icon Blueprint for August

What Happened to Washington Summer Vacation?

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3 min read

A few issues back, our esteemed affordable housing advocate and columnist, David Abromowitz, vented in these pages about the lack of attention for our industry among political candidates.

“Yet if history is a guide,” he wrote, “almost none of them will have much, if anything, to say about one of the biggest costs in every family’s budget: housing.”

Well, the candidates on the primary trail may not be focused on us, but a lot of other folks in their destination of choice—our nation’s capital—seem to be.

We had a number of stories on various members’ interesting projects in the works for this issue that are now resting in the warming drawer. Because in over just one month’s time, the Supreme Court, Congress and, on multiple occasions, HUD have each created news we feel is important to share with and analyze for you.

You will find seven separate stories and columns all reacting to recent government actions under the heading, “Impact!” Not that we mean to imply everything that has transpired here in Washington lately is bad. By no means. But like an evening at Joe’s Stone Crab, it’s just a lot to digest in one sitting.

There seem to be a lot of opinions circulating on the effect of the Supreme Court’s complex decision in the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. case, so we sent staff reporter Joel L. Swerdlow out to gather a sampling of those opinions. (Impact of Disparate Impact)

Meanwhile across the street from the Court, both a Senate committee and the full House were passing their own appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2016 that each ate into both the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative and the HOME Investments Partnership program. So we also asked Joel to survey NH&RA members on what these cuts will really mean (Successful Programs Caught in Budget Brouhaha) and columnist David Abromowitz shares his reactions (What’s Next?).

HUD had a very busy month issuing new rules for the RAD program, calculation of utility allowances and, within 10 days of the Court decision, clarification of disparate impact procedures. We often depend on contributor A.J. Johnson to pull out the most important points from government policy documents and make them easily accessible, which he does on all three of these recent issuances throughout this issue. And our guru in residence, David A. Smith, also had some thoughts to share about just why the RAD program is successful. (The Guru is In)

Another recent development in Washington with promise for our industry is the arrival of David Leopold, who left Bank of America Merrill Lynch after 20 years in tax credit housing finance to assume the role of Vice President of Affordable Housing Production at Freddie Mac. David’s experience in the housing sector has inspired a lot of creative ideas about the role Freddie Mac can play in affordable housing and he generously sat down with our Darryl Hicks to share them. (Talking Heads)

Washington wisdom tells us things slow down in the summer as the heat and humidity settle along the Potomac (and as candidates scatter to campaign for an election a year and a half away). But apparently not this year. We do hope you’re finding time to vacation, though. And also that this issue provides you some good summer reading.

Marty Bell
Editor