Callaway County Community Plan

Show Me Strong Communities Callaway County Community Plan

2024

Prioritizing the Need In Spring 2023, Callaway 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, housing services providers, local government entities, financial institutions, health organizations, education institutions, religious organizations, and community members. CMCA facilitated a guided discussion about the data, resulting in the prioritization of housing as a primary need within Callaway 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 Callaway 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.

Clear Impact, 2021

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 Callaway County have sustainable housing to meet their needs.

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 Callaway County include: •

Individuals do not know about housing resources • Lack of incentives for landlords • Landlords do not want to accept Housing Choice Vouchers or meet inspection requirements • Tenants are not educated on their rights or responsibilities • Cost of home maintenance for older homes • Increasing rental costs; low supply - high demand • Mental health needs/stigma • Criminal background or history of evictions • Lack of resources for addiction and prevention programs • “Not in My Backyard” (NIMBY) attitude leads to more division in the community about affordable housing • Lack of facilities to support the homeless • Lack of transitional housing programs • Lack of financial education Community partners explored existing efforts within Callaway 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 Callaway County. These strategies will help the community achieve the result:

All people in Callaway County have sustainable housing to meet their needs.

Strategy #1 - Host a landlord/tenant forum.

This strategy will provide education to both landlords and tenants on their rights and set the stage for follow-up forums on related topics such as Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8), homeownership, and home repairs.

Strategy #2 - Develop a coaching program for tenants and landlords.

This strategy involves a coaching program that helps landlords and tenants develop safe and respectful relationships with an emphasis on communication. Coaches support tenants by providing resources, referrals, and education on a variety of housing topics.

Strategy #3 - Campaign to address NIMBY issues regarding workforce housing.

This strategy will provide public education about workforce housing to increase awareness and support for housing initiatives.

Strategy #4 - Re-establish Habitat for Humanity in Callaway County.

This strategy aims to partner with an organization that shares many of the goals as the community plan, including home building, home repair, homeownership classes, and more.

Strategy #5 - Create a Room at the Inn. This strategy aims to provide shelter and other necessities for those experiencing homelessness.

Strategy #6 - Encourage local government support for housing projects and Missouri Housing Development Commission tax credits.

Through this strategy, the community hopes to gather government support to address housing on a larger scale. The community will work to educate and lobby lawmakers about the need for sustainable housing in Callaway County.

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 Callaway County.

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

Thank you, community partners!

All people in Callaway County have sustainable housing to meet their needs.

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