Cole County Community Plan

Prioritizing the Need

In Spring 2023, Cole County community partners kicked off a collaborative community needs assessment process with a data walk. At the data walk, CMCA shared county-specific data related to education, housing, health, income, education, employment, and other social characteristics as well as the results from a jointly designed and distributed community survey. Data walk participants included social service organizations, religious organizations, local government offices, housing organizations, and community members. CMCA facilitated a guided discussion about the data, resulting in the prioritization of housing as a primary need within Cole County.

Community Conversations

With funding from the Missouri Foundation for Health, CMCA staff guided local stakeholders through a series of community conversations from Summer 2023 through Spring 2024 using a process called Results Based Accountability™ (RBA). These meetings resulted in the joint development of a community plan to address housing in Cole County.

RBA is a data-driven, decision-making process developed by Mark Friedman. RBA uses a structured, step-bystep process called “Turn the Curve Thinking” to help communities move from talk to action and to harness the power of collective impact to make sustainable change.

Developing the Plan

First, the community developed a shared result statement that defined the outcome the community intends to achieve through the plan.

All people in Cole County have safe, affordable, and sustainable housing.

Next, the community identified specific data indicators that will be used to measure the community’s progress toward achieving the result. Stakeholders reviewed baseline data that included forecasted data trends. In RBA, success is defined as “turning the curve,” or moving the data point away from that forecasted baseline, indicating that the community’s efforts are working and that positive change is taking place.

Community partners explored “the story behind the curve,” or the various factors that either positively or negatively affect the data. This discussion provided an opportunity to explore root causes and systemic issues that must be addressed in order for the community to truly make an impact.

Root Causes

Root causes related to housing in Cole County include:

• Absentee or negligent landlords

• High demand, low supply

• It is more profitable to build in surrounding communities

• It is more profitable to build larger homes

• Landlords not accepting vouchers

• Fear of tenant stereotypes

• Lack of housing stock

• Lack of education in the community on workforce housing

• Lack of empathy from community

• Lack of community support

• Rising cost of living

• Lack of shelter space

• Lack of sober living space

• Lack of mental health services

• Lack of senior living

• Lack of generational wealth created through homeownership

• Redlining

Community partners explored existing efforts within Cole County and collaborated to identify new strategies that would directly address the above root causes and lead to sustainable change within the community. The group ranked each potential strategy against four criteria:

1. How much difference will it make?

2. Is the idea specific enough to be implemented?

3. Do we have the capacity to implement the idea now or in the future?

4. Does the idea reflect our community values?

Strategies that ranked the highest on all four criteria were selected for inclusion in the community plan.

Key Strategies

The community has chosen to pursue the following strategies to address housing in Cole County. These strategies will help the community achieve the result:

All people in Cole County have safe, affordable, and sustainable housing.

Strategy #1 - Increase transitional housing/rapid rehousing for the unhoused living in Cole County.

Through this strategy, the community will work with existing organizations to address the lack of support for the unhoused in Cole County.

Strategy #2 - Create more affordable housing.

This strategy will work with the City and with developers to build new housing complexes that will be available and affordable for those with low income.

As the community plan moves into the implementation stage, community partners will continue to meet on a regular basis to share progress and solve challenges. The community is encouraged to participate in meetings, aid in implementation, and share the community plan with individuals and organizations that might also be interested in housing in Cole County.

More information about this plan and its progress can be found on the Show Me Strong Communities website at ShowMeStrongCommunities.com.

Thank you, community partners!

All people in Cole County have safe, affordable, and sustainable housing.

wwww.showmestrongcommunities.com