In 2023, the City of Louisville, Kentucky, passed an Anti-Displacement Ordinance, a major victory for the Louisville Tenants Union which was championed by progressive city council member Jecorey Arthur. This talk shares the process of implementing the next step of the policy: developing an Anti-Displacement Tool, which had to be approved by the City Council prior to use (it was passed in late 2024).
The tool’s aim is to mitigate the displacement that can occur from publicly subsidized housing projects. The tool will also serve as an online, open access resource for the public. The dashboard we developed for the tool innovates on two fronts: First, it combines data inputs about proposed residential projects together with multiple sources of data to create a measure of displacement risk in and around the area in which the proposed project is to be built. Through a statistical model the tool estimates the impact of the project on local rent levels and home values. Second, the tool uses these quantitative outputs (the measure of displacement risk) with a matrix that enables the City to say no to some proposed projects, or yes but with certain changes as a condition of funding.
