Hot Issues
2008
May 2008
In Speech to Citizens Houing and Planning Council, Rick Lazio Calls for Innovative Solutions to Affordable Housing Crisis
2007
March 2007
NHC President Conrad Egan was the keynote speaker at the March 14 Atlanta Regional Housing Forum (ARC), a quarterly forum sponsored by ARC and 10 other organizations concerned with providing a range of affordable housing choices. Egan provided a national perspective on strategies for addressing workforce housing and focused on specific actions that can be taken by state local governments. View the presentation. (PDF)
January 2007
Virginia County Developing Plan to Help Low-Income Workers With Density Bonus for New High-Rises
Reprinted With Permission from
Housing and Development Reporter Newsletter,
Current Developments, January 22, 2007
Copyright © 2007 Thomson/West
Public Housing
New York Housing Conference's Clara Fox Responds to New York Times on Stigmatizing Public Housing and its Residents
2006
June 2006: Greater Arizona Rural Housing Forum
NHC in partnership with the Arizona Department of Housing held a housing forum focused on rural housing issues on June 27, 2006 in Flagstaff, AZ. Below are materials from that event.
Rural Housing: A National Perspective
Overview of Arizona Incentives for Affordable Housing Task Force
Employer Assisted Housing in Rural Communinitites
Inclusionary Zoning in Rural Communities
State Land Trust
April 2006: Affordable Housing in Downtown Austin: Oxymoron or Opportunity?
NHC, the City of Austin, the Downtown Austin Alliance, HousingWorks and the Urban Land Institute co-hosted an affordable housing forum in Austin, TX on April 18, 2006.
Setting the Framework:
- Conrad Egan, National Housing Conference (Washington, DC)
- Charles Heimsath, Capitol Market Research (Austin, TX)
- Affordable Housing Downtown: the Market Perspective (Coming Soon)
- Michael Pyatok, Pyatok Architects, Inc. (Oakland, CA) and The Stardust Center at Arizona State University (Phoenix, AZ)
Density Bonuses and Other Development Incentives:
- Betts Abel, Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development (Arlington, VA)
- Jerrold Glick, Urban Ventures, LLC (Denver, CO)
- Cynthia Parker, Seattle-Northwest Securities Corporation (Seattle, WA)
Public-Private Partnerships for Developing Affordable Housing:
- Ed McNamara, Turtle Island Development (Portland, OR)
- Joseph Montoya, Downtown Albuquerque Civic Trust (Albuquerque, NM)
- Renata Simril, Forest City Residential West, Inc. (Los Angeles, CA)
March 2006: Employer Assisted Housing
NHC and the National NeighborWorks® Association cosponsored Employer Assisted Housing: Providing Tax Incentives for Employers, a Congressional Staff Briefing at the U.S. Capitol on February 21, 2006.
Panelists:
Robin Snyderman, Metropolitan Planning Council
Sharon H. Douglas, Aflac, Inc.
Henry S. Webber, University of Chicago
Gerard A. "Duke" Dufresne, Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems
Phillipe Rosse, Affordable Coalition of Asheville and Buncombe County, NC
Other Resources:
February 2006: Silent Mortgages
Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal published a letter from Jeffrey Lubell, the Executive Director of NHC’s research affiliate, the Center for Housing Policy, recommending the consideration of “silent mortgages” as a cost-effective tool for helping families whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, or Wilma to rebuild their homes. As he wrote:
It is time to consider "silent mortgages" as an alternative to Small Business Administration home loans in the devastated Gulf region. With silent mortgages, no payments are due until the homes are resold. Because the source of repayment is the property itself, rather than the family's income, poor credit and low incomes ("Risky Business," Review & Outlook, Dec. 28) are less significant obstacles, enabling far more families to qualify. While somewhat more costly than standard mortgages, silent mortgages are considerably more cost-effective than outright grants.
Silent mortgages would allow families with large uninsured losses to rebuild their homes immediately, with the government's costs recovered on resale. They would also help low and moderate income homeowners avoid bankruptcy and foreclosure on existing mortgages and postpone sale of their properties until their property values have recovered, preserving what remains of their assets as a resource for future well-being.
The policy analyses below, jointly released by the National Housing Conference and the Center for Housing Policy, provide greater details on silent mortgages and how they could help meet the rebuilding needs of half or more of the homeowners with large uninsured losses from last season’s hurricanes.
These papers will be useful to state and local policymakers and practitioners, as they consider how best to use newly released CDBG funds, as well as to federal policymakers and practitioners considering what additional assistance to provide to disaster-stricken states and their citizens. As explained more fully in the overview paper, one of the key benefits of this proposal is that it helps to conserve scarce rebuilding funds, allowing available funds to be stretched further to meet the full spectrum of rebuilding needs.
If you have any questions that are not addressed in one of these analyses, please contact Jeffrey Lubell at
jlubell@nhc.org.
January 2006:
November 2005:
The National Housing Conference signed-on to two letters from the Preservation Working Group, of which NHC is a member, about federal funding for "Upfront Grants":
October 2005: Inclusionary Zoning
October 25
John McIlwain, ULI Senior Resident Fellow, Housing and NHC Governor, authors Inclusionary Zoning: Cure or Curse?, Multifamily Trends - September/October 2005, Urban Land Institute.
October 5 - 7:
National Inclusionary Zoning Conference, Washington, DC
David Rusk offered the Keynote Address, Nine Lessons for Inclusionary Zoning.
September 2005: Hurricane Katrina
September 30
Center for Housing Policy and NHC Policy Discussion Paper: Helping Displaced Families Rebuild their Lives—Housing and Asset-Building Challenges Beyond Emergency Shelter and Community Rebuilding (PDF)
September 14
NHC Provides Proposals to the House Financial Services Committee on Housing Relief Strategies in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
June 2005 - Employer Assisted Housing
Congress Introduces Employer Assisted Housing Act Aimed at Helping America's Working Families
May 2005
Report: Strengthening Our Workforce and Our Communities Through Housing Solutions
From NHC Member the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Havard University and the Center for Workforce Preparation (CWP) at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
February 2005
2006 Federal Budget
Find NHC Statements on the proposed budget and information the NHC 2006 Budget Forum.
Proposed 5-Year Budget Cap of Discretionary Spending
January 2005
Report: Public Housing Reform and Voucher Success: Progress and Challenges
Released by Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program in January 2005.
Prepared by Rod Solomon, of Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP, this paper examines the extent to which the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and its local partners have implemented changes to transform the physical, social, and economic setting of public housing, and identifies outstanding concerns and ways in which HUD, Congress, and public housing authorities (PHAs) can ensure that the full intent of the act is carried out.
Report: Opportunity and Progress: Bipartisan Platform for Housing Policy, 2004
By Henry Cisneros, Jack F. Kemp, Nicolas P. Retsinas, and Kent W. Colton
Related Press Release from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies: "Bipartisan Voices Call for a National Housing Policy". 09/23/04
Rural Rental Housing
State of the Nation's Housing Report - NHC Member Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University
FHA Upfront Grant Program
