This is a question we hear often, and it is a fair one. When people have seen neighborhoods change without protections, it makes sense to ask whether new housing, even well-intentioned housing, might push long-time residents out. I appreciate the care behind that concern, and I want to respond to it with both humility and clarity.
At SENT, our work is grounded in the belief that everyone has dignity and worth, and that housing should strengthen a neighborhood, not destabilize it. We are not interested in growth for growth’s sake. We are interested in health, stability, and belonging that lasts.
Recent research, alongside the way SENT structures its housing, helps explain why a mixed-income approach does not have to lead to displacement, and why in many cases it can be part of the solution. From the beginning, our hope has been simple: that families can improve their housing situation over time without having to leave their neighborhood, their relationships, or their children’s schools.
What the Research Actually Says
A 2024 peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of the American Planning Association examined whether new housing supply reduces displacement and exclusion in high-pressure markets like Los Angeles and San Francisco. The authors found something important that often gets lost in public conversation.
New housing can help reduce displacement pressures, but the outcomes depend heavily on context. In some neighborhoods, added supply eases competition and slows rent growth. In others, especially where demand is intense and safeguards are weak or absent, new construction alone is not enough.
The study is careful not to blame displacement on new housing itself. Instead, it points to what happens when housing is introduced without complementary protections such as affordability controls, ownership pathways, and limits on speculation. Where those protections are present, the risk of displacement is significantly lower.
In short, the research does not argue against mixed-income development. It cautions against unprotected development in overheated markets.
How SENT Approaches Mixed-Income Housing
SENT’s housing strategy starts from that same understanding, but it is also shaped by the specific history of the Hi-Crest neighborhood. In 2019, SENT built the first new house in Hi-Crest in more than 60 years. At that time, the neighborhood was not only experiencing long-term disinvestment, it was also struggling under the weight of one of the largest problematic landlord situations in the city.
Any new investment in those conditions can feel sudden or jarring, especially in an intensive-care neighborhood where change has been rare for decades. We understand why even healthy steps forward can look like a jump.
We do not believe that adding units without guardrails leads to healthy neighborhoods. Our goal is to expand access to housing across a diverse economic spectrum while preserving long-term affordability and neighborhood stability. To see a neighborhood move from intensive care toward health, meaningful change has to occur, but it must be guided, paced, and protected. We often talk about this work using the City of Topeka’s Neighborhood Health Framework. Some neighborhoods are in intensive care, where years of disinvestment, instability, and extractive practices require decisive intervention just to stop further harm. From there, the goal is stability, where residents can stay, costs are predictable, and basic systems begin to function again. Only after that can a neighborhood move toward long-term health, where opportunity, ownership, and community trust can grow over time. For us, one of the clearest signs of that progress is when children can remain in the same schools, such as Ross Elementary, Eisenhower Middle School, and Highland Park High School, even as their family’s housing situation improves.
That is why we designed our housing model with structural safeguards that align with what the research identifies as most effective and with what our neighbors have told us they need.
The Safeguards Built into SENT Homes
Anti-Speculation Limits
As SENT prepared to add more units at a faster pace, we added an additional safeguard. For the first five years after purchase, homes sold by SENT cannot be resold for more than 110 percent of the original purchase price unless otherwise agreed to in writing. This discourages short-term flipping and investor activity, which are among the most common drivers of displacement after neighborhood investment.
Right of First Purchase
From the beginning of SENT’s housing work, homes have included a right of first purchase. Before a home can be sold to anyone else, it must first be offered back to SENT. This has always given us the ability to keep homes within a community-centered system rather than losing them to speculative markets.
Fair and Transparent Resale After Year Five
From the outset, SENT homes have included resale provisions intended to balance homeowner equity with long-term neighborhood stability. After the initial five-year period, resale value is structured to balance fairness for the homeowner with protection against extreme price escalation, and we continue to examine ways to refine this approach as we learn.
Owner-Occupancy Requirement
From the beginning, at least one buyer has been required to occupy the home as their primary residence, and homes may not be rented to unrelated parties. This has consistently served as a critical protection against absentee ownership and the conversion of homes into investment properties.
Protections That Stay with the Property
These provisions are not temporary. They run with the land and are enforceable by SENT or its successors. That permanence is intentional and important.
Mixed-Income, with Care
Mixed-income housing does not mean abandoning affordability or inviting displacement. In our context, it means avoiding economic isolation while keeping clear limits on speculation. It means creating space for teachers, service workers, seniors, and lower-income families to live in the same neighborhood without turning that neighborhood into a commodity.
The research shows that displacement thrives where housing is scarce, ownership is extractive, and resale is unchecked. SENT’s approach is designed to interrupt those dynamics.
Housing as a Health Issue
We also believe housing is more than shelter. It is a foundation for health. Stable housing supports employment, education, mental health, and safety. When families are forced to move repeatedly, those systems break down, often creating unnecessary stress and trauma for children that can follow them into the classroom.
At a practical level, we are trying to help create neighborhoods where someone can move from being unsheltered, to stable rental housing, to homeownership, and through every stage in between without having to change the schools their children attend. We have seen how school stability supports learning, relationships with teachers, and a child’s sense of safety, especially in neighborhoods that have experienced frequent disruption. By pairing mixed-income development with long-term affordability protections, we are trying to do what the research suggests works best. We are adding housing while protecting people, strengthening neighborhoods, and keeping relationships intact.
A Closing Thought
The real question is not whether mixed-income housing can cause displacement. It is whether it is done with care, humility, and accountability.
Displacement is driven by speculation, scarcity, and the absence of safeguards. SENT’s model is intentionally structured to address those risks.
We continue to learn, to listen, and to adjust. Our commitment is not to a model, but to the neighbors we walk beside and the long-term health of the communities we serve.
Sources
Chapple, K., & Song, T. (2024). Can New Housing Supply Mitigate Displacement and Exclusion? Evidence from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Journal of the American Planning Association. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2024.2319293
SENT, Inc. Summary Rider to Addendum to Real Estate Contract and Memorandum of First Option to Repurchase Real Estate (internal policy document).