By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
A recently completed study between the city of St. Joseph and the Chamber of Commerce has discovered a shortage of middle-class housing in St. Joseph.
Chamber President Natalie Hawn says the study found a shortage of around 3-thousand homes
"We have a pretty good supply of low-income housing, because those are given tax incentives, and we have a pretty good supply of higher end executive housing," Hawn tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. "But that missing middle is, as we would have guessed based on employer's feedback, is kind of where the gap is."
Hawn says there are some tools that can be used to work on this, such as improvements around the city
"We could do infill housing, revitalization, and we know have over 1,000 vacant buildings, whether those are housing or commercial, so we know that there are some tools in the toolbox that we can use to try to address some of those," Hawn explains. "The city has been great about putting together a plan that they're going to take to city council in a work session in April."
Hawn says it's not a problem that can be solved overnight and will take some time
"Because it's really been something that we've been working on with the business community, with community leaders' hand in hand, and it's been great because we've been able to truly come up a couple different solutions that will be good wins," Hawn says.
Hawn says there are also some initiatives happening at the state level that could help move towards aiding the housing problem in St. Joseph.
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