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Posts Tagged ‘Rural Housing Collaborative’
The Rural Housing Development puzzle
September 9th, 2009
If your rural community is “puzzled” by housing development, then you should consider attending the Rural Housing Playbook Regional Conference in Iroquois, SD on Tuesday Sept. 15.
I’ve talked about the Rural Housing Collaborative, and as I described back in Nov. 2008:
The Rural Housing Playbook is about creating a plan for your community’s housing needs and not just building a specific housing project. Everybody wants to see action, and a project does that. But a project is more likely to fail when it is not a part of a community plan.
The Rural Housing Collaborative has produced a process they believe helps rural communities in this process. It’s a process that I wish I’d been able to use back when we first started doing housing development in Miner County.
I hope to attend because, in addition to explaining the playbook process, the conference will showcase the housing activities of two South Dakota communities — Doland and Iroquois.
If you haven’t registered, make sure you click on the link to the right and complete the registration form. There’s no cost to attend, but they do want to know you’re going to be there.
Tags: Iroquis SD, rural housing, Rural Housing Collaborative, Rural Housing Playbook
Posted in Housing, Rural, Training and Events | Comments (0)
More evidence of a rural housing crisis
May 18th, 2009
Last week I highlighted a Wall Street Journal article focused on the rise in home foreclosures in rural Minnesota. Today, I want to draw our readers’ attention to a story on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Titled “Rural America Facing More Foreclosures,” the report claims West Virginia’s foreclosure rates have increased 45% in the last year.
Listen to this short story here.
I much prefer positive stories, highlighting potential solutions to problems, but I also don’t want people to think rural places have been unaffected by the downturn in the economy.
Tags: foreclosures, Rural Housing Collaborative, West Virginia
Posted in Housing, In the News, Rural | Comments (0)
Rural Housing Playbook Presentation
November 20th, 2008
Not surprising, my favorite presentation at the SDHDA Housing Conference was “Implementing the Rural Housing Playbook” by Rita Edwards of the South Dakota Rural Housing Collaborative. Rita was gracious enough to allow me to embed her presentation in the post below.
What I learned
A few of the main points that I took away from the presentation include:
- The Rural Housing Playbook is an introduction into the housing development process. It serves as a guide for rural communities who recognize the need to do something about housing but don’t know where to start.
- The real work will get done in a planning process that the Collaborative is implementing. (more on that in a future post). I really wish we’d had this process in place when we started our work in Miner County.
- The Rural Housing Playbook is about creating a plan for your community’s housing needs and not just building a specific housing project. Everybody wants to see action, and a project does that. But a project is more likely to fail when it is not a part of a community plan. Case in point, back in the 1980s, Howard, South Dakota had a rental housing development that failed miserably, in part because it wasn’t done within the context of a community plan.
- The Playbook currently focuses on single family housing and not rental housing development. That’s not to say that rental housing isn’t important in some communities. The Collaborative just didn’t have the resources to address rental housing.
- Housing Development is Economic Development, but just building housing won’t create a sustainable economy in a rural community. I think that statement fits well into the Rural Learning Center’s maxim “It’s all connected”.
To get your own copy of the Rural Housing Playbook, go to the Collaborative’s website . In a few days, they’ll have a signup form for you to complete. They will then send you an electronic version of the Playbook for free.
Tags: rural housing, Rural Housing Collaborative, rural housing development process, Rural Housing Playbook, SDHDA, South Dakota
Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, Rural, Training and Events | Comments (0)
Posts from the Field
November 17th, 2008
This week is going to be scary busy. Tomorrow, I’m off to the SDHDA’s Annual Housing Conference in Pierre, SD. If all goes well, I’ll provide some reports from the field. I’m especially interested in the Rural Housing Collaborative’s presentation on their Rural Housing Playbook .
I’m also excited to introduce a new author on the ReImagineRural.com blog this week. Lindsey Karlson is the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Rural Learning Center, and will be attending the “HomeTown YouthForce: Engaging the Entrepreneurial Generation” conference in Nebraska City, NE. The idea of developing strategies to work with entrepreneurial youth and to retain our young people is something that I wanted to learn more about. And Lindsey’s gracious enough to provide updates.
Don’t tell her I said this, but Lindsey’s a pretty smart person and an awesome writer; so you’re going to enjoy her posts.
If you are at either of these conferences and see our smiling faces, I hope you’ll say “hi”.
Tags: entrepreneurship, Hometown Youthforce, Rural Housing Collaborative, Rural Housing Playbook, Youth
Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, Housing, In the News, Rural, Training and Events | Comments (0)
Rural Housing Collaborative to Present Playbook
November 3rd, 2008
- Rita Edwards of the Rural Housing Collaborative
On Wednesday, Nov. 19th, Rita Edwards will present the Rural Housing Collaborative’s long awaited Rural Housing Playbook at the 2008 South Dakota Housing Development Authority (SDHDA) Annual Conference.
In short, the Playbook is a process guide for rural communities seeking solutions for their housing needs. It walks communities through steps in the development process and helps them connect with available resources.
Attendees at the conference will receive a pdf version of the Playbook on a CD, and Rita will provide an overview on how to best use it.
The idea for the playbook emerged in 2001, while Jim Beddow of the Rural Learning Center was working with rural communities surrounding Mitchell, SD. It seemed that the communities understood they had housing needs, but few understood the steps necessary to do something about it. The Collaborative emerged to address these issues.
Composed of housing resource providers, developers, and community development practitioners from South Dakota, the Collaborative has been working on building a system to address these problems. The Playbook is one part of that system.
I’d encourage anyone interested in learning more about the playbook and Collaborative’s efforts to attend the conference.
You may register for the conference at SDHDA’s website.
Tags: rural housing, Rural Housing Collaborative, Rural Housing Playbook, Rural Learning Center, SDHDA
Posted in Housing, Rural, Training and Events | Comments (0)