ESI, working with the NHP Foundation helped develop and collect around 250 surveys for the NHP Foundation to identify what ways to build public support for policies that generate affordable housing. ESI first identified a diverse set of target groups to survey to understand current attitudes toward affordable housing. The survey respondents included policy makers, developers, affordable housing producers, and communities.
The survey focused on different perspectives about how to achieve abundant, resilient, and affordable housing in the future. The survey was intended to help identify potential pathways for achieving that future. The survey included 10 short closed-ended questions, and an open-ended question. ESI and NHP Foundation collaborated on the initial questions and ESI tested the surveys to evaluate how the survey will be interpreted by responders. Based on the survey testing, the survey was revised and distributed.
The surveys were able to specifically target exact questions and information such as to how difficult it is to secure housing generation to generation, what are the most important development features are between the different generations, what specific organizations are important in building support for affordable housing, what are the biggest challenges confronting households, and what are the market and community challenges to increasing housing affordability.
The survey supported NHP’s annual housing affordability conference by providing insight into specific actions needed to support efforts to generate public policies that will lead to greater provision of affordable housing.