A Winning Story for Housing Reform

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A Winning Story for Housing Reform
ActionMedia September, 2008 Housing CA
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Whats the story?

• Building a better life and pursuing opportunity
  begins with having a place to live," said
  Governor Schwarzenegger. 
• Governor Schwarzenegger's housing vision "each
  community should house its own."

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• What do people already know and believe?

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• Facts
• Are
• Meaningless

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• Meaning comesfrom the story.
• Facts are crucial to tell the story

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• People hear every message in terms of what they
  already know and believe.

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• What do people know and believe about affordable
  housing?

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• AFFORDABLE HOUSING

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Fannie Mae Foundation Hart Research

• We need to change the public's perception of
  affordable housing by using different language
  and painting a different picture.
• convey fresh notions of homes that are desirable
  for working families, desirable for our
  communities, desirable for all of us.

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• California Voter Attitudes
• On Housing Issues
• Fairbanks, Maslin, Maullin Associates
• Statewide Survey Conducted March 24-27, 2008

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Rank of extremely somewhat Serious Issues
March 2008

• Cost of Health Care 98
• State Budget Deficit 96
• Traffic Congestion 95
• Economy Jobs 95
• Crime 94
• Education 93
• Government Waste 93
• Cost of Housing 91
• Affordable Homes 88
• Illegal Immigration 87
• Taxes 85

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Most productive

• Making housing more affordable 5.6
• Stabilizing the housing market 5.4
• Increasing chances to own a home 5.4
• All income levels afford a place to live 5.4
• Helping neediest, disabled, elderly, etc. 5.4

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Housing affordability

• Not a Very high
• Priority
  Priority
• 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
• 6 5 6 5 12 17 49
• Housing affordable
• 6 5 6 7 13 17 43
• Affordable housing

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Messaging increases support for state investment
by ten points.
Initial Support
Final Vote
Total Support 50
Total Support 60
Total Oppose33
Total Oppose41
5/11.Does this sound like something you would
support or oppose?
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Significant gains in support

• Rural voters (18)
• Small town residents (16)
• Household income over 90,000 (16)

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Statewide Responses

• Among targeted legislative districts very
  little difference in responses
• Similarities outweigh differences

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• SupplyDemand

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Consumer story
Social story
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Key messages

• Housing market is broken
• Effects people at all income levels
• Need to stabilize market
• Give kids opportunity to succeed
• Help vulnerable populations

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Caution

• Appeal to overall benefits not to individual
  benefits
• Avoid focus on funding mechanism
• Dont offer Government as The Solution
• Avoid jargon like workforce housing
• Put economic benefits in context with specific
  references.

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• I. Evoke Values
• II. Establish Context
• III. Define Issue

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Strategy
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Strategy
The art of getting someone to do something
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Strategy

• What do you want to happen?
• Who can make it happen?
• What story do they need to hear?
• Who do they need to hear it from?
• How do you get the story to them?

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Strategy

• What do you want to happen?
• Who can make it happen?
• What story do they need to hear?
• Who do they need to hear it from?
• How do you get the story to them?

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Messengers

• Building a better life and pursuing opportunity
  begins with having a place to live," said
  Governor Schwarzenegger. 
• Governor Schwarzenegger's housing vision "each
  community should house its own."

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• ActionMedia
• Dick Brooks
• Michael Goldberg
• actionmedia_at_actionmedia.org
• 612-331-6466