Employer-Assisted Housing: Competitiveness Through Partnership

W00-8: Housing is a crucial component of economic competitiveness. The growing spatial mismatch between where job growth is taking place and where people can afford to live creates costs for employers as the local labor pool contracts and employee turnover rises. Employers in declining areas have difficulties recruiting employees, and customers and may see a decline in their real-estate investments. Employers have a stake in extending housing affordability and creating housing opportunity while increasing the competitiveness of their businesses and the areas in which they are located. Employer-assisted housing (EAH) reflects recognition that employers cannot fully externalize the costs of their locating or operating in a tight market (perhaps a suburban location) or in a soft market (perhaps a distressed urban neighborhood) onto their employees or the public or nonprofit sectors…