CommunityScale convenes focus groups, stakeholder panels, and standing advisory bodies to ground every analysis in local knowledge and to build the constituency needed for adoption. Focus groups calibrate the analysis by testing data assumptions against what developers, brokers, lenders, service providers, and residents actually see on the ground. They surface barriers — regulatory, financial, and political frictions that don’t show up in Census data — and co-design strategies with the people who will carry them out.

Formats range from expert panels with developers, brokers, and lenders to equity-centered panels with renters, seniors, and workforce households. Standing advisory bodies meet at defined milestones throughout the engagement and are designed to outlast the consulting relationship, carrying the plan forward into implementation. CommunityScale’s approach to focus groups is distinguished by this structured, recurring, small-group format as opposed to one-time public meetings or broad surveys.

Projects featuring focus groups and stakeholder panels:

• Apex, NC housing plan update
• Lancaster, MA housing production plan
• Stowe, VT housing needs assessment
• Home for All: Northern Kentucky housing strategies
• Upper Arlington, OH housing market detailed analysis
• Downtown Syracuse, NY housing needs assessment and market study
• City of Pueblo consolidated plan and fair housing analysis
• Muskogee comprehensive housing study

Related reading:

• Three phases of local housing action
• How to measure market demand with targeted housing market analysis
• An empirical approach to quantifying and modeling housing preferences