AARP Hearing Center
Background
Place-based development strategies and initiatives encourage community development and economic activity, often in distressed or blighted communities. Examples include:
- Opportunity Zones provide tax benefits to investors that invest in economically distressed areas. About 12 percent of census tracts are identified as Opportunity Zones and can receive this specific funding. Governors have flexibility to decide which of the eligible areas will receive funding and how to target funding.
- Innovation districts are sections of metropolitan areas redesigned to encourage both economic growth and livability. Many are focused on attracting younger adults. Intentional planning that integrates older adults and people from groups that are discriminated against can allow the benefits of revitalization to reach all populations.
When done well, place-based programs engage policymakers, local stakeholders, and community members. Their aim is to identify local needs and resources to create a development plan that is tailored to the community. These strategies can therefore create communities that are physically, economically, and socially connected. By spurring economic development, place-based strategies can create jobs, promote livability, and improve overall quality of life.
Place-based development strategies can make these areas more desirable to live in, driving up housing prices and potentially displacing current residents. Intentionally preserving, expanding, and diversifying housing options for all levels of affordability can allow a broader range of people to live in innovation districts. It also can help avoid displacement of current residents. Addressing these issues requires a variety of tools to engage developers, homeowners, renters, and the public sector. These tools include the preservation of existing housing stock, subsidies for households with low and moderate incomes, tax incentives, affordable housing requirements for new construction, and strategic public investments.
Place-based development programs are just one way to bring resources to underserved areas. For communities to receive the best return on these programs’ investments, local policymakers and other invested parties should incorporate them into an overall community development strategy. Doing so makes programs more likely to attract the resources communities need and will support over the long term. Policymakers should also evaluate development programs to determine which strategies are most effective at supporting the growth of underserved communities. One analysis of 18 states’ Opportunity Zones found that many states selected tracts that were already revitalizing and would likely have received investment from developers regardless.
PLACE-BASED DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES: Policy
PLACE-BASED DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES: Policy
Place-based initiatives
Policymakers should support efforts to spur economic development in economically distressed areas. These efforts should be designed to prevent displacement. They should allow existing residents to continue to live in the community and benefit from economic development activities.
Place-based economic development programs should intentionally plan for, integrate, and engage older adults, communities of color, households with low incomes, and other populations that lack access to services or resources. Policymakers should use these strategies as one piece of a holistic approach to promoting livability and economic development opportunities.
Opportunity Zones
Policymakers should target Opportunity Zone funding to the areas that will most benefit from investment. This includes neighborhoods with large proportions of people with low incomes, people from racial and ethnic groups that are discriminated against, and older adults. Funding should be used to create programs to address critical challenges in the community, such as a lack of affordable housing or grocery stores. Local leaders should combine Opportunity Zone funding with other funding sources and partnerships to promote livability and economic development. Policymakers should provide oversight to ensure transparency and accountability.
Innovation districts
Innovation districts should intentionally:
- plan for, engage, and integrate older adults and groups that are discriminated against as an opportunity and a community asset;
- promote the economic well-being of existing residents of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities, including through the availability of affordable and accessible housing options; and
- increase work opportunities for people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds.
In addition, they should:
- ensure an adequate supply of housing that is accessible to and affordable for people with low and moderate incomes (see also Housing Accessibility),
- create workforce development programs that are accessible to and meet the needs of a diverse population of older workers and job-seekers,
- encourage older adults to participate in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and
- promote intergenerational engagement and understanding (see also Intergenerational Cooperation and Cognitive Health).