If you’re a community relations specialist, marketing director or PR professional, you’re used to dealing with conflict. This is particularly true if you work with cities or municipalities. One tool in your arsenal that’s often underutilized is market research data. Hard data, combined with human faces, can go a long way in achieving your organization’s goals. Let’s look at affordable housing as an example.

Affordable housing can be a hot-button issue. The prospect of a development coming to a neighborhood can create a stir among nearby residents. Fear mongering often takes the form of threats of economic decline and an increase in crime. However, city planners and developers can debunk the common myths with third-party research data. The facts show that well-built and maintained affordable housing delivers many improvements to neighborhoods and their residents. It all begins with a concerted effort to directly engage the community early and often with proven facts and figures.

Starting with two of the most common myths is a good first step. People who lead “not in my back yard” (NIMBY) efforts believe that affordable housing decreases nearby property values and increases crime in the neighborhood. The opposite is likely to surprise NIMBYs: crime can go down and property values can go up according to actual data.

As a review of research conducted in the last two decades demonstrates, the facts are on the side of city planners and developers. And from a public communications standpoint, the data provides solid talking points. For example:

1. Affordable housing can increase property values.

• According to an Urban Institute research review conducted in 2022, empirical research in 2002, 2007 and 2009 showed little evidence that subsidized housing depresses neighborhood property values.^[1]
• As the Urban Institute reviewer noted, this is particularly true for projects financed through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Created in 1986, it is the largest affordable housing financing program in the US.
• LIHTC projects have been associated with an immediate increase of 3.8% on property values according to the 2007 study, which was published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.
• The increase can be as much as 6.5% according to a 2015 Stanford study of 129 counties across 15 states. The Stanford researchers looked at 16 million transactions around 7,098 LIHTC sites.^[2]
• A 2016 study by Trulia, the online real estate company, found that LIHTC housing built during a 10-year span showed no effect on nearby home values in the 20 high-income neighborhoods examined.^[3]
• In a 2022 study in Orange County, California, one of the country’s least affordable areas, researchers at the University of California-Irvine found that affordable housing added value of about $16,000 each to nearby homes.^[4]
• Projects funded by other sources such as the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program don’t decrease property values and can increase them under certain conditions, according to a 2020 Urban Institute study.^[5]

2. Neighborhoods are revitalized by affordable housing.

The positive impact of LIHTC projects extends throughout the nearby area.

• LIHTC developments help reduce crime rates and attract a more racially and income diverse population that together revitalize lower income neighborhoods, according to the 2015 Stanford research mentioned above.
• The researchers’ estimates in 2015 indicated that an affordable housing development in a low-income area improved welfare by $23,000 per local homeowner and $6,500 per local renter, with aggregate welfare benefits to society of $115 million.^[6]
• A 2022 study of Chicago and surrounding Cook County, Illinois noted that affordable housing’s positive impacts are greatest in the region’s lowest income neighborhoods but are present in more affluent areas as well.^[7]

3. Affordable housing reduces crime.

Local fears that crime will increase when an affordable housing development is added to the neighborhood are unfounded according to the 2015 and 2022 studies.

• LIHTC development reduces both violent and property crime within low-income areas, and does not increase crime in high-income areas, according to the 2015 Stanford study.^[8]
• Elsewhere, however, research in high-income Orange County, California, indicates crime does go down, especially violent crime, such as robbery and assault, according to a 2022 study by the University of California-Irvine (UCI) researchers.^[9]
• The UCI study looked at data three years before and three years after affordable developments moved into the Orange County neighborhoods. The researchers found siting of affordable housing reduces most types of crime and described the overall impact as “null,” since changes in crime were measured in a fraction of a single crime per year.
• Prior to collecting and analyzing their own Orange County data, the UCI researchers completed a literature review of similar studies across the US. The results from the UCI study add to what has been found elsewhere: The placement of affordable housing does not negatively impact the surrounding community and, in many ways, it enhances both local property values and increases public safety.

Engaging the Community

Market intelligence and emotional intelligence are valuable assets for all communications professionals. They are especially valuable when city planners and affordable housing developers need to win support from the communities involved. They can use facts and figures to tailor messages for all of their audiences, including local neighbors, local businesses, neighborhood groups, and other city and elected officials. But to win the community’s soul, they need to go beyond statistics and put a human face on it. They can invite residents from local affordable housing apartment buildings to speak from the heart about their experiences. Resident stories put a relatable, human element on the issues, providing the emotional layer that speaks volumes.^[10]

^[1] Stacy, Christina and Christopher Davis, “Assessing the Impact of Affordable Housing on Nearby Property Values in Alexandria, Virginia,” Urban Institute Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center, April 2022.

^[2] Diamond, Rebecca and Tim McQuade, 2015, “Who Wants Affordable Housing in Their Backyard? An Equilibrium Analysis of Low Income Property Development,” Working Paper No. 3329, Stanford Graduate School of Business.

^[3] Young, Cheryl, “There Doesn’t Go the Neighborhood: Low-Income Housing Has no Impact on Nearby Home Values,” November 16, 2016, trulia.com

^[4] Hip, John, et al, Department of Criminology, Law and Society, School of Social Ecology, University of California-Irvine, “The Impact of Affordable Housing on Housing & Crime In Orange County,” Livable Cities Lab, 2022.

^[5] Stacy, op cit.

^[6] Diamond, op cit.

^[7] Voith, Richard, et al, “Effects of concentrated LIHTC development on surrounding house price,” Journal of Housing Economics, 2022.

^[8] Diamond, op cit.

^[9] Hip, op cit.

^[10] Coates, Tai, Beyond Four Walls: Conversations on Affordable Housing, “New decade, new strategies to advocate & communicate about #affordable housing,” National Housing Conference Housing Resource Center, January 19, 2020.