I was in Washington DC for the National Coalition for the Homeless Board meeting and then attended the National Low Income Housing Coalition conference. It is difficult to come back after five days in DC. So, I have been extremely busy with preparation for answering the homeless recovery funds--no posts this week. But I have dug out, and now have a minute to write. The Sunday before the conference was an all day briefing with housing coalitions throughout the country. All are experiencing funding problems with the states trying to balance the budget with funding traditionally reserved for poor people. The conference started on Monday April 20, and was informative and helpful. A brief review:
Stan Collender, a federal budget expert and former Roll Call columnist and comedian, opened the conference. He gave us good context for the conference talking about this unique time in our history. This is the one year that the Congress will be willing to pass a budget in the negative. Don't expect that next year or anytime in the future. He broke down some of the myths about the budget and gave us some context. The most important statement that caught everyone in the audience was that we all have a real messaging problem with affordable housing. Collender does polling and said that affordable housing groups have done a poor job in convincing the public that housing is a part of the infrastructure, jobs and leads to spin off development. Most people believe affordable housing helps the individual, but does not translate to the bigger picture. This is a huge problem, and every poverty group in America needs to start talking about this perception problem.
Barney Frank,a representative from Boston to Congress and chairman of the House Finance Committee, spoke to the lunch time crowd. Rep. Frank has become the target for the Right wing pundits as the cause of the financial collapse. They point to his support of Fannie Mae or Community Re-Investment Act for the reason for the collapse of housing. They point to his support of the Bush Administration toxic relief program or on and on making him the villian. The speech received a lot of coverage from the major media, but I don't think he made news with the speech. Rep. Frank dispelled many of the myths, and explained how most of the subprime lending did not come from CRA regulated banks. He talked about many of the proposals that he and his collegues are working on to address this housing crisis:- A subprime lending regulatory bill.
- They will find a way to fund the National Housing Trust Fund.
- Increase FHA backed lending.
- Tenant protections for renters facing foreclosure.
- A Section 8 reform bill to fix the housing voucher program.
- They will work to preserve all affordable housing including Public Housing.
- Finally, a restriction on the securitization of loans.
NLIHC published a great book at the conference on all the housing issues facing the United States. They go through the history of an issue, and talk about their position on potential piece of legislation. NLIHC Director, Shelia Crowley went over the major issues that the Coalition is actively working on passing. The big items at the forefront of their agenda were: more money for the Housing Trust Fund, foreclosed renter protection, and a 200,000 voucher increase in the Housing Choice (Section 8) voucher program.
I got to attend a few interesting workshops especially the future of Public Housing. Maxine Waters staff, Charla Ouertatani, was great. Ms. Ouertatani said all the right things about Public Housing and seemed to have a great understanding of the problems. She talked about a requirement of 1 for 1 replacement of all public housing that are taken down. A dropping of many of the barriers put in place to keep people out of housing, increasing tenant protections, and more resident involvement in the decision making.
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan was a breath of fresh air with a full understanding of the problems facing America and taking a lead role in the cabinet. For about 20 years, the HUD Secretary was relegated to second tier cabinet member and spent most of their time on non-housing related issues. Donovan seems to be ready to take on the problems facing the United States in the housing sector. From the 20 years of underfunding all the subsidy programs to the abuses in the loan industry, Donovan has a great deal of work ahead. He has four years of no sleep and a great deal of pressure to succeed.
Finally, we got to hear from the Domestic Policy Council Director, Melody Barnes, who looked at the broader picture of poverty in America. She put in context that health care, education reform, job development must fit into the affordable housing solutions to the problems facing this country. She mentioned a few taboo subjects including rental housing, which were not uttered for the last eight years within the White House. Overall, one of the better conferences that I have attended, and well worth the expense.
Brian Davis
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