prioritize housing, infrastructure and community development investments.• Make investments in people and places from a regional perspective, and in a balanced manner that promotes opportunity and reverses conditions of disparity in both distressed locations and in communities that are exclusionary.

Greater Access to Opportunity• Encourage affordable housing development and preservation in areas with high access to opportunity by establishing regional goals and targeting pubic and private resources.• Increased transit-oriented development through the creation of opportunity corridors that include mixed-income housing by amending and promoting these uses in local and county comprehensive and land use plans.• Improve public transportation with sufficient investments to provide for the mobility of transit dependent populations, particularly between areas of low and high access to opportunity.

Greater Access to Opportunity• Strengthen leadership from low opportunity communities particularly low-income and minority residents to participate in regional economic development and fair housing planning and implementation.

• Encourage county and regional economic development organizations and authorities to increase participation of low opportunity community representatives and leaders particularly those who are low-income and minority.

• Encourage cross collaboration of all economic development organizations to promote programs in areas of low opportunity through the use of tax incentives and other tools to encourage development.

Greater Access to Opportunity• Promote and implement regional economic development goals of providing access to living wage employment for all residents, especially those residing in low-opportunity communities and low-income and minority households.• Advocate and urge regulated financial institutions in the region to affirmatively lend and invest in low opportunity communities and in assets in higher opportunity communities that serve low opportunity and low-income and minority persons.• Maintain county-wide school systems across the region so quality schools are accessible to all. Increase funding for arts education, early childhood education and lifelong learning for adults.

Affordable Housing• Monitor land use and zoning regulations of the region’s municipalities and counties that may result in the exclusion of the full range of affordable housing including homeownership and rental projects as well as group homes for special needs populations and homeless shelters.• Manage foreclosed homes to best serve areas of low and high access to opportunity respectively through the creation of a system with lenders and non-profit affordable housing developers.• Greatly expand initiatives to provide opportunities of affordable and decent housing throughout the region to meet the region’s growing housing needs by creating more housing choices through rehabilitation and new development.

Affordable Housing• Create local and regional housing trust funds through local documentary stamp taxes similar to Miami-Dade County• Create a transit-oriented development property acquisition fund in conjunction with private investors (e.g. financial institutions) and charitable resources (e.g. foundations). • Develop appropriate incentives to encourage the development and preservation of affordable housing such as zoning bonus programs, impact fee waivers, school fee exemptions, expedited permitting, and tax abatement programs to encourage affordable housing development and preservation.

Thank You

Presentations & Public Speaking

Seven50 FHEA