We are the bridge between Intention and Implementation
Inclusive Cities
Cities are where class, race, and geography converge — often to the exclusion of many of the communities that make them vibrant. We help translate the ideas of communities and their advocates into meaningful systems change to create more inclusive and thriving cities. Leveraging analytic rigor and robust civic engagement, we work with partners inside and outside government to disrupt the traditional processes of economic development, build greater civic influence for marginalized communities, increase accountability of local governments, and institutionalize mechanisms for more just and equitable cities.
HR&A worked with the City of Dallas and stakeholders to craft an Economic Development Policy and Incentives Policy to proactively address disparities in economic opportunity through policy, public investment, and partnership. As advisors, analysts, subject matter experts, and external capacity, HR&A helped ensure that the implementation of the policy would provide measurable impacts and improvements to businesses and communities across Dallas.
HR&A is creating a performance oversight system for the City of Los Angeles to maximize the impact of $1 billion spent annually to reduce homelessness. Funded by the Hilton Foundation and California Community Foundation, our work establishing performance targets and operational frameworks positions the City to ensure investments deliver on the vision of making homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring.
HR&A played a pivotal role in the launch and development of La Liga, a nonpartisan groundbreaking network uniting mayors across Puerto Rico to drive coordinated, long-term recovery and resilience. Working with the Center for a New Economy, the Ford Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations, HR&A shaped La Liga’s structure, leadership, and strategy—creating a platform for cross-party municipal collaboration in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
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Our Focus Areas
When housing supply doesn’t keep up with demand, displacement often follows—affecting residents, small businesses, and entire communities. Residential or commercial displacement, and we help them quantify this difficult-to-measure and often nuanced problem and identify major pressure points. We understand that displacement doesn’t happen in a silo, so we integrate anti-displacement strategies into larger local plans and programs and ensure real estate development and growth benefit current residents. Whether part of a larger real estate initiative or a targeted community effort, our goal is to ensure that growth and investment benefit those who already call an area home.
Effective governance requires systems that serve all community members, not just those with traditional access to power. HR&A helps transform how cities make decisions, structure budgets, and deliver services by integrating community input into municipal priority-setting. Our approach centers community voices in policy development, offering opportunities for marginalized groups to engage effectively with government processes to build more robust governance structures and plans that better meet constituent needs. Through equity audits, participatory budgeting, and coalition-building, we help clients divest from harmful systems and create new structures that support democratic participation. Our work spans from comprehensive planning to criminal justice reform, ensuring that governance systems reflect community priorities and advance shared prosperity for all.
We partner with newly elected city and county leaders to design and implement governing agendas that are rooted in community priorities, grounded in the realities of people’s lives, and powered by talented, innovative civil servants. Our team helps officials identify their most important goals, recruit talented staff, and create efficient workflows. The work spans everything from analyzing local issues to facilitating planning sessions and redesigning how departments operate. We believe that successful transitions and effective governance are built on three pillars: community, policy, and talent. For every transition, we bring deep expertise and hands-on support to help new administrations lead with clarity and momentum from day one.
Homelessness and the housing crisis are inextricably linked, and we work with clients in a myriad of ways to address both — by leveraging significant affordable housing finance and real estate expertise to get housing built, engaging with communities that are most impacted by homelessness to create effective programs that improve people’s lives, and helping our clients shape better housing policy. We believe in placing the user experience at the center of permanent supportive housing solutions for our unhoused community members. Our interdisciplinary team has a track record of working inside and outside of local government to advance innovative solutions that promote racial equity and economic justice.
Lack of access to essential services like banking, healthcare, and food leaves communities vulnerable and limits economic opportunity for residents and businesses alike, causing reverberating negative economic impacts. HR&A empowers our clients to address these critical gaps in social and economic wellbeing by helping build public options, from designing initial concepts to inevitability. We conduct rigorous feasibility and market studies and stakeholder and community engagement to build the case for public options, and then guide municipalities and states through complex implementation processes to deliver solutions that are built around the communities they seek to serve. Our work fills market gaps in public banking, grocery stores, and other essential services, delivering universal access to what people need to thrive every day.
Services
Projects
After soliciting extensive input from community members, city officials, banking experts, and business stakeholders, HR&A developed a Business and Governance Plan for the City of San Francisco’s public bank to support affordable housing, small businesses, and green investments.
Starting the morning after Sara Innamorato was elected as the first female County Executive in Allegheny County, HR&A provided intensive daily project management and strategic guidance to her transition and helped create an Action Plan to guide her Administration. We delivered the largest community engagement initiative in County history, capturing input from nearly 19,000 residents and translating their priorities into 91 concrete actions released on her 100th day in office.
HR&A is proud to support the Center for Fair Futures’ new report, Housing Justice for Young People Aging out of Foster Care in New York City, which lays out a five-year plan to provide 800 new homes for youth exiting foster care. The findings in this report present an opportunity for policymakers, service providers, and mission-driven investors to come together to prevent homelessness for a uniquely at-risk population.
HR&A partnered with the California Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to provide comprehensive research and advocacy support for CalAccount, a proposed zero-fee public banking program that will provide all Californians with access to essential financial services. Through groundbreaking economic analysis and implementation planning, HR&A helped SEIU and its partners secure passage of the landmark Public Banking Option Act (AB 1177) and informed a subsequent market feasibility study, which led to the enacting legislation now being considered in the California State Assembly.
At 27, County Judge Lina Hidalgo made history as the youngest and first Latina to lead Harris County, home to 4.7 million residents. HR&A supported her groundbreaking transition by building her leadership team, establishing policy frameworks, and executing Talking Transition—one of the largest community engagement efforts in county history that gathered input from 11,000+ survey participants and 1,600+ event attendees across 200+ organizations.
HR&A supported Destination Crenshaw, a community-based organization investing in public infrastructure in Los Angeles' Crenshaw District, to develop a broadband infrastructure strategy that advances digital equity in the epicenter of Black Los Angeles. Our infrastructure analysis, market sounding, and procurement support helped evaluate six vendor proposals and position the organization to select a partner aligned with community goals.
The Long Island City northern waterfront currently hosts the Ravenswood Generating Station, the largest fossil fuel plant in New York City, providing over 20% of the City’s local power capacity. After Rise Light & Power committed to transforming it into a renewable energy hub, the Office of the Queens Borough President brought on HR&A to lead “Reimagine Ravenswood,” a community-driven site reuse, neighborhood improvement, and workforce development planning process to guide a just transition to an inclusive clean energy economy in western Queens.
Seattle sought to understand whether establishing a municipally-operated bank could better serve public priorities and vulnerable residents than its existing Wells Fargo contract. HR&A's feasibility study examined whether a municipally-operated bank could achieve these goals, analyzing precedent models, regulatory frameworks, and financial scenarios while recommending implementation pathways and alternative approaches.
Working with Destination Crenshaw, HR&A developed a comprehensive strategic plan that establishes a roadmap for building a global cultural destination celebrating Black Los Angeles while countering displacement pressures. The resulting framework provides clear strategies, initiatives, timelines, and metrics to guide inclusive economic development while preserving the community's rich history and culture.
HR&A evaluated whether Philadelphia could establish a public bank to achieve a more just economy in the face of entrenched racial poverty and an $800 million small business lending gap. Our feasibility study for the Philadelphia Public Bank Working Group provided the roadmap for legislation that would make Philadelphia the first US city with a municipal bank prioritizing equity and community wealth-building.
HR&A Advisors is co-leading Pittsburgh's first citywide comprehensive plan, a two-year initiative establishing policies that will guide how the city will grow and change through 2050. Working closely with the Department of City Planning and a team of local and national partners, we are helping Pittsburgh set clear goals for housing, jobs, transportation, land use, and climate resilience.
News & Insights
Testimonials
Partnering with the HR&A team set up my administration up for success from the get-go. Together, we achieved something that has never been done before in Allegheny’s history; we launched the largest, most diverse, and most inclusive community engagement process this county has ever seen. We turned that feedback into an action plan with more than 90 initiatives across nine key focus areas. HR&A also helped us recruit and hire passionate and talented staff to deliver those promises we made to the community. I’m proud of partnership that has helped us model what co-governance looks like in action.”
“I didn’t know that firms like HR&A existed, that share my values and understand my purpose.”
