The City of Springfield, Massachusetts is undertaking a planning process to create a comprehensive housing plan. The City has issued a separate RFP (Bid # 26-052) seeking a consultant with extensive housing expertise to develop that plan, which will be used by the City to inform its strategic planning and policy formation for attaining the housing needs of its residents over the next 5 years. As described in that bid packet, the City has already assembled substantial data relating to its housing needs. In addition, through numerous planning initiatives over the last several years (including development of multiple neighborhood-specific plans), the City has received significant community input regarding the Springfield’s existing housing issues. The upcoming planning process is intended to use the existing community information combined with the consultant’s technical expertise to identify solutions to the issues identified. The goal of the planning process is to create housing production and preservation goals; recommend policy, ordinance and funding changes; and provide an implementation plan.
