Monthly Columns Archives

You read it right. That’s $7,000,000,000. Seven Billion. It’s the value of the New Markets Tax Credits allocated by the Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund to 120 Community Development Entities in 36 states to develop businesses and improve lives in underserved communities.

In early October, the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Terwilliger Center for Housing and the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders (NAAHL) co-hosted a day-long symposium/roundtable on what we decided by the end of the day just might be an emerging asset class whose preservation is integral to the success of America’s cities and the urban economy.

By the time you read this, we will have elected a new President.

When first I saw a gleaming new tower sprouting within, and above, the five-story brick crust that was all that remained of a decrepit century-old block whose guts had been scoured out and trundled away, I thought the surface preservation both incongruous and a waste of money. In the decades since then, I’ve changed my mind even as the world’s historic cities have changed around us.

History is au courant. Not old history; new history. “Game of Thrones” wins the Emmy, “Spotlight” wins the Oscar and “Hamilton” wins the Tony. And what they all share is a fresh look at history through a contemporary prism. Kind of like an old building rehabbed for contemporary usage. Right?

If the world’s 60 million refugees were a nation, they would be the world’s 23rd largest, with more people than South Africa or Italy. All of them have lost their homes, and all of them desperately want a home – in fact, not just a home, but a secure and stable place from which they can build new lives. While many may feel emotionally that ‘home’ is where they came from, most know that to build a new life they must migrate somewhere – within their country or to a new country.

The flames glowing along the Providence River you see on this month’s cover are part of an event called WaterFire, that began as an artistic installation and has grown into an annual Rhode Island arts festival and celebration. When the photos of this event were presented at the NH&RA Summer Institute, I immediately decided this would be our next cover

The memories of our childhoods are quaint and fond. Vinyl records, vanilla Carvel and Vin Scully. The Little Rascals and the Young Rascals. Milk delivered to our home in the morning, the newspaper on the lawn in the afternoon, and the doctor examining us in our own bedroom. Dr. Brown was her name. (Yes, she was a she…and yes, this was in the early ‘50s.)

As will be amply demonstrated elsewhere in this month’s Tax Credit Advisor, the conceptual case for using improvements in affordable housing to improve healthcare outcomes is overwhelming. Common sense, personal experience, a nearly unanimous view of affordable housing providers, a host of expert opinions, statistical studies – everything favors it.

I know that on your summer vacation you usually like to get away from thinking about work and bury yourself in a romance or mystery. But I’m afraid what we are offering you this July is going to be too tantalizing for you to escape. You might associate summer reading with fluff, but this issue is packed with a lot of red meat.

A few weeks ago at the World Bank’s biannual Global Housing Finance Summit, a conference of roughly 350 housing executives from around the world (mainly from national governments and the Bank itself), I spoke on Financing Housing Down the Income Pyramid, and the ensuing Q&A session produced this challenging question from the audience, “How do we create effective affordable rental tenures?” That choice of words instantly set me thinking, and in formulating my answer, I stumbled on the right way to frame the question.

Hope this month’s cover got your attention. And if you’ve arrived at this page, I guess it did. When I find myself waiting in the checkout line at Safeway with nothing to do but stare at all the celebrities on the magazine covers, I’m envious that the editors of those publications can depend on famous faces to lure you inside.