Steve Childers, Springfield’s Director of Planning and Development spoke during a summit organized by Springfield-based housing nonprofit Restore SGF, Thursday. He pointed to two major challenges facing Springfield’s housing market, rising costs and flat wages.
“In the state of Missouri, there are 13 cities of 50,000 population or more,” Childers explained, “out of those 13 cities, the City of Springfield has the lowest median household income. I didn't know that. I didn't realize we were 13 of 13 in the State of Missouri. That's $49,311, folks. That average household income is below the national average, below the state average. That is the economic situation that we're dealing with.”
On the other side of the issue he said not enough new homes are being built to keep up with the city’s growth rate, and the homes being built are more expensive. He said home values have risen 126% since 2000, and in the last decade sales of homes under $150,000 have fallen 78%. He said the typical new home in Springfield now sales for $250,000.
Childers said navigating these issues means an active role by the city, including developing plans with all of the city’s registered neighborhoods, rezoning and deregulation to allow for more missing middle housing like duplexes, developing the city’s landbank program and a proposal he shared to develop a housing trust fund to help subsidize affordable housing development, something that has worked in other small cities across the country.
Childers said “for every dollar we put in, you get 38 to $50 of private investment. This endowment fund will grow. It will be there forever. It will be sustainable. You will get dividends off of that. And that is how I think that we are going to be able to move forward in the city of Springfield. We have to double down. We have to be serious about this.”
His fund proposal is still being developed and still needs City Council approval, he said it could be funded through part of the city’s ¾-cent sales tax. He argued that without subsidies and support from the city, private developers will be hard-pressed to make a profit off building the homes Springfield and its residents' need.