As part of the multi-day World Habitat Day activities, AHI, along with the National Housing Conference and the Housing Partnership Network, will be sponsoring a presentation and panel discussion on a topic that we think has great relevance, both in the Global South and back home in America.

Being hosted in Washington for the first time

Mission Entrepreneurial Entities:

Essential Actors in Affordable Housing Delivery

Thursday, October 8, 2009 ? 9:00 am to 10:30 am

National Housing Conference ? 1801 K. Street Suite M-100 ? Washington, DC

Attendance is free, but space is limited.

[For those impatient among you, click here to register. – Ed.]

We’ve organized the panel (which I’ll be moderating) to announce the publication and present the principal findings of AHI’s landmark new study, Mission Entrepreneurial Entities: Essential Actors in Affordable Housing Delivery, which examines MEEs’ characteristics, role in housing delivery, importance, and principles of success.  Using extensive case analysis of US and UK MEEs, it develops a theory of what makes successful MEEs or puts this ‘keystone species’ at risk, in which environments MEEs can flourish, and where lie today’s challenges and opportunities.  These insights apply not just in the US and UK but around the world, including the Global South.

I’ve previously posted about Mission entrepreneurial entities; we see MEEs as a distinctive species in the ecosystem, whose role is critical to ecosystemic success.

A definition that reveals a new species and opens a new field of inquiry

Other terms (e.g. Non-Governmental Organization, Community Development Corporation, Housing Association) are imprecise and obscure fundamental similarities of this distinct species.

We commissioned the study more than a year ago, and in that time an extraordinary amount has changed globally and in the UK and US housing finance ecosystems. 

Today’s affordable housing sector is undergoing great change.  Even as need is rising, the current delivery system – the value chains by which policy and resources are converted into tangible properties and successful outcomes – is under pressure, in the UK and here in the US. 

The UK has restructured its housing regulatory scheme. 

Formerly known by many names

The US LIHTC pipeline is disrupted by demand drops.  This sea change is redefining not just how individual deals are done, but which types of actors are most effective at doing them.  Effective MEEs represent innovation platforms that can deliver transit-oriented development, energy sustainability, and asset recovery – activities that urgently need to be converted from intangible goals to tangible properties and results.  Embracing the MEEs’ distinctive role can bring palpable value to funders, policy makers, and government agencies.

Our study is built around detailed profiles of more than twenty MEEs in both countries, compiled and analyzed by our two principal authors, one from each side of the Atlantic:

Ray Christman, former CEO Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta

Ray Christman, study principal co-author

Ray Christman is a business leader and senior executive whose thirty-year career spans all aspects of affordable housing and community development, including leading and managing large and complex financial services, housing and economic development organizations. 

Appointed by Mayor Shirley Franklin as chair of the Peachtree Corridor Partnership, Mr. Christman is leading Atlanta’s public-private partnership to implement the first phase of proposed $1 billion investment program to transform Atlanta’s main corridor into one of America’s great streets.  As interim president and CEO of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, he is providing day-to-day leadership and management for the nation’s second largest statewide historic preservation organization, while search occurs for permanent head. 

For nearly a decade, Mr. Christman was president and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, one of a dozen such federally chartered, for-profit companies that provide funding and liquidity to the nation’s retail banks, thrifts and credit unions. 

Gaynor Asquith, Principal, arc⁴ Consulting, Manchester UK

Gaynor Asquith, study principal co-author, arc4

Gaynor is a co-founder of arc4, a housing and regeneration agency that works with the public, social and private sectors to find solutions to any regeneration challenge. She leads work in areas from innovative research and stakeholder consultation through the development of fresh policies and strategies– all to make sure good changes happen.

Gaynor had over 25 years experience before setting up her own company, abra, in 2002.  This, she merged with DCHR in 2007.   Gaynor has since helped to create one of the largest independent specialist consultancies of its kind in the UK.  arc4 helps organisations and individuals to help secure sustainable communities through:

We particularly sought out parallel expertise in two countries to enable paired comparisons.  When two nations have convergent evolution or similar forms, that tells us something.  When they have evolved in highly different ways, that tells us something as well.

The topic’s importance and relevance is highlighted by the remarkable group of panelists we’ve assembled to discuss the report and its finding, including two MEE experts, and two national experts involved in working with, funding, and growing MEEs:

Carol J. Galante, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Programs, HUD

I was a DAS before she was a DAS:

Carol Galante, Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for Multifamily Housing Programs

As Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing, Ms. Galante spans the critical new production and refinancing insurance programs; is responsible for the multifamily inventory; and leads HUD’s efforts on multifamily preservation (a current portfolio of over $58 billion).  She is also integral to several new initiatives that promote sustainable development.

Before joining HUD, she spent 22 years at BRIDGE Housing, the largest nonprofit developer of affordable apartments and homes in California, specializing in the development of family and senior affordable apartments, rental and ownership housing, and an array of revitalization, transit-oriented, urban infill, and mixed-use/mixed-income developments.  She joined as Vice President from 1987 and President from 1996. Prior to BRIDGE, she was the Executive Director of Eden Housing, Inc., where she developed affordable homes and formed a property management subsidiary. She has also worked for the cities of Santa Barbara, Richmond and Philadelphia.

Galante has received many honors including: Multifamily Executive magazine’s 2008 Executive of the Year, California Homebuilding Foundation Hall of Fame 2008, Builder magazine’s Top 50 Most Influential People in Home Building 2006, San Francisco Business Times 2003 Deal Maker of the Year, Most Influential Women in the Bay Area, and the 2002 U.C. Berkeley College of Environmental Design Distinguished Alumna Award. She is a licensed real estate broker and holds a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan and a Master of City Planning from U.C. Berkeley.

Debra Schwartz, Director of Program Related Investments, MacArthur Foundation

Social lender to the multifamily arena: Debra D. Schwartz, MacArthur

Debra D. Schwartz is Director of Program-related Investments for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation where she oversees a $300-million portfolio of below-market loans and investments used principally by economic development and affordable housing organizations. She also co-leads the Foundation’s $150-million national initiative, Window of Opportunity: Preserving Affordable Rental Housing.

Schwartz joined MacArthur in 1995 as Senior Associate to the President.  She became a member of the Program on Human and Community Development in 2000 and assumed her current post in 2002.  Previously, Schwartz was an investment banker in public finance for John Nuveen & Co. where she structured tax-exempt bond issues for municipalities and nonprofit health care organizations.  From 2002 through 2006, she served as one of nine presidential appointees to the US Treasury Department’s Community Development Advisory Board.  She is a founding member of the national PRI Makers Network steering committee and frequently speaks at philanthropy-related meetings on the topics of social enterprise, nonprofit sustainability and program-related investments.

Schwartz graduated summa cum laude from Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in history. She earned a master’s degree in finance and nonprofit management from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

In addition to the two benefactor/ regulatory entities with perspective on MEEs, we’re featuring two MEE representatives, one from a network perspective, one a direct actor:

Thomas Bledsoe, President, Housing Partnership Network

A man who envisioned and oversaw creation of a network:

Tom Bledsoe, Housing Partnership Network

Tom Bledsoe is the chief executive officer of the Housing Partnership Network and three affiliates – the Housing Partnership Fund, Housing Partnership Ventures, and Housing Partnership Insurance.

Founded in 1990, the Network currently has 95 members, all of which are mature nonprofit housing partnerships with strong track records in development, financing, and management. Collectively, they have developed or financed more than 500,000 affordable homes, helped lower-income families improve and repair 175,000 homes, and served as homeownership counselors to 400,000 families.

Under his leadership, the Network has become the leading voice for the high-capacity, partnership-based nonprofits in the affordable housing industry; has launched innovative, high-impact efforts and business enterprises; and been repeatedly recognized by Fast Company magazine as one of the leading social capitalists in the country.

Prior to joining the Network, Mr. Bledsoe was the executive director of the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership (MBHP), one of the nation’s first public/private housing partnerships. He facilitated the merger of two nonprofit housing agencies, creating a comprehensive regional organization that operates a continuum of programs from services for the homeless to homeownership.  He holds a BA from Wesleyan University (CT) and a master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

J. Michael Pitchford, President and CEO, Community Preservation and Development Corporation

Acquiring and developing in metro Washington DC: Mike Pitchford, CPDC

J. Michael Pitchford, President and CEO, is responsible for the overall strategic direction and management of the real estate development and community development programs of our affordable housing communities.   Since 1989, CPDC has developed 27 properties, over 4,000 apartments, with over $300 million in real estate value.

Having spent a decade serving on the Board of the National Housing Conference, including a three-year stint as its president, Pitchford has developed a strong understanding of how national and local policy impact housing affordability. This, along with his leadership skills in generating a shared vision with employees, has helped him build infrastructure for stable and rapid growth.

Pitchford also has participated in or led associations, workshops, conferences, and forums on policy, networking, and the sharing of best practices. He has served in leadership roles with the National Equity Fund, the Urban Land Institute, the Washington Area Housing Partnership, the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, and Maryland Building Industry Associations, and the Old Dominion University Board of Visitors.

Previously Pitchford led the Community Development Equity Group at Bank of America Corporation in Charlotte, NC. The Group developed or rehabilitated 23,000 units of affordable housing since 1994 and increased equity commitments 3,000%. The development of these affordable housing communities included Make A Difference Centers , community life programs tailored to the needs of the resident population. These programs included computer training for residents of all ages, career and academic mentoring, and on-site health clinics.

And then there’s myself, whom I list for completeness:

David Smith, Founder, Affordable Housing Institute, and CEO, CAS Financial Advisory Services

This is an event you won’t want to miss.  Attendance is free but space is limited.  Click here to register.

It’s a good thing I’m speaking or I might not be able to get in

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Update, August 4, 2009:

The BBC Web site now has the program. 

·         Click here: http://www.bbcworldnews.com/Pages/ProgrammeMultiFeature.aspx?id=196

·         Then click, “Also click here to watch in Broadband” – it should pop up and just run

As a point of information, here are five times I speak: 5:00, 12:30, 16:30, 37:00, and 40:30. 

                                                                  *  *  * 

On August 1 and 2, BBC World News will broadcast a fifty-minute debate, “Housing the Future,” in which I was an active participant.  It’ll be on this weekend, and I urge you to watch.  For channels and times, check the BBC World News website.

Look for the BBC World Debate: “Housing the Future”

This came about during an intense four-plus-day workshop at Wilton Park, “Financing affordable housing for low income groups: innovative funding for urban housing.”  (The Power Point deck of the talk Bob Buckley of Rockefeller Foundation and I delivered is here.)  Here’s the press release:

BBC World News broadcasts debate on the global housing crisis

Saturday August 1: with more people living in towns and cities than the countryside for the first time in human history, continuing mass migration from rural areas is now stoking a global housing crisis. The UN estimates that meeting the demand for adequate, affordable housing would need 4000 new houses being built every hour. And what will happen if we continue to ignore the crisis in our cities? ‘Housing the Future’, a new BBC World News debate produced by tve and broadcast on BBC World News this weekend, goes in search of answers.

BBC World News broadcasts ‘Housing the Future’ at the following times:

Saturday August 1, 0710 GMT, 1510 GMT, 1910 GMT

Sunday August 2, 0010 GMT, 0710 GMT, 1510 GMT, 1910 GMT

BBC World News broadcast times vary around the world. For details of transmissions in your region, check the BBC World News website.

The program, and indeed the conference, was principally sponsored by UN Habitat:

A worthy goal

QUOTES

“Every year the world creates roughly four Mumbais – a city of 20 million people. Every year the world has 80 million more people, and nearly all of them live in cities. If we don’t do anything about this, cities drown in poor people.”  David Smith, Affordable Housing Institute

 “We have to take a position that this is really an indictment of all of us… This is adequate shelters for all, so we need solutions and institutions which cater for various sections of society. This romantic idea of (solutions for) just the very bottom, that is not what this business is about.  Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director, UN-Habitat

Mrs. Tibaijuka at Wilton Park

The fall-out from the housing crisis is all too visible in developing countries where vast slums surround most major cities. Here, families improvise their own informal shelters, or slum landlords provide them – but at exorbitant rents. One billion people currently live in slums – and the figure is set to rise by a staggering 25 million a year.

But it’s not just in the developing world – the global financial crash was triggered by the collapse of the high-risk mortgage market in the US. This led to mass evictions and home repossessions, with ‘tent cities’ springing up outside American major cities – a phenomenon not seen since the Depression of the 1930s.

To debate the issues, strategies and solutions to the current crisis, journalist and BBC correspondent Lyse Doucet chairs a panel of distinguished experts:

Our moderator, Lyse Doucet

Somsook Boonyabancha, Secretary General of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights

Garry Garrabrant, CEO of Equity International

Raquel Rolnik, Professor of Urban Planning in Sao Paulo, Brazil

David Smith from the Affordable Housing Institute

Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, the UN Agency responsible for shelter.

‘The World Debate: Housing the Future’ was supported by UN Habitat.

The show will run 50 minutes; I haven’t seen it, and am eager to. 

Imagining the future of housing?

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