The City of Springfield announced Thursday that it selected a Georgia-based company to perform a citywide housing study beginning later this year. APD Urban Planning + Management will aim to identify housing needs and propose ideas to guide city decision-making.
The city says the study will cost $256,000 and will help with Restore SGF — a push to increase homeownership in a city where the majority of residents are renters. The initiative aims to help families purchase homes in the city’s northside historic neighborhoods and improve the housing stock.
Census data show that currently, 55 percent of Springfield homes are rented by the people who live there. That’s a historical flip in the local housing market: Data from 2010 show that at that time, a slim majority of Springfield homes was still owner-occupied.
Four months ago, City Council approved $1 million from the federal American Rescue Plan to fund Restore SGF. The push will also get hundreds of thousands of dollars from the city budget, the Community Foundation of the Ozarks and several area banks.