icon Blueprint for April

Hooray for RAD!

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3 min read

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. Yes, I’m serious.

RAD is a source of hope. (And it’s not just because its acronym is actually memorable and cool—and pronounceable.) The RAD program has many characteristics we wish all government programs could have: it is a private/public partnership, it generally has bipartisan support, it is improving lives and it continues to grow.

If you have any qualms about any of these claims, you have stopped at the right shelter for a respite. This is our annual RAD-focused issue, an update I have come to look forward to. The news is good, the program is strong and it’s generally heading in a positive direction.

We begin by placing the program in context with David A. Smith’s The Guru Is In column that takes you back four decades to a time of battling housing programs and conflicting egos, then escorts you along the historic path that brought them all together and led to the creation of RAD.

Kaitlyn Snyder, who joined the NH&RA team recently as director of policy following a stint at the National Housing Conference, then thoroughly updates you on the progress of the RAD program and explains some of the expectations based on actual results that will be part of the much anticipated Revision 4. (It’s Very Clear, This RAD is Here to Stay)

Staff writer Mark Olshaker explains the most impactful latest revision, RAD for PRAC, which permits the conversion of Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly projects into Project-Based Rental Assistance and Project-Based Voucher programs.

Then we take a look at two mammoth RAD projects: one in an early development phase and one near completion. In Beginning Betances, Mark Fogarty talks with Joshua Reiss of Hunt Real Estate Capital about their unique funding approach to a 40-building portfolio in the Bronx. And then, in SF-Rad Revisited, Scott Beyer returns to the RAD rehab of 29 properties with 3,500 units in San Francisco he first looked at for this same issue two years ago with input from Ari Beliak, vice president of the Community Development branch of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the solo construction lender and investor for the whole shebang. The impressive results may well be a model for urban RAD rehab.

Other potential national models to encourage more affordable housing, according to Scott, are the Transit Density bills passed by California and Oregon and explained in his Housing USA column.

Of course, all of these initiatives required advocacy by constituents and stakeholders, which NH&RA President Thom Amdur urges you to participate in frequently – including in this month’s New Developments column. And in our Talking Heads interview, Darryl Hicks provides us the honor of hearing about what effective advocacy looks like from inside the government in a conversation with Congressman Denny Heck (D-WA), a vocal supporter of addressing the affordable housing shortage.

And while we are discussing models, let us hope that RAD can be the example for more effective private/public, bipartisan government programs.

Marty Bell, Editor