Norm van Eeden Petersman
Director of Movement Building, Strong Towns

• A brief history of how we arrived at the current set of problems, beginning with how crucial federal housing policies instituted in the 1930s created a set of perverse incentives still affecting the market today.
• A look at the 2008 housing market crash and its continuing aftermath.
• Why housing markets today are so prone to boom and bust cycles.
• How the incremental development of cities used to meet our housing needs, and why it no longer does.
• Why our cities have a “trickle or fire hose” problem, in which a small minority of neighborhoods undergo rapid, dramatic transformation while the majority see only a trickle of needed investment.
• How a growing number of places are adopting reforms that can break them out of the “trickle or fire hose” dynamic and make incremental housing development possible again.

Following the presentation, Q&A and Discussion with Norm Van Eeden Petersman we will have lunch provided by Structures Brewing and networking. We will then welcome a presentation by Northwest Youth Services. Representatives will be updating us on their new Lincoln Street Housing Project. This housing project or Healing Space, will partly rely on middle housing to create a unique community for youth who are transitioning out of homelessness. It’s an important case study of how middle housing can create community. Get to know the project, their goals and how you can help make this project a reality!