NCSHA Attends White House Convening on Affordable Housing

HUD organized the forum primarily to engage key stakeholders on the results of the 20 regional convenings it held this past year, the FY 2012 HUD budget, and the American Jobs Act.  

 

More than 160 stakeholders from around the country attended the Convening.  It was immediately preceded by a private roundtable discussion led by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, in which 60 of the attendees, including NCSHA and the HFAs, were invited to participate.

 

In both his roundtable remarks and his later comments before the larger group, the Secretary stressed the importance of the housing community uniting in an effort to secure the maximum possible funding for federal housing programs.  He urged groups not to “fight over the pieces… their share of the pie” but instead to “speak as housers, with one voice in support of more resources overall.” 

The Secretary asked everyone to make the case for HUD’s programs, communicating both their effectiveness and investment value.  He stressed that while advocacy was always important, never had that been more true than now, proclaiming it time to “pull out all of the stops.”  He reviewed the key differences between the House and Senate on HUD program funding levels for FY 2012.   NCSHA’s analysis of those differences is available here.

 

Donovan also asked attendees to join the fight and to enlist others in support of passage of the President’s jobs bill, emphasizing the importance of the legislation’s Project Rebuild initiative to housing.   Acknowledging the defeat of the bill in the Senate the previous evening, the Secretary affirmed the Administration’s commitment to the legislation’s passage.  Though he was not prepared to put forward the Administration’s strategy for moving the bill forward, he said it was likely that the legislation would be broken up into and pursued as several smaller bills.

 

At the outset of the Convening, several HUD assistant secretaries led break-out sessions focused on key developments within their areas of responsibility.  NCSHA and several HFAs participated in the Office of Housing/FHA session, at which Acting FHA Commissioner and Assistant Secretary for Housing Carol Galante provided a more in-depth review of the House and Senate FY 2012 funding decisions for the office’s programs.

 

The Convening wrapped up with several White House officials reiterating the Secretary’s call for action on both the HUD budget and the American Jobs Act.