St. Charles County begins fair housing analysis

On Wednesday, Oct. 24, St. Charles County will kick off its “Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice,” a study required by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) as a condition of the county’s receipt of grant funds through the Community Development Block Grant Program. The analysis will identify barriers to equal access to housing options and propose strategies to overcome those impediments. The process is heavily influenced by the opinions and perceptions of local residents, whose input is solicited through public meetings and an online survey.

Two public meetings are scheduled for Oct. 24 at the Spencer Road Library, 427 Spencer Road, Room 259,St. Peters. The first, from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m., is targeted toward nonprofit staff familiar with the community’s fair housing needs. The second meeting, from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m., is designed for interested members of the general public.

Input received at these meetings will be used by the county’s consultants along with demographic data, data collected through the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, housing discrimination complaint filings, a review of local zoning and land use policy and other sources to determine the extent to which impediments to fair housing choice exist in St. Charles County. Impediments identified in the analysis will be paired with recommended actions the county can take to overcome them.

A draft of the complete analysis will be available on the county’s Web site for public comment and review in early December.

Beginning in 2011, St. Charles County, together with the jurisdictions of Cottleville, Dardenne Prairie, Lake Saint Louis, St. Paul, St. Peters, Weldon Spring and Wentzville qualified as an “urban county” and became eligible to receive an annual allocation of Community Development Block Grant funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The “urban county” is managed by St. Charles County’s Community Development Department and was allocated $627,095 in grant funds in 2012.