Published on June 15, 2026 2:37 pm
Last Updated on June 15, 2026 2:37 pm
Local community members, residents, and leaders are invited to Koerner Distributor as the Effingham Regional Growth Alliance partners with the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) for a housing listening session. The Illinois Housing Blueprint Session will be from 11:00am – 1:00pm on Thursday, June 18th.
The goal of the Blueprint Listening Session is to hear from practitioners, advocates, and community members about the strengths, challenges, and needs of their community in regards to housing and community development. Launched in 2020, the Blueprint is a statewide initiative conducted every three to five years to assess current housing conditions, create a vision for equitable and affordable housing in Illinois, and a pathway to make that vision possible. While IHDA coordinates the Blueprint’s planning process, it is fundamentally collaborative, combining traditional elements such as community engagement with quantitative data analysis.
The event will start with a State of the Housing Market presentation by Brian Meyers. IHDA will also present data on the demographics, current housing market, and future housing market projections for the region, highlighting trends and particularly impactful data.
IHDA will facilitate a listening session, asking attendees for their feedback on what they have noticed in the data as well as their assessments of needs and obstacles on the ground. All attendees must register by clicking here in advance.
All gathered feedback will be incorporated into IHDA’s regional profiles in the final Blueprint document and used to guide the next phase of planning.
In addition, the public can complete the Blueprint’s online survey. This opportunity allows residents to share their opinions to help IHDA understand local housing needs and goals of their community. Responses to the survey are anonymous and will be accepted through Friday, July 31. Please click here to take the survey.
