The workshop will be held on Thursday,  February 2, 2012 from 7pm to 9pm at the Richard Sugden Library in Spencer.

The workshop is co-sponsored by Mass Housing Partnership.   The target audience are planning board members, housing partnership members, town administrators and others who want to take their towns housing efforts the next step. The workshop will focus on issues of importance to the non-urban communities that make up the audience of the CMRPC and provide a special emphasis on how to get started implementing activities that are key to building support for and eventually building affordable housing. The workshop will also focus on what strategies other communities with limited staff and resources have used to move affordable housing forward.

Trainer Connie Kruger working with Northborough Town Planner, Kathy Joubert, will touch on the following topics:

• Who are the players and their roles in your community?
• How to assess the need for affordable housing
• How to create a plan
• How to identify opportunities

And specific strategies like:

• Affordable Housing Trusts
• Shared Municipal Housing Staff
• Buy-downs and deed restrictions
• Zoning

There will be ample time for discussion and communities from within the CMRPC region will share some examples of how they’ve successfully used the ideas above.