The Guru Is In Archives
The Guru Is In
A value proposition for intermediaries
David A. Smith • 5 min read
To stay profitable, an intermediary (syndicator, CDFI, mortgage originator, donor/technical assistance provider, development consultant) always has to have its own proprietary value proposition – a statement we make about ourselves that, if believed to be true, leads inevitably to the conclusion, ‘Do business with us’.
The Guru Is In
Ten years after, what have we learned?
David A. Smith • 5 min read
On September 6, 2008, the federal government nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a measure without precedent in global financial history, even more systemically dramatic than Pierpont Morgan’s single-handedly underwriting global liquidity to stop the Panic of 1907.
The Guru Is In
Beyond the event horizon(s)
David A. Smith • 5 min read
For affordable housing transactors, the goal line is the closing, and as it approaches, vision narrows until nothing exists but that.
The Guru Is In
Rebooting private urban workforce housing
David A. Smith • 5 min read
Seventy years ago, American employers and insurance companies responded to the post-World War II economic and baby boom by developing over 50,000 apartments of largely unregulated private urban workforce housing rentals.
The Guru Is In
The forgotten housing experiment
David A. Smith • 5 min read
When, in the 1960’s, Lyndon Johnson launched the federal government into the regulated public- private partnership era of affordable housing delivery, the initiative drew on two decades of multifamily rental experience, about which until very recently I knew nothing – the benevolent insurance-company as workforce housing investor/developer.
The Guru Is In
Shift the focus of effort
David A. Smith • 4 min read
Confession time: these days I seldom go to big-tent national affordable housing conferences. Half a day’s panels of my peers discoursing in informed erudite polyphony on the latest Washington bad news past, present or possible future leaves me enervated.
The Guru Is In
The three right answers in Social Impact Bonds
David A. Smith • 5 min read
For more than half a decade now, we’ve heard unicorn tales of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs), and despite a compelling common-sense soundbite case, SIB sightings are rare, volume is minimal and replicable scalability at best theoretical…because we are having trouble putting together the right ingredients, the right government counterparties and the right sponsors.
The Guru Is In
Unfamiliar territory
David A. Smith • 5 min read
Without realizing it, roughly 20 years ago American affordable housing drifted into its third new territory, and because its border isn’t demarcated, we’re wandering through it without a map.
The Guru Is In
The urban palimpsest
David A. Smith • 5 min read
In 1229, Christian monks in Jerusalem, rummaging about for parchment, unbound a centuries-old codex, scraped off what was written on it, refolded the leaves in half, and wrote atop the now-smaller book, at right angles, new liturgical texts for the Holy Land’s faithful knights.
The Guru Is In
Schrodinger’s tax
David A. Smith • 5 min read
By the time you read this, tax-exempt private activity bonds will be dead. Or they won’t. The New Markets Tax Credit will be dead. Or it won’t. The top corporate bracket will be 20 percent. Or it won’t.
The Guru Is In
Twelve steps to leadership development
David A. Smith • 5 min read
If a true test of a company’s sustainability is its ability to transition from a founding or visionary CEO or leadership team to a next generation of both, then the affordable housing industry is in a watershed, where we are about to discover how many of today’s leading companies will still be so in half a decade.