Monthly Columns Archives

Homelessness first became a national issue in the 1870s. Back then the pejorative term referred to “tramps” traversing the country in search of work.

Peter Bell has been an observer, chronicler and convenor of the affordable housing industry since becoming NH&RA’s first full-time staff member back in 1976.

Without anyone noticing, at roughly the same time ‘return-to-office’ softened its branding to ‘hybrid work environment,’ ‘side hustle’ replaced ‘moonlighting’ as the common parlance for being entrepreneurial outside one’s primary job.

Housing, at long last, has taken center stage in federal policy.

As fall blows in, we are nearing the end of our first full year back in person.

Fall, for me, evokes the feeling of the beginning of the end. The leaves dazzle us with one final burst of color before winter sets in. Congress starts a new fiscal year and will eventually fund the government. Cue the steady drip-drip-drip of holidays cresting with New Year’s Eve and year-end tax bills. I hope you were able to unplug for a bit before the fall heats up with Low Income Housing Tax Credit applications due, conferences to attend and an election leading into a legislative sprint to clear the decks for the next Congress. 

In 1937, an upstart 27-year-old British economist published a short essay whose modest title, The Nature of the Firm, has newfound resonance in our post-hybrid information work world.

Capital Impact Partners is an Arlington, VA-based nonprofit created by an Act of Congress to facilitate the development of cooperative housing.

Have you ever had that feeling where something you are newly knowledgeable about seems to suddenly be everywhere?

In July, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released updated frequently asked questions and an Affordable Housing How-To Guide surrounding the use of Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) for the construction and preservation of affordable housing.

Why so challenging? asked the housing joker and would not stay for an answer.

Tax-exempt bonds (TEBs) have their own special place in the financing of affordable multifamily housing, and few people understand how to structure deals that maximize their impact more so than Washington, DC attorney Wade Norris.