icon Blueprint for August

The Maturation of Affordable Housing

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4 min read

Our headline this month—“A New Era for the LIHTC Program”—might well have you scratching your head and wondering what the heck are they talking about. I am not a fan of tabloid-style front page promises that are not delivered upon once you turn the page. (I’ll leave that to Jerry Hall’s media mogul husband – whatever his name is.) But these words were actually said by Elaine Magil, director of Affordable Housing & Transactions at TCAM, during National Housing & Rehabilitation Association’s recent asset management conference in Minneapolis. And, as you will read in Elaine’s interview with staff writer Darryl Hicks (Talking Heads), she has strong and valid arguments to back them up.

In 1939, in his New York Times opening night review for the Broadway musical Pal Joey, legendary theatre critic Brooks Atkinson wrote, “Last night will be remembered as the one on which the Broadway musical put on long pants.” Atkinson was proclaiming that the art form had grown up. And that is not so distant from what Elaine Magil is telling us.

Once there was a piece of land that triggered a vision that became a building that needed to be occupied and managed and its success led to another plot of land and another vision and soon there were many buildings that all needed management and upkeep and eventually refinancing and new investors and a larger staff and all those buildings became a portfolio that needed overseers of its own and asset management became a necessity. That is what the graphic on our cover, also part of Elaine’s presentation, shows us. A business once primarily focused on just getting a building built now has a much larger cache and significantly more cash to manage.

So, for the past few years at this time, immediately following NH&RA’s annual and annually growing conference devoted to the topic, we focus an issue on asset management. And each year, largely due to the wily detective work of Thom Amdur and his team, we are delighted to find new innovative ideas that you may want to replicate.

For example, at this year’s event, we were introduced to the option available in the state of Florida to, rather than using the state’s FHA data to compute an utility allowance, bring in an approved private engineering firm that will offer more precise data. Staff writer Mark Fogarty shows one such firm’s approach talking with Todd Stoltz of Matern Engineering and presenting a case study of their work on Coral Place Apartments in Miami. (Bring in the Engineer)

We were also introduced to a comprehensive approach to adding “health equity” to your projects by Rebecca Schaaf, vice president for energy at Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future – the Washington, DC-based nonprofit collaborative of 13 multistate affordable housing providers whose collective stated mission is to “Advance the creation and preservation of healthy, sustainable affordable rental homes that foster equity, opportunity and wellness for people of limited economic resources.” We promptly put staff writer Mark Olshaker onto this program. (Affordable Healthy Housing)

In this month’s columns you will find David A. Smith’s recommendations to the White House’s new Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing (The Guru Is In); Scott Beyer’s discussion of the initiatives of the 2,750 public housing authorities (PHAs) in smaller, mostly rural communities where 250 units is a large portfolio (Housing USA); and NH&RA Policy Director Kaitlyn Snyder’s introduction of a new Multifamly Tax Exempt Bond Toolkit now available to members. (Addressing Affordability Through Supply)

Good summer reading all. And since it’s hot all over the country as we write this, go ahead and read it in your shorts.

Marty Bell, Editor