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As a young comedian in 1970s New York City, Larry David worked the Times Square comedy clubs at night and would stumble home feigning belligerency to blend with the iniquitous nightlife that was the West Side.

A little over a century after the assembly line and vertical integration came to the automobile industry and transformed the nation, the same concepts and efficiencies are slowly making their way into the construction business.

2017 has been a year to remember for community development and affordable housing professionals.

Community development financial institutions are small but nimble providers of housing and economic development funding for a very wide array of purposes often not filled by traditional lenders. They are often useful to help make Low Income Housing Tax Credit deals work by providing things, like LIHTC equity bridge financing and capital for general and limited partnership acquisitions.

Inspired by the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy in 1968, Robert Davenport has spent most of his life examining the root causes of racism and poverty in America and advocating for policies that encourage positive change in America’s most distressed cities and neighborhoods.

As energy conservation grows in importance from both a financial and environmental standpoint, and as the task of preserving affordable housing intensifies, New York state is launching a bold initiative to confront both challenges. RetrofitNY, pronounced “Retrofit New York” and administered by NYSERDA – the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority – has the goal, in the agency’s own words, “to spearhead the creation of standardized, scalable solutions and processes that will improve the aesthetic and comfort of residential buildings while dramatically improving their energy performance.

Public housing has long been one of America’s top examples of government failure. From urban renewal, through the construction of high-rise ghettos, to demolition and rebuilding, the story has been about optimism and good intentions, followed by mismanagement and delay.

Now that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been greenlighted to get back into the Low Income Housing Tax Credit market, the big agencies aren’t wasting any time. Freddie hopes to announce its first investment next month, and Fannie says it expects to re-enter the market in the first quarter of next year.

The public perception of New Market Tax Credits (NMTC) is that they are a federal program meant to revitalize urban areas. The credits have been used by community development entities to obtain financing that restores the vacant storefronts and aging business infrastructure of America’s inner cities. But more recently, NMTCs have actually been repurposed to favor non-metro America, defined as the counties that don’t have a core urban area of over 50,000, and are considered by the federal government to be “rural.”

What I love most about the affordable housing industry is that it is populated by so many makers, doers and visionaries. Where most people see a piece of dirt, a blighted factory or a run-down apartment community, the tax credit developer seeks to fill an unmet societal need or market niche and conceives a future community.

One of the most common raps against any kind of social welfare program for low-income individuals is that it robs them of the incentive to better themselves.

Jeffrey Woda grew up in rural eastern Ohio, separated from Wheeling, WV by the Ohio River, the son and grandson of homebuilding contractors. He left the area to become a CPA and was employed for a time by Ernst and Young, working with construction companies, financial institutions and other corporate entities.