MORE AHI Activities
India - 2007 December
Metafinance of group-level improvements such as water and sanitation (W&S).
Activities: Research Report
In October, 2007, on behalf of Development Innovations Group (DIG), David Smith visited India to interview two non-governmental sponsors (NGOs) that are pioneering in the finance and development of group-level infrastructure:
- Mumbai (Maharashtra): National Slum Dwellers Federation, NGO facilitator of community toilets in Mumbai's slums and informal settlements.
- Ahmedabad (Gujarat): Mahila Housing SEWA Trust, NGO facilitator of community improvements (water, sanitation, power, grading, paving) in conjunction with Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.
DIG commissioned the study as part of DIG’s Housing Finance for the Poor Initiative with the Gates Foundation.
The resulting report (click here for pdf version) not only summarizes the activities of these two entities, but also extrapolates likely conditions that make metafinance possible, presents a Basic Model for metafinance, highlights the importance of NGOs as business enterprises, and points a way forward for expanding the number of such entities that can pursue metafinance.
Cambridge, MA, USA - 2007 December 8
Harvard University Model-UN UNDP Working Group .
Activities: Presentation
David Smith spoke by invitation to Harvard University's Model-UN UNDP working group of 125 students on "The Challenge of Slums: Urbanization, Markets, Governments". Organizer Sara Cheche, A.B. Economics, Harvard College '09, said that after the presentation, "Debate has recommenced and the effect of your presentation on the quality of discussion is enormous!".
Bellagio, Italy – 2007, July 1- 6
Rockefeller Foundation: Global Urban Summit, Innovations for an Urban World.
Activities: Key Meetings
AHI founder David Smith was invited by the Rockefeller Foundation to a meeting of leaders from the private and public sectors convened to highlight the challenges cities, especially in the global south, face in an era of increasing globalization and demographic change. The participants' main purpose was to explore opportunities to foster healthy and sustainable cities and to formulate the agenda for a September workshop that will bring together ministerial leaders from the finance, health, transportation, environment and housing sectors. See Announcement.
Dublin, Ireland – 2007, June 12
RAS Long-Term Leasing Project
Activities: Program Design
AHI was contracted by The Affordable Homes Partnership (AHP), a Government of Ireland State agency working on behalf of the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government and local authorities, to provide housing finance expertise and program/public policy design to further develop a social/affordable housing program in the Greater Dublin Area. The resulting Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) Long-term Leasing Project is currently at the Request For Qualifications stage with the release of the final document.
The program aims to provide greater security of tenure to low income residents unable to find quality affordable housing in Ireland’s booming property market, to mitigate the extent of social segregation in housing and to improve integration between private and social housing developments. The key feature is a Public Private Partnership component, characterized by the innovative financial modelling AHI built into the program design:
- Through RAS, Local Authorities will source accommodation from the private rented market to meet long-term housing needs of households that currently depend upon Rent Supplement.
- Soft debt tools provide financial incentives to developers to secure long-term rental accommodation for low-income residents. Sponsors will receive up-front recoverable grant financing that can be used, for instance, to fund the construction of new units or the refurbishment of owned or newly-acquired units.
- Sponsors are required to ensure RAS residents receive professional quality management services. Thus, the project also seeks to encourage the emergence of a professional, permanent property management sector in Ireland’s rental market.
The program design allows the Irish government to provide market rate housing at a cost approximately 10% cheaper than it currently spends on social housing, and 30% less than on providing wholly market rate rental accommodation.
Istanbul, Turkey – 2007, April 25-26
7th Turkish Real Estate Summit 7
Activities: Presentation
Invited to serve on a panel by the Turkish non-governmental organization GYODER, David Smith spoke on the potential impact of the new mortgage law and on the urgent need to promote affordablehousing in Turkey. His presentation stressed that:
- Turkey would become a two-tiered society of wealthy owners and poor "own-nots" if the considerable housing affordability gap resulting from the booming real estate market were not addressed.
- Government must step up its financial committment to affordable housing.
- This would best be done in public-private partnership, because markets and government have complementary capacities and weaknesses.
- Government should adopt some form of credit enhancement, whether by mortgage insurance or other weaker forms, to cut interest rates immediately for a targeted group of borrowers, without necessarily spending public monies.
Pretoria, South Africa – 2006, November 17
Workshop on tax credits
Activities: Presentation
At the request of the South African National Treasury, and along with AHI affiliates Kecia Rust and Marja Hoek-Smit, as well as South African housing expert Dan Smit, and Soula Proxenos, formerly of Fannie Mae IHFS and now with Howard Housing Solutions, AHI's founder David Smith gave a presentation on investment tax credits as an affordable housing production fiscal incentive. In his talk, David emphasized that:
- Investment tax credits as a tool but before they are introduced, government must be precise about the affordable housing problem it is seeking to solve.
- As soft equity, tax credits are a unique form of money with peripheral benefits, some of which cannot be replicated by appropriated programs.
- Tax credits as a tool work best if a country already has a particular existing suite of tools, and in concert with those tools.
- Program design should precede feasibility analysis.
London, UK – 2006, October 17
Symposium on placemaking
To announce the publication of Incentives for Growth, a new publication by the Smith Institute, a UK think tank on public policy, AHI’s founder, David Smith, was one of three chapter authors invited to speak at a morning symposium held at 11 Downing Street, official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. His presentation, entitled Placemaking: Incentivizing urban regeneration and renewal, Lessons from the US, is available here. In his talk, David emphasized (1) the US’s vast and varied experience of experiments successful and unsuccessful, (2) the relative roles of national, regional, and local government, (3) housing’s integrality to placemaking, (4) the challenge of matching capital to property, (5) government’s ability to stimulate and channel rather than dictate, (6) the utility of piloting and demonstration experiments, and (7) inclusionary zoning, tax credits, and a Community Reinvestment Act as concepts to consider.
Vancouver, Canada - 2006, June 19-23
World Urban Forum III
Activities: Presentation
At the World Urban Forum III in Vancouver, AHI’s founder, David A. Smith, gave a presentation on “Housing The Urban Poor: Why It Matters, The Role of Governments, The Bellagio Housing Declaration.” His talk was part of a network event titled “The Bellagio Housing Declaration,” which was hosted jointly by UN-HABITAT for Humanity and the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. His presentation is available here. In his talk, Smith emphasized the importance of affordable housing to successful urbanization and shared experiences from his work in Kiberia slum, Kenya, to illustrate the nature and causes of urban slums and to discuss successful intervention measures. He also outlined the importance of the goals set by the Bellagio Housing Declaration and the Global Housing Forum
Cairo, Egypt - 2005, September
Egypt Financial Service project, USAID
Activities: Program evaluation and review, program design, presentation
As a subcontractor to Chemonics on a USAID-financed Egypt Financial Services project (EFS), David Smith made two week-long trips to Cairo, the first (July, 2005) to interview stakeholders in housing finance, the second to present a strategic plan for the Egyptian Guarantee and Subsidy Fund (GSF), a parastatal established by the Egyptian government in 2001. Housing finance is a critical need in Egypt, with its vast and rapidly increasing urban population. Solving blockages that exist in title registration, delivery of long-term mortgage instruments, and closing the affordability gap for low and moderate-income Egyptians are national priorities that the EFS project is tackling. The GSF can and should play a major role in facilitating the growth of affordable housing in Egypt. Its board is now considering AHI's and EFS's recommendations.
Cape Town, South Africa - 2005, September
Rural Housing Loan Fund and African Microfinance Conference
David Porteous spoke on Housing Microfinance at the second African Microfinance Conference in Cape Town from 29 August - 1 September. His presentation is available here. The talk was reported in the South African business press, which picked up the fact that housing microfinance was growing in importance as urbanization continued apace throughout Africa. In the talk, Porteous called for scalable solutions to housing finance needs of poor urban people, and pointed to some emerging examples of new generation housing microfinance such as the Cemex Patrimonio Hoy program in Mexico and CODI slum upgrading processes in Thailand.
United States/Italy - 2004/2005
Rockefeller Foundation/ Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS)
Activities: Stakeholder symposium design, facilitation
Participation under the auspices of the Harvard JCHS in the conceptualization, development, planning and eventual holding of an international conference in May 2005 at Bellagio, Italy, focusing on affordable housing delivery in four emerging countries (Mexico, Thailand, South Africa and Kenya). AHI principals were part of steering committee and served as country correspondent for South Africa.
South Africa - 2004/2005
South Africa National Treasury
Reviewed proposals from private sector for the design of a large scale mortgage finance risk sharing and facilitation process, known as Project Sizwe, to enable and enhance the input of National Treasury into the negotiations around Project Sizwe, which is a key part of the country's Financial Sector Charter.
United Kingdom - 2005
Department for International Development (DFID)
Activities: Program evaluation and review
Participated in four person review team undertaking the mid-term review of FIRST, a major multi-donor syndicate which provides technical assistance for financial sector deepening projects in developing countries. This involved completing the project logframe and benchmarking to other similar approaches to technical assistance in terms of cost, efficiency and output.
Cambridge, MA, United States - 2005, January
MIT, Department of Urban Studies and Planning & Centre for Real Estate
Developed and taught a week long course on affordable housing for MIT graduate students and enrolled professionals. The course included a large scale role play of US affordable housing in practice.
Boston, MA, United States - 2005, January
Affordable Housing Institute
Activities: Launch of new website
AHI is proud to announce the launch of its new website. While most the old site's content is still available, AHI would like to invite you to explore the new content. In particular, we would like to draw your attention to AHI's two new weblogs, one focusing on housing-related issues in the United States, and the other on housing-related issues in South Africa. The 'blogs' (as they are nicknamed) will contain regular analysis of and commentary on housing issues in their respective countries. While AHI has no immediate plans to extend its blog coverage to other countries, it does envisage coordinating a much broader coverage in the future, and so intends to pursue eagerly such opportunities as they arise.
Panama - 2004, December
Latin American Corporate Property Services (LACPS)
Panama City, Panama: AHI's sister company, Recap International, LLC, was invited to visit Panama in order to provide a preliminary opinion on the legal and financial structuring for a major housing development deal involving the University of Panama.
Johannesburg, South Africa- 2004, November
Rockefeller Foundation/Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS)
AHI Founder David Smith and AHI Managing Director David Porteous, in a continuing partnership with Harvard's JCHS, visited South Africa to secure the participation of some of the country's top housing officials for ambitious international conference focusing on affordable housing delivery in four emerging countries. The trip was highly successful, and AHI looks forward to a productive conference in the Spring of 2005
Washington, DC., United States - 2004, September
Fannie Mae - International Housing Finance Services
Activities: Presentation
AHI Founder David Smith delivered a well-received presentation entitled 'Affordable Housing in Healthy Communities' as part of IHFS's global executive education curriculum.
Washington, DC., United States - 2004, August
Federal Deposit Insurance Company
Activities: Program advocacy
AHI's sister company, Recapitalization Advisors, Inc. ('Recap'), submitted formal comments to the Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC) regarding recently proposed changes to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The proposed changes to CRA would adversely affect the efficacy and efficiency of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). FDIC has posted Recap's comments on their website here.
London, United Kingdom - 2004, July
Activities: Program advocacy
Meetings with senior officials at Housing Corporation and ODPM and presentation of US evidence that tax credit based schemes are 29-32% less costly, in government expenditure per home produced, than grant-based programs.
Boston, MA, United States - 2004, May
Rockefeller Foundation/Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS)
Activities: Stakeholder symposium design
Participation under the auspices of the Harvard JCHS in the conceptualization, development, planning and eventual holding of an international conference focusing on affordable housing delivery in four emerging countries.
London, United Kingdom - 2004, April
Activities: Program advocacy
Meetings with HM Treasury and Mayor of London staff for continued governmental stakeholder education and advocacy on behalf of the HART Credit, especially as a means of delivering 'key worker' housing in Greater London.
Dublin, Ireland - 2004, April
Dublin Docklands Development Authority
Activities: Stakeholder education, program design
Delivery of a one-day roundtable workshop and discussion for all levels of government - national, city, regeneration authority - on the utility of soft debt (capital provided on favorable terms, including deferral and contingent repayment) as a means of delivering intermediate 'key worker' housing in regeneration areas.
South Africa - 2003, December
Activities: National gaps assessment, stakeholder symposium, program design
As part of the banking sector's implementation of the landmark Financial Sector Charter, developed and facilitated a two-day workshop convening roughly 30 stakeholders from across the banking sector. Participants identified over 20 interventions - competitive, collaborative, partnering with government, or government-inaugurated - that could help the financial sector deliver R20 billion into affordable housing over the next five years.
United Kingdom - 2003, November
Activities: Program advocacy
Presentation to the Barker Review regarding the obstacles to creating affordable housing in Britain and the value of using soft equity generated from the proposed Housing And Regeneration Tax (HART) Credit (www.hartcredit.org.uk).
Ireland - 2003, November
Dublin Docklands Development Authority
Activities: Stakeholder education, program design
Day-long workshop delivered to executives from Dublin Dockland Development Authority, Dublin City Council, and Ireland Department of the Environment, Heritage, and Local Government exploring the challenges of creating affordable housing in high-appreciation urban environments, and the potential value of soft debt programs.
South Africa - 2003, September
Activities: National gaps assessment, program design
As part of the banking sector's implementation of the landmark Financial Sector Charter, developed and facilitated a three-day intensive brainstorming product design workshop convening roughly 20 stakeholders from across the banking sector. Participants identified, and developed in detail, five specific government partnering activities that would significantly increase financial sector delivery of capital into affordable housing over the next five years.
United States - 2003, September
Fannie Mae International Housing Finance
Activities: Stakeholder education
Seminar presentation, to roughly 35 senior executives from 20 countries, on the relationship between affordable housing and healthy communities, with focus on the five dimensions that make a community healthy, and the six dimensions of success in ongoing affordable housing, illustrated with case studies from US experience.
United States - 2003, August
Activities: Stakeholder symposium
One of roughly twenty individuals drawn from across the US to discuss, in a roundtable fashion, affordable housing issues outside the US, with a goal of identifying a theme for a potential high-level week-long retreat, drawing together experts from multiple countries, with a goal of brainstorming new affordable housing initiatives that the Rockefeller Foundation could endorse.
South Africa - 2003, June
Activities: Stakeholder education, National Gaps Assessment, Program Design
Preparation and delivery of a concept paper illustrating how Tax Relief Incentives (TRI's) - that is, fiscal incentives sold for cash via equity syndication - can be used as a tool to promote affordable housing. Analysis of the urban regeneration tax initiative (URTI) proposed in the South African Revenue Service (SARS) FY 04 budget proposal, and recommendations for improvements thereto. Paper available here.
South Africa - 2003, January
Activities: Stakeholder education
Preparation and delivery of four small workshop-style briefings (to a total of 35 national opinion-makers) on affordable housing, production incentives, the role of soft debt and soft equity, and the use of fiscal instruments such as tax credits to stimulate production of affordable housing.
United Kingdom - 2002, October
Activities: Program design
With a personally selected small group of US and UK experts, conceptualization and comprehensive design of the proposed Housing And Regeneration Tax (HART) Credit (www.hartcredit.org.uk ), a best-practice synthesis of the US Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), historic tax credit, and (proposed) homeownership tax credit. HART is a proposed new financial tool - capitated, allocated, and competed for - to fund financing gaps in affordable housing and urban regeneration schemes throughout Britain. The overall goal of a HART Credit is to stimulate private investment that engages the local community and is a catalyst for neighborhood renewal throughout the nation, targeting (a) neighborhood renewal areas, and (b) areas of affordable housing shortage.
United Kingdom - 2002, October
Activities: Stakeholder education, program advocacy
Presentation regarding fiscal initiatives and the HART Credit to the Urban Summit, a convocation of over 1,500 UK professionals, private and public, focused on urban regeneration in the UK.
United States - 2002, October
Fannie Mae International Housing Finance
Activities: Stakeholder education
Seminar presentation, to roughly 35 senior executives from 20 countries, on affordable housing in the United States, the role of rental housing (in between social housing and homeownership), and lessons learned the hard way in the US.
United Kingdom - 2002, January
Activities: Stakeholder education, stakeholder symposium, national gaps assessment
Along with a half-dozen other US attendees, participation and presentation at a 35-person roundtable symposium on affordable housing in Britain, blockages in the delivery system, and potential fiscal interventions that would stimulate affordable housing production and preservation. In that context, conceptualization of the need for a populated ecosystem and population of a US-UK comparison illustrating similarities and differences between the two countries' systems.
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