Housing Tools Mission: We transform community vision into reality.
Housing Tools seeks to understand each community’s strengths, values and vision, and helps transform that vision into reality.
What We Do
Housing Tools is a consulting firm that helps communities build affordable housing and public facilities. We have been in business for 14 years and have expertise in assisting rural California local governments and Continuums of Care (CoCs), and developing complex urban infill housing projects. Our Community Development Team assists local governments and CoCs with policy and planning, while our Housing Development Team supports developers with financing and building housing.
Our Values
We believe in making communities more vibrant and equitable. Vibrant communities offer hope and opportunity to their members. Equitable communities uplift those who are underserved and underrepresented, ensuring access to health, housing and jobs for all community members, regardless of income, race, ethnicity, language, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, or disability.
Our Strengths
Housing Tools is a unique consulting firm that:
- Employs a multi-disciplinary staff that takes a comprehensive approach to solving problems
- Seeks to understand community and client context in order to develop and implement strategic, realistic, and sustainable plans for long-term impact
- Conducts rigorous analysis with integrity, drawing upon deep experience and professional expertise
- Provides tools tailored to each client’s needs that helps them build internal capacity, including advocacy, coaching, mentorship, and connection to resources (financial, technical, and social relationships)
- Demonstrates flexibility and adaptability in responding to current and anticipated economic and governmental conditions
- Builds relationships of trust with clients and facilitates collaboration between a variety of partners
- Provides end-to-end project management services, from vision to completion, with a nimble staff that responds to evolving client needs and challenges
Our Skills
Housing Tools offers particular expertise in:
- Facilitating public engagement that is responsive to community context and aligned with client goals
- Conducting analysis that involves thorough research, and a solid understanding of relevant demographic, economic, market, and governmental trends
- Developing plans that are grounded in community context, strategic in addressing challenges and opportunities, structured for long-term impact, and implementable
- Proactively managing projects and programs with a multi-disciplinary staff that anticipates hurdles, focuses on the critical path to meeting deadlines, and aligns with project vision and goals
- Utilizing software tools that meet specific client needs, facilitate coordination, and efficiently organize and communicate data (Smartsheet, PolicyMap, SurveyMonkey, LCPtracker, filing systems, Zoom)
- Developing and sharing best practices and templates with clients, including emerging developers and government agencies that are new to housing
- Understanding State and Federal funding programs, interpreting guidelines, developing applications, administering funding, and evaluating progress
- Providing comprehensive labor compliance monitoring for federal and state funded projects
Housing Tools History
James Robert Coles
James Coles founded Housing Tools in July 2012 in order to provide customized, hands-on services to Northern California communities and nonprofit organizations. James saw the increasingly important role of affordable housing in California, and the need to bring more housing developers and government agencies together to produce this important asset for communities. By drawing upon his experience as a housing developer and a public servant, James began providing services that are founded on proven strategies to produce achievable results. As Housing Tools has grown from one independent consultant to a staff of eight, we have maintained our foundational approach of offering practical services that are tailored to each community’s unique strengths and needs.
Our Approach
Our approach is to provide value to the important work that you do. This is best accomplished by adhering to the following core work ethics.
- Efficient – A single point of contact and a lean staff mean low overhead and cost efficiency for clients.
- Timely – We keep up to date on the latest market trends, government policies, and funding opportunities, so you can stay a step ahead of what’s next.
- Practical – We apply real-world experience using proven methods that produce results.
- Responsive – Not only do we incorporate your vision, goals and timeline into our scope of work, we seek to understand the context that impacts them.