Eastgate Regional Council of Governments partnered with a number of valley organizations to launch the Mahoning Valley Regional Housing Strategy Thursday morning.

The goal of the long-term effort is to promote and stabilize homeownership across a full range of buyers' budgets in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

"Housing is a complex issue, that has gotten even more complex in recent years," Greater Ohio Policy Center executive director Alison Goebel said. "So we're excited there are so many entities ready to roll up their sleeves."

The Greater Ohio Policy Center contributed extensive research for the project, including maps of local housing markets that help to identify gaps across the region. From that data, the strategy can help guide decisionmakers for what may be effective zoning policy adjustments, and direct them towards resources for development.

The establishment of a Housing Consortium is another major component of the Regional Housing Strategy, which will mobilize those resources and meet regularly to ensure progress toward long term goals.

Investments in the community play a critical role in the success of the project, Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber president and CEO Guy Coviello said.

"And with some of the aggressiveness of some of our builders and investors and developers, we think we can deploy more than $150 million between now and 2030 into housing," he added.

Through those efforts, the coalition hopes to attract economic and business development to Youngstown and Warren.

"What we're seeing from an economic development standpoint- site selectors, industry businesses coming in here, their first question is 'where are we gonna live? where's our employees gonna live?'," Eastgate Council of Regional Governments's Jim Kinnick said.