Date of Award

1997

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Community Planning (MCP)

Department

Community Planning and Area Development

First Advisor

Marcia Marker Feld

Abstract

The following Masters Thesis Project is a case illustration exploring the strategic planning process as it pertains to public agencies, in this case a public housing authority. This paper has been written using the participant observation method in which the author served as the project manager for the Providence Housing Authority 's 1995 strategic plan entitled "Strategic Plan 2000."

The introduction includes a brief description of the housing authority, which addresses both its internal management structure, and resident population, as it existed when the plan was written. The first chapter explains the political, and thus in some degree the social environment in which the plan was written. It explains why, for those in the public housing field, 1995 was a time of great consequence. It was a year when the entire foundation of the public housing program was seriously coming into question.

The second chapter outlines the strategic planning method employed by the Providence Housing Authority for this project. This method was developed fully by John Bryon in his book Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Agencies. This chapter also explains how the PHA in particular administered this process.

The third chapter is the basic contents of Strategic Plan 2000. Two sections, the internal and external environmental scans, were not included in this chapter because of their length and because they were contextual in nature rather process centered. The fourth chapter illustrates the progress made by the housing authority in implementing the strategies developed in the plan for the period of approximately a year after the plan was put into operation.

The paper is briefly summed up and tied together in the conclusionary chapter which includes examples of where the process ran into road blocks, and what lessons have been learned during the process, and what lies ahead in the future of public housing.

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