Affordable Housing Symposium Doesn't Promise Solutions, but Offers Ideas

Local and national experts were brought together for a weekend symposium in Bentonville and Fayetteville to discuss housing market and transportation issues that are surfacing in Northwest Arkansas as the region grows and prospers. The symposium was part of the Housing NWA initiative that is being funded by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation and facilitated by the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. The keynote speaker at the symposium was Shaun Donovan, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama administration. The Housing NWA initiative also includes a studio course where students design affordable housing units in theoretical locations in Bentonville and a design competition where architecture firms will be asked to submit proposals for an affordable housing development, also in Bentonville.