Final Housing Needs Assessment Methodology and Displacement Risk Assessment Guidance (December 2024)

On December 30, 2024, the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), through the Division of Local Government (DLG), published a suite of important tools as part of the 2024 land use and housing legislation implementation. Among these resources are the Housing Needs Assessment Methodology and Displacement Risk Assessment Guidance.

A Housing Needs Assessment (HNA) identifies the type and amount of housing needed in a community or region to ensure current and future resident and employee households at all income levels have access to quality housing that they can afford.

The primary goal of a displacement risk assessment is to help local governments understand how to better identify who is at risk of displacement before it happens so they can incorporate strategies to prevent and mitigate displacement in the process of planning for community growth and change. The displacement risk assessment is one of the six required outputs of regional and local Housing Needs Assessments described in SB24-174. The published guidance is base guidance, meaning it is intended to work for a majority of communities, however, DOLA intends to develop further guidance in 2025 for additional, more complex community contexts.

Senate Bill 24-174 requires each local government, with some exceptions, to conduct and publish a HNA no later than December 31, 2026, and to update the HNA at least every six years thereafter. A regional entity may conduct a housing needs assessment on behalf of, and with the participation of local jurisdictions. The HNA must include an assessment of displacement risk. This new law directed the state to develop, by December 31, 2024, a methodology to conduct local and regional housing needs assessments and guidance to conduct a displacement risk assessment. The linked guidance documents are to be used by local governments when conducting these assessments.

Additional tools can be found under SB24-174 Sustainable Affordable Housing (Housing Planning) in the Tools and Documents sidebar and include:

  • Preexisting HNA Self-Assessment Tool
  • Preliminary Affordability Strategy Compliance Guidance
  • Displacement Risk Assessment Guidance Word Document
  • DOLA Displacement Risk Assessment Public Participation Report PDF
  • Displacement Risk Indicators_Data Access Tool (Excel File)
Share Final Housing Needs Assessment Methodology and Displacement Risk Assessment Guidance (December 2024) on Facebook Share Final Housing Needs Assessment Methodology and Displacement Risk Assessment Guidance (December 2024) on Twitter Share Final Housing Needs Assessment Methodology and Displacement Risk Assessment Guidance (December 2024) on Linkedin Email Final Housing Needs Assessment Methodology and Displacement Risk Assessment Guidance (December 2024) link