Springfield City Council adds housing to its list of priorities 

A new housing priority was added to the 2024 list of Springfield City Council priorities passed by the body at its May 20 meeting. 

The focus on housing is added at the request of council’s Community Involvement Committee, according to the explanation of the bill. 

The housing priority reads as follows: “A dedication to increasing access to quality housing options by promoting home ownership, improving rental housing conditions through code enforcement, supporting emergency housing needs and expanding property reinvestment incentives to help meet the demands of a growing and diverse community.” 

Members of the tenants’ rights organization Springfield Tenants Unite, which has been a vocal advocate for a range of housing improvements in the city,  were on hand at the meeting to endorse the addition of a housing priority prior to the vote. 

Alice Barber, a leader with STUN, said after attending numerous council meetings, she has come to realize that council and STUN share many of the same goals. 

“We all want every person in Springfield to have housing that is safe and accessible. We want more affordable housing. We all want our city to be a place where people choose to live – not a place where people live because they have no other choice,” she said. 

She added that voting on the priority is not the end of the housing priority issue, but the beginning. 

“The majority of Springfield residents are the people most impacted by housing policy, and it’s unbelievable that housing is not already a housing priority,” she said, asking council to work with her organization to serve the needs of 100% of the city’s residents. 

Councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem Matthew Simpson said he was in support of the new priority. 

“I want to note that it’s been observed tonight that this is not the end of the work on housing, but it’s also not the beginning of the work on housing,” he said. “Housing has been an important part of council priorities for as long as I’ve been on council.” 

He cited major investments in affordable rental housing, homeownership, homeless services, the Restore SGF program and funding of the housing study itself. 

Simpson said the city has a need for significantly more housing units at every price point and every housing type. 

Other council priorities 
Council’s list included five other council priorities, each presented with a list of objectives: 

Quality of place: “Those features of physical environment and qualities of life that make a location a desirable, competitive and economically vibrant place to live.” 

Highlights from objectives:  

• Formally emphasizing a culture of service and diversity, equity and inclusion by recognizing the inherent dignity, value and worth of each individual.
• Creating an image campaign that empowers residents to get engaged with quality of place efforts.
• Investing in projects that improve livability for city residents.
• Revitalizing neighborhoods.
• Investing in multi-modal transportation infrastructure, with the addition in 2024 of transit and rail systems.
• Attracting talent.
• Addressing criminal violations, including noise and nuisance law violations.

Governance and legislative engagement: “The deliberate formation of a positive relationship with local and regional legislative delegates to affect positive outcomes in legislative policy.” 

Highlights from objectives:  

• Partnering with region’s cities and organizations to create a unified legislative voice.
• Working with the Missouri General Assembly’s legislative caucus groups.
• Providing a clear legislative priority message to legislators by focusing on the city’s most impactful priorities.
• Taking advantage of state and federal funding opportunities.

Fiscal sustainability and accountability: “The ability of a municipal organization to adequately meet its primary source delivery needs and financial commitments over the long term while also preserving a healthy financial condition based on municipal association best practices, including accountability and transparency.” 

Highlights from objectives: 

• Reviewing existing revenue types, uses and limitations and exploring new revenue opportunities.
• Encouraging ideas for improving operational, energy and facility efficiencies.
• Addressing deferred maintenance needs.
• Enhancing cooperative opportunities with Greene County and other government entities.
• Enhancing fiscal transparency.
• Determining a strategy to strengthen the financial position of the Springfield-Greene County Park District.

Economic vitality: “A sustainable economic climate that fosters low poverty, affordable options for quality housing and wage levels that allow the opportunity for people to participate in quality-of-life endeavors.” 

Highlights from objectives: 

• Enhancing the city’s potential as a regional hub for business, transportation, culture, education, faith and both traditional and sports tourism.
• Improving the efficiency and value of the development process.
• Implementing the city’s annexation strategy (a change from the 2023 objective, which was to review and refine the strategy).
• Enhancing efforts to stabilize and revitalize neighborhoods by using Forward SGF comprehensive plan objectives and strategies.
• Applying the targeted use of economic development incentives for big-impact projects while considering the most strategic use of all economic development incentive tools.

Public safety: “The effective delivery of police, municipal court, fire, 911 and emergency management service, including prevention efforts and protection from events that could endanger the safety of the general public from significant injury/harm or damage, such as crimes or disasters.” 

Highlights from objectives: 

• Reducing chronic nuisance properties.
• Enhancing community engagement and participation to increase crime prevention efforts.
• Reducing traffic accidents through the education, engineering and enforcement approach.
• Using alternative sentencing approaches where relevant to reduce warrant-related activities.
• Emphasizing staff diversity.
• Reducing public safety response times.
• Shifting from a complaint-based code enforcement approach to a city-initiated approach.