coUrbanize

As the national housing crisis becomes increasingly urgent, we’re sharing some good news this month of affordable housing clients who are launching their websites, connecting with advocacy groups, building trust with residents, and generating excitement for new construction. Check out our monthly community engagement news below!

Studies have found that the people who show up to public meetings tend to be older, wealthier, and more opposed to development than the communities they’re supposed to represent. So when it comes time to share testimonies on a project, affordable housing developers often find themselves fighting an uphill battle to prove there’s public support. But as coUrbanize Founder Karin Brandt puts it in her guest commentary for Affordable Housing Finance, “While some abutters and NIMBYs may never change their minds about affordable housing in their neighborhoods, bringing more people into the process means public officials hear from more than just the naysayers.” Check out the full article to read about three coUrbanize clients –? Mission First Housing Group, McCormack Baron Companies, and BRIDGE Housing Corporation – who embraced new strategies to reach beyond the usual meeting attendees and build broad community support.

Something development teams often ask us about is what to share with their followers during the construction phase of a project – aside from the typical sidewalk and road closure notices. One of the best ways we’ve seen a team do this is Thomas Safran & Associates’ updates on the construction of a new affordable housing community in the Arlington Heights neighborhood of L.A. Their bite-sized posts tell the story of how the building is made, share photos of its progress, and build excitement for the finished project. You can check out one of the team’s recent updates on their coUrbanize project website:

coUrbanize client Sandra Martin Seals of McCormack Baron Companies recently weighed in with the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association's Tax Credit Advisor magazine on how her team used coUrbanize to engage in thoughtful dialogue with residents of their Choice Communities redevelopment: “‘It really was a life raft for us during a difficult time,’ Seals says. ‘And it’s now something that we continue to use for other projects to build trust and incorporate meaningful feedback from residents.’” Check out the full article below for more of Sandra’s story, as well as coUrbanize founder Karin Brandt’s insights on how developers can bring resident voices into the planning process without requiring attendance at long in-person or Zoom meetings. Thank you to Pamela Martineau and the NH&RA for spotlighting ways to reach community members from their living rooms!

Forward-thinking teams aim to go beyond checking a box—they want to share real insights and show that community engagement truly matters. Traditional polling tools make it tough, with hours spent sorting through comments. In this 1-min clip from our webinar, “Retail Placemaking in Mixed-Use Development,” Greystar’s Erin Corcoran explains how coUrbanize simplifies community engagement compared to other survey tools.

2024 was a big year for coUrbanize and our clients! We inspired a record number of community users to engage on our platform, our clients deepened trust with community members and advanced critical affordable housing projects, and our AI Insights product release transformed client understanding of community feedback. To cap things off, we’re sharing some stories of our impact in 2024. Check out the below report to read about some of the key themes we saw in the past year, and hear stories from our Customer Success team about the community members advancing change in their neighborhoods.

Our founder, Karin Brandt, spoke with Holly Dutton at Propmodo about how coUrbanize is helping affordable housing developers dispel misinformation that can delay, scale back, or even halt critical housing projects. With the rise of affordable housing developments in both suburban and urban areas, we’ve seen firsthand how democratizing the development review process—by inviting more voices into the conversation—drives meaningful change for the entire community, not just the loudest ones. Thank you, Holly, for highlighting this important topic!

Our customers have told us they’ve spent hours sifting through hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of community member comments to understand what users are saying about their project. That’s why we’ve been working closely with customers to develop an AI-powered solution that distills community users’ ideas into an automated report. At the end of the day, project teams want to be able to share what they’ve heard with community members and internal stakeholders – And demonstrate to public officials that their community engagement is valuable information that isn’t just checking a box. With our AI Insights, customers are able to compare their comment data from a quantitative perspective, pull themes and subthemes, and generate a PDF report at any point during the engagement process. A big thanks to all of the customers who provided feedback during the product development process – including Marian K. Sullivan at WinnCompanies, Laura Kinsell-Baer at McCormack Baron Companies, Robert Friedman, LMSW, MS, and Erik Kath at rePLACE Urban Studio – as well as our Product Designer Ramses Montero who spearheaded this project!

For community engagement on mixed-use projects, the greatest hurdle is often gathering feedback from community members who don’t normally participate in public meetings. But how can project teams take a strategic approach to attract new, meaningful feedback from targeted groups? In our next webinar on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 1pm EST, we’ll hear from leaders at Greystar and EVERSTREET (WBE) about how they generated excitement and community buy-in around retail placemaking for a mixed-used development – and ultimately used data to de-risk the retail leasing process. You can register for the webinar below – if you’re unable to join us live, we’ll send you the recording afterwards. Feel free to invite your colleagues! https://lnkd.in/g6iTjt6k

The coUrbanize team had the opportunity to get together last week in Philadelphia for 2025 planning, meeting with clients, and exploring the city. We especially enjoyed hearing from Kyla Weisman Bayer at Mission First Housing Group about the challenges and opportunities for affordable housing development, and learning about Philly's history of public art through the Mural Arts Philadelphia tour!