City of Longview holds housing needs assessment meeting

LONGVIEW — The City of Longview invited community members to attend an open house meeting on Tuesday to address residents’ current and future housing challenges. According to our news partner KETK, several Longview residents attended an open house meeting at the Maud Cobb Convention Center to learn more about the city’s Housing Needs Assessment and Action Plan. The plan dives into an analysis of Longview’s housing situation, including affordability, market value, and demographic trends.

Housing Manager for the City of Longview Housing Agency, Shateva Marshall, spoke with many attendees to gather more information about potential adjustments that can be made for Longview residents.

“We need to know what are the barriers that people in the community are facing, what are the things that we are doing good that we need to do more of,” Marshall said. “We get all types of information so that we can make good decisions going forward in the planning.”

Those at the meeting were encouraged to participate in an online survey that will provide the city with feedback on housing tragedies based on the gathered data. The city also hired experts to help guide city officials through the housing assessment process.

Laney Corey, an urban planner consultant from Matrix Design Group, sees a lot of potential in the direction that Longview is moving toward.

“Longview actually does a really good job with earlier housing diversity, looking at different housing options beyond the traditional, detached single family,” Corey said.

Corey said that a lot of the data is still in a preliminary phase, but the numbers still rely on residents to formulate an accurate community opinion.

“What’s really important is for us to have this phase one of quantitative data looking at the census and housing numbers and pairing that with the lived experiences,” Corey said. “The numbers tell us one thing, but it is really important for us to be out here with the community.”