The Division of Housing & Community Development (HCD) announced Monday the release of its 2020 State of Memphis Housing Report. This report is a product of a collaborative effort between HCD, Innovate Memphis, Memphis-Shelby County Division of Planning and Development, and multiple partnering organizations.
“Since 2016, creating more quality, affordable housing has been a priority for us,” Mayor Jim Strickland said. “Over the course of my first term as mayor, we incentivized the construction or renovation of over 5,000 affordable quality housing units. This report demonstrates we still have more work to do, and we’re committed to doing just that.”
The State of Memphis Housing Report makes the housing expertise more available to the public by creating a credible source of facts and data related to the current housing and neighborhood conditions in Memphis. This information is made even more significant in the current pandemic, which inspires the report’s theme, “Rising to Respond to a Crisis.”
“The City uses data to ensure that we craft housing strategies that are responsive to the specific needs of our community. This report builds on the Memphis 3.0 plan and helps us inform those strategies further,” HCD Director Paul Young said.
“Memphis has faced affordable housing supply constraints since the 2008 housing crisis that rival or surpasses hot market cities like Atlanta, Nashville, and New Orleans. However, in Memphis, we are losing our supply as a result of abandonment and disinvestment, which creates a complicating context for our COVID-19 response,” Housing Consultant Austin Harrison said.
The Division of Housing & Community Development will continue this conversation virtually at the 2nd Annual State of Memphis Housing Summit on Thursday, October 29. The summit will feature local and national thought leaders, including Mayor Jim Strickland, Richard Rothstein, “The Color of Law,” and Dr. Andre Perry, “Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities.” An event highlight will be a roundtable discussion featuring housing directors from Atlanta and Detroit as well as Director Paul Young.
Interested participants are encouraged to review the full conference agenda and register for the free event online at memphistn.gov/government/housing-and-community-development/.
For more information, please contact Erika Wynn erika.wynn@memphistn.gov.