housing
At-A-Glance | 2005-2024
Since 2005, Springfield and Greene County have worked to balance their reputation for affordable housing with persistent challenges around access, quality, and homelessness. Early reports celebrated low housing costs and strong collaboration among providers to reduce substandard housing. However, the affordability gap quickly became clear as wages failed to keep pace with housing costs, foreclosures rose, and homelessness grew, especially among children.
Throughout the years, collaboration has been a defining strength. The Housing Collaborative, Habitat for Humanity, local nonprofits, and city programs expanded access to affordable units, supported rehabilitation, and sought sustainable funding.
Downtown redevelopment added new housing stock, but rising costs and predatory lending created additional barriers for low- and moderate-income families.
By 2011, foreclosures, homeless youth, and shrinking resources were major red flags, though progress was later seen in emergency shelter capacity and the creation of centralized housing data resources. The 2010s highlighted the tension between Springfield’s reputation for low-cost living and the lived reality of residents struggling with rising rents, limited availability of quality housing, and concentrated poverty. The COVID-19 pandemic deepened these pressures but also showcased the power of collaboration, with rental assistance and eviction moratoriums helping families stay housed.
Today, system-level challenges remain: high construction costs, rising rents, and inequitable access continue to strain families, even as collaborations among agencies and public-private partners provide potential for sustainable relief.
civic engagement and collaboration
System-level gaps often require diverse entities coordinating together to resolve. Civic engagement and collaboration continue to be a Blue Ribbon, best exemplified by Community Partnership of the Ozarks’ Housing Collaborative.
A second example is the level of community engagement in the development and implementation of Forward SGF, a key component of which focuses on housing and neighborhoods.
response to blighted properties
Two key initiatives in Forward SGF that will facilitate a response to blighted properties include the Community Development Code update and neighborhood revitalization.
The updates to city codes are related to development of land and installation of public infrastructure. These codes were last thoroughly updated in 1995.
initiatives to increase home ownership
Home ownership can improve neighborhood stability and play a key role in building generational wealth.
Nationally, the average homeowner’s net worth is 38 times higher than that of the average renter.
Forty-two percent of Springfield residents live in a home they own, a percentage that has declined over the past decade.
accessible housing shortage
Housing is a key social determinant of health, and Springfield currently sees a shortage of accessible housing.
Accessibility can include many facets, ranging from the availability of housing to the physical design of structures to places that are available to people leaving institutions of care.
affordable housing shortage
According to the Equality Trust, higher levels of inequality within communities impact everyone across several measures of social health that range from individual happiness and physical health to the occurrence of violent crime and economic stability.
The high demand for housing has resulted in households with the lowest income being priced out of the market.
safe housing
shortage
With a shortage of safe housing, blighted properties can impact the quality of life for families and entire neighborhoods.
There is currently no rental regulation program in operation to ensure baseline housing quality standards are met and maintained, and there is a lack of resources to consistently support code enforcement.