Monthly Columns Archives

Affordable housing is facing many headwinds: rising interest rates, inflation, increased insurance costs, supply chain delays and labor shortages, just to name a few.

Inflation being here in force regardless of our desires, last month’s Part 1 demonstrated that, when it comes to operations, your actions depend on what you think about the economic future.

Bank of America has a long history of financing and supporting affordable housing across the nation. It’s a commitment born out of a desire to support communities and enhance quality of life in neighborhoods large and small.

Now that the Administration has tacitly acknowledged inflation is a major challenge by blaming it on others, affordable housing allocators, developers, owners, managers and regulators need to readjust their expectations and behaviors. 

Now that eviction moratoriums have expired across much of the country, there is growing concern about the impact this will have on families who are still struggling to pay rent. The New York Times recently reported that landlords are filing roughly 2,000 eviction cases a week, a 40 percent increase since mid-January, when the state’s eviction moratorium expired.

As I write this column for our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) themed issue, it is a rainy April day, in a month all about increasing awareness of and for our environment.

Although virtue may be its own reward, try telling that to a nonprofit’s chief financial officer.

As the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association celebrates its 50th Anniversary in 2022, I find myself celebrating a shorter but still momentous anniversary. I joined Tax Credit Advisor’s editorial team seven years ago this month, which, fortuitously, coincides with my officially taking over as Editor-in-Chief of the magazine.  

Because life makes sense only in retrospect, we’re seldom aware in the moment that someone else’s action can change our lives forever. Nor will your benefactor know, then or after, just how seminal his or her small action was, and somehow, you’ve never thanked those who helped you.  

As we reflect back over the past 50 years and recognize some of our most prominent and supportive members in the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association, The Wingate Companies (founding members of NH&RA) needs to be on that list.   

Hello again. I’ve been invited to drop in for a visit, like the retired old baseball player asked to throw out the first pitch and then turn the mound over to a younger, stronger arm. 

Forcibly caged in 1982, and virtually somnolent for the last two decades, inflation is back with such a vengeance that the Administration is using ever more grandiloquent circumlocutions to deny its existence.