Eastern Connecticut Housing Conversations Toolkit

Strategy: How Are We Building Support?

At the Center for Housing Equity and Opportunity Eastern CT, our objective is to produce and preserve housing that is affordable to all residents of New London, Tolland, and Windham Counties. We believe eastern Connecticut should be a place where anyone can make a living, raise a family, and enjoy the beautiful things our region has to offer. To achieve this objective, we need to build more public will for affordable housing.

As we outlined in Stable Homes, Strong Communities, homes are the heart of our lives and communities. Too many of our neighbors or would-be neighbors, however, are denied the opportunity to buy or rent a safe, affordable home. Eastern Connecticut residents understand the logical and emotional value of a home, but they don’t necessarily see that the lack of equity and opportunity in our housing market impacts all of us and holds our communities back.

With the housing crisis impacting more people than ever before, we have an opportunity to build more support for affordable housing than ever before. Some of our neighbors may not care about or may oppose affordable housing. Others may care, but may not see a path forward out of this crisis. Still, most share a common aspiration for affordable, equitable and stable communities.

As champions for affordable housing, we must attract all those neighbors to our cause and bring them on our journey by demonstrating that their aspiration is achievable, and it depends upon housing. When we can put people’s own aspirations in front of them, that’s when they will start saying “yes” to affordable housing. 

Audience: Who Are We Targeting?

As you strive to build public will, ask yourself who needs to be part of your journey. Consider who in your community can build momentum for your cause, including people with lived experience, public officials, unions, faith institutions, chambers of commerce, universities, healthcare systems, and more.

Perform a stakeholder analysis, which is a fancy way of saying “make a wish list” of all the people who have an interest in making eastern Connecticut more affordable, equitable and stable. These are the key stakeholders you need to attract to your cause by engaging and partnering with them and building their trust over time. This toolkit contains sample communications, and your list of stakeholders will be the audience for these communications.

Remember that your stakeholders have different levels of understanding about housing and related issues, so you will often need to tweak your messages for different groups or individuals. This is especially true for concepts like equity and racism. Being upfront about this and talking about the different ways people label inequity can lead to more productive conversations.

You can think of your key stakeholders in different groups:

Influencers & Champions

Influencers and champions are the people who champion the cause of affordable housing. These are the true believers, those who are spearheading affordable housing efforts in your community. If you’re reading this, you’re likely an influencer or a champion and you are responsible for attracting others to join your journey.

Gatekeepers

Gatekeepers are the agencies, organizations and institutions which hold the keys to power in your community. Without their support, you may not be able to achieve your objectives. The most obvious example are local elected officials, but unions, churches, healthcare systems and chambers of commerce can be gatekeepers, too.

Public at-Large

Members of the public may be for, against, or neutral towards your cause. Your goal is to bring them on your journey. You don’t need to convert everyone, but you should strive to connect with as many people as possible in dialogue about your shared hopes for the region. Then, the public can help apply pressure to gatekeepers and encourage them to act.

Messaging: What Are We Saying?

To persuade key stakeholders and build public will, housing advocates need to use new and more effective messaging. Our messaging should position housing as a solution to residents’ biggest concerns, like health care, education, jobs, and people being priced out or displaced because of rising costs. It should emphasize equity and link the fate of the region as a whole to the fate of those most impacted by the housing crisis.

Our messaging should also uplift the voices of those community members most impacted by rising housing costs. For example, talk to a business owner, a school teacher, a single parent, an employee who works in town, a college student, or a senior citizen about their housing challenges. Amplify their stories when you’re talking about housing with your community.

Our messaging should not demoralize or alienate the people we are trying to persuade. Don’t try to bang people over the head with data or the negative consequences of the housing shortages. Instead, build residents’ optimism by sharing local successes and examples of how other regions have tackled housing issues or are making progress. Offer an aspirational vision for the region, and show residents that they can achieve that vision.