Industry Leaders Plan National Proposal for Next U.S. President to Increase Quality, Quantity of Nation's Affordable Housing

CHICAGO, May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercy Housing, one of the nation's largest nonprofit affordable housing developers, along with the Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF) and the Housing Partnership Network (HPN), convened industry leaders Friday to discuss new opportunities, resources and programs for affordable housing as well as create a framework for national proposals to present to the incoming presidential administration.

The symposium titled, "Opening Doors to Affordable Housing: the Practitioner's Path to Scale and Sustainability," included topics, on the neighborhood effect on communities with high foreclosure rates, preservation of existing affordable housing, building improvements to address climate change, health care and the linkage to affordable senior housing, and sustaining successful permanent supportive housing for the previously homeless.

As Mercy Housing celebrates its 25th anniversary of leadership in innovative affordable housing, the symposium, which is part of a series of regional events nationwide, was formed to initiate a dialogue among experienced nonprofit housing practitioners and their partners to increase the quality and quantity of affordable housing across the country. Following the Chicago launch of the symposium series, the initiative will travel to forums in Atlanta, San Francisco, Denver and Seattle, where local leaders of affordable housing will share their ideas in a similar format. The end result will be strategy recommendations for the new U.S. Presidential Administration as it sets and implements its agenda.

"The need for affordable housing has never been greater in our country and we need to implement a long-term national strategy to meet the growing demand," said Sister Lillian Murphy, RSM, CEO of Mercy Housing. "By discussing best practices and lessons learned from other nonprofit affordable housing organizations, we can make strategic recommendations to the new administration and help position housing as a key component to address economic, health, environmental and educational issues."

Symposium speakers included Amy Anthony, CEO of the Preservation of Affordable Housing; Dione Alexander, regional director for the Nonprofit Finance Fund; Shekar Narasimhan, principal of Beekman & Associates; Tom Bledsoe, CEO of Housing Partnership Network; Anne Evens, Center for Neighborhood Technology; and Jane Graf, president of Mercy Housing California.

"In order to get the housing agenda advanced, we need to stop talking about the housing agenda," said Barry Zigas, CEO of Zigas and Associates and a Mercy Housing Trustee. Jack Markowski, president and CEO of Community Investment Corporation, added, "It's sometimes hard to make the case that housing is the most important thing. We need to figure out how big things like climate change, taxation and transportation provide a platform to talk about housing needs as a critical component to addressing healthy communities."

Attendees discussed what the United States has accomplished over 25 years of housing for the homeless. With Medicaid, mental health and the prison systems turning more Americans over to homelessness, housing providers are having trouble funding services for that growing population.

Michael Bodaken, CEO of National Housing Trust, also emphasized how the foreclosure crisis is impacting state budgets reducing resources for multifamily rental needs because of states having to bail out single-family homeowners. "The key is making neighborhoods sustainable," he said.

Some of the other learnings and successes cited over the last 25 years included low-income housing tax credits and new market tax credits. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's 202 program for senior housing provides the framework for a collaborative model among housing developers and service providers. Future policy discussions could involve a separate allocation of tax credits specifically for senior housing with 50 percent of funds going toward supportive services -- most importantly health care.

"Many cities have signed up for aggressive plans to end homelessness," said Sister Lillian. "But unless they're informed on what it really takes to do it, there's the risk of failure for the owner, the community and the city." Housing providers need to inform policymakers and community leaders about the lessons they've learned and what they'll need in the future to meet housing needs. One future opportunity could be fundraising for affordable housing via the Internet. Communities also need to focus on financing permanent housing for the homeless in addition to housing for the chronically homeless.

Scale and size matter, she added. The challenge for developers is how many properties can an owner build and sustain while still addressing service needs.

Mercy Housing, a national not-for-profit affordable housing organization headquartered in Denver, has a presence in 41 states, serves more than 109,000 people on any given day and has participated in the development, preservation, financing or operation of more than 34,000 homes. About 75 percent of Mercy Housing's portfolio is rental units, and the remaining 25 percent is homeownership. Mercy Housing serves families, seniors and people with special needs (formerly homeless, people with HIV/AIDS and the developmentally disabled). For more information about Mercy Housing, please visit http://www.mercyhousing.org.

The Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future is a 501(c)(3) organization whose members acquire multifamily rental housing and preserve it as affordable to low-income families, seniors, and disabled individuals. Each of SAHF's seven members is a sophisticated, not-for-profit organization with properties in multiple states. SAHF was launched in 2003 around the notion that national not-for-profit preservation entities have policy and transactional issues and opportunities that differ materially from those faced by exclusively local not-for-profit or for-profit owners of affordable housing. The organization is funded by its members, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Fannie Mae Foundation.

The Housing Partnership Network operates as a peer network and business alliance of high-capacity, entrepreneurial development nonprofits. By collaborating through the Network, our members share and spread the innovations that emerge from their local practice. They obtain more flexible and better priced capital that rewards their demonstrated performance and capabilities. And they create strategies and cooperative ventures that respond to the rapidly changing regulatory, policy, and economic environment.

     Contact:  Jennifer Kostka
               Mercy Housing
               (303) 830-3323
               Cell (303) 263-4561
               jkostka@mercyhousing.org