Wilsonville residents are able to host community conversations on housing needs and provide feedback to the city with help from a conversation guide.
The conversation guide is a part of the city’s Housing Our Future project, which will evaluate Wilsonville’s housing needs for the next 20 years and identify ways the city can meet those needs. Wilsonville senior planner Kimberly Rybold said in a work session on Monday, Oct. 7 that the goal with the conversation guide is to empower community members to facilitate their own conversations.
The guide includes a Housing Our Future project background, instructions for hosting a conversation, general categories for discussion questions and instructions for note taking and submitting results to the city. Rybold said the guide offers some structure, but also flexibility for participants.
The guide, which Rybold referred to as a “tool,” differs from traditional engagement strategies like online surveys or open houses, which are more formal.
“This is really intended to be a community-driven, comfortable conversation that you can have with friends, neighbors, colleagues, people in different groups that you might associate with around the city, and really just have an honest conversation and learn something from each other about housing,” Rybold said.