Blueprint Archives

It sometimes seems as if the United States has more than just one country within its boundaries. The divide can appear so vast, you wonder if one government can fuse it.

For those of us, no matter our leanings, who are frustrated by the lack of functionality of government, whose taxes have shot up significantly as a result of tax reform, whose personal or business healthcare costs continue to rise, this is an issue about a federal program that, by all appearances, is working.

All aboard! Welcome, and we’re glad you’re joining us today for this grand tour of affordable housing situations and civic innovations in cities all across our country.

Is it bragging if I open this issue by declaring it a win-win? Actually, it’s a win-win-win-win—for affordable housing management, for their residents, for government and for our readers.

I bonded with Ballotpedia.

Hey, all you folks out there oozing over OZones: remember New Markets Tax Credits?

What is the future of affordable housing in America going to look like? Are we as a society going to have the will and as an industry going to have the means to significantly increase volume and accommodate everyone from the lowest incomes to the middle-income workforce?

The word that stands out throughout this issue is community. We didn’t plan it that way. But in stories devoted to a wide range of subjects, including multi-credit deals, Opportunity Zones, state funding for housing and even NH&RA’s 2018 Vision Award honorees, the concept of community demanded attention.

We may call it work, but for many of you it is really daily problem solving.

The storm you see on the cover of this issue is not, I promise you, a metaphor for the federal government or the NBA or Harvey Weinstein’s life. It’s just a storm, like the three that hit Florida last year, the same year that fires seered parts of California, as well as properties owned by some NH&RA members in the northeast.

The first slide you see shows that the Congressional Budget Office may forecast GDP growth in 2018 and 2019 due to recent tax changes, but point to a significant and fairly steady decrease after that.

This spring, engineering professors and students from universities across the country descended upon the sprawling, tree-filled campus of Stony Brook University, just a few miles from where Long Island meets the Sound, to explore technical innovations aimed at helping people age in their homes.