Why I started AHI: Part 2
So there I was, sitting atop Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, with the long-suffering (and equally wind-chilled) wife beside me, wondering why did anyone build that wretched public housing?
Fast-forward to December, 1999. While the newspapers were full of Y2K (remember that?) scare stories, we had taken a wonderful vacation to Australia, with a two-day jaunt into the highlands of Papua New Guinea, one of the world’s most culturally isolated places. There, at a vastly empty highlands bush lodge, we and the other nine (!) guests total (out of 120 possible) had been seated, family style, at a communal table. So we played what-do-you-do with the other guests, one of whom was a distinguished silver-haired impeccably polite South African named Bob Tucker who explained that, “I’m a banker, but I really work with” — his voice dropped an octave and a hundred decibels — “affordable housing.”
“Oh really?” I pounced, the puppy digging into the details.
“Housing? Housing? Must be housing down here somewhere.”
Well, yes, he explained, he was working with the South African Banking Association to develop initiatives to stimulate affordable housing in South African townships.
The next day, we got up before dawn to spy the elusive Bird of Paradise, and I thought, gee, a financier of existing affordable housing is just about as
ecosystemic-dependent as the bird of paradise, who lives on epiphytic plants.
Fast-forward to fall, 2000. It turned out that Bob Tucker would be coming to
“Let’s go!” quoth I.
“Can we go look at housing? Can we? Can we?”
So, for three hours, I took him on a drive-by-and-parking-lot walk through affordable housing in Cambridge and Boston.
Okay, no
At each property I explained something of its financing, history, problems, and subsidy. We wound up at Harbor Point (the former Columbia Point, success on the third try!), and as we were climbing back into the car, Bob said with some bitterness,
“I’m really angry for two reasons. I’m angry because American economists and GSEs tell the world that all you need for affordable housing is a secondary mortgage market and low long-term interest rates. Yet every property you have showed me has government involvement, and subsidy, and nobody from
“And what’s the second reason?” I asked.
“I’ve been to global conference on housing finance, and met with ministers of housing from many countries. And none of them have come to
As I drove Bob home, I was uncharacteristically quiet ….
[Concluded in Part 3.]
