A Turning Point for Lafayette’s Housing Future
Why This Housing Study, and Why Now?
Lafayette has reached an important crossroads. Over the past several years, community planning efforts—spanning neighborhood revitalization. homelessness coordination, development advisory committees, public-private planning tables, and economic development strategies—have all pointed the same truth:
Lafayette needs a comprehensive, data-grounded housing study to guide the next decade of decisions.
Across every discussion, whether about infill development, workforce housing, aging neighborhoods, or affordability pressures, one theme continued to surface:
We cannot solve what we cannot clearly see.
Stakeholders across Lafayette expressed a shared need for deeper clarity:
- Are we producing the types of housing our residents actually need?
- Which neighborhoods are most vulnerable to displacement or disinvestment?
- Where can the next generation of deeply affordable or senior housing be built?
- What tools do we need to preserve affordability and attainability?
- What stands in the way of developers who want to build in the urban core?
- How do we align data across agencies for better decision-making?
For the first time, Lafayette’s private, public, nonprofit, philanthropic, and civic institutions reached a unanimous understanding:
A single, unified, citywide Housing Needs Assessment must be the next step.
How We Got Here
This effort is the culmination of two years of sustained momentum, shaped by the input of dozens of organizations and hundreds of conversations.
Fall 2024:
The first draft of the Housing Needs Assessment scope was shared with multiple local partners – including housing practitioners, Lafayette Consolidated Government’s Housing Infill Subcommittee, One Acadiana’s Urban Revitalization Committee, Creating Equitable Communities partners, Acadiana Regional Coalition on Homelessness and Housing, and the Homeless to Housed Coalition. Their feedback sharpened the vision and expanded the scope.
Early 2025:
Stakeholders asked for additional depth:
- Public housing analysis
- Voucher system evaluation
- Aging stock and lead-risk review
- Displacement concerns
- Zoning nonconformities
- Early development wins
Fourteen new scope elements were added in response.
Mid-2025 Housing partners confirmed the need for a shared roadmap grounded in:
- Hard data
- Community voice
- Market realities
- Regulatory constraints
- Culture context
- Feasibility, not just theory
This RFQ you see today is the product of that collective vision.
What This Study Will Do
The Housing Needs Assessment and Feasibility Study will provide Lafayette with its clearest picture yet of where we are, where pressures are emerging, and what levers exist to shape a strong housing future.
The study will deliver:
- A Comprehensive Understanding of the city of Lafayette’s Housing Landscape – Demographics, housing supply, affordability, cost burdens, aging stock, and housing production.
- Analysis of Housing Gaps and Vulnerabilities – Affordability gaps across income levels, displacement pressures, preservation risks, distress indicators.
- Geographic and Spatial Insight – Housing distribution, opportunity access, environmental risk, and neighborhood-level mapping.
- Feasibility Study of Priority Development Opportunities – Deeply affordable, supportive, workforce, senior, and mixed-income opportunities-paired with financial feasibility and zoning review.
- Policy and Program Recommendations – Tools to expand housing choice, mitigate displacement, support “small-scale and beyond” development, and provide early wins.
Request for Qualifications
Who Should Apply
We welcome responses from firms with expertise in:
- Housing market research & policy analysis
- Urban planning & community development
- Market analysis & financial modeling
- GIS mapping & spatial analytics
- Stakeholder engagement
- Feasibility studies across housing types
- Louisiana or Southern regional housing dynamics
A Collaborative Effort
The RFQ will be hosted by the Community Foundation of Acadiana and contracted through the Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority, supported by the Lafayette Housing Partnership – a coalition of public, private, nonprofit, civic, and philanthropic organizations
committed to aligning data, sharing resources, coordinating strategies, and building a housing system that works for all residents of Lafayette.
The partnership will support access to data, stakeholder networks, and institutional knowledge throughout the study.
This is not just a study.
It is the beginning of a new chapter – one where housing policy, development, public finance, and neighborhood stewardship move forward together.
Partners
