Howard County Community Plan

Prioritizing the Need

In Spring 2023, Howard 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 community organizations, civic groups, religious organizations, healthcare organizations and providers, public school districts, local businesses, transportation providers, community members and the local health department. CMCA facilitated a guided discussion about the data, resulting in the prioritization of housing as a primary need within Howard 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 Howard 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 Howard County have quality, affordable 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 Howard County include:

• Homeownership disparities by race. Black people and people of color historically experienced redlining and discriminatory lending practices. The impact of suppressed economic opportunity impacts communities today by the loss of generational wealth from homeownership.

• Lack of code enforcement has caused a shortage of safe, quality housing.

• Real estate investors take advantage of the housing bubble to buy properties, then pass costs on to renters.

• Tax assessments increased the value of homes and taxes.

• The group observed an increase in absentee landlords.

• Lack of financial education and coaching. Individuals and families need credit-building assistance and help determining necessities vs. luxury purchases, for instance.

• Lack of rehabilitation/renovation funding for low- and middleincome homeowners.

Community partners explored existing efforts within Howard 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 Howard County. These strategies will help the community achieve the result:

All people in Howard County have quality, affordable housing.

Strategy #1 - Create a homeownership event combined with a resource fair including a home-buying seminar. Invite interested parties, such as realtors and lenders to participate.

This strategy will address the lack of education regarding homeownership and finances as well as make connections between the community and housing resources.

Strategy #2 - Host an HCV seminar for landlords.

This strategy will educate landlords on Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) facts, benefits, landlord and tenant responsibilities, and FAQs in aims to increase the number of landlords who accept HCV.

Strategy #3 - Bring a physical CMCA location to Howard County to do more community outreach and promote resources.

This strategy will address the lack of knowledge of about community resources and aim to increase the number of resources available.

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 Howard County.

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