On Sept 11th, NYHC in partnership with National Housing Conference convened a policy symposium on Fair Housing. This event was planned to inform and educate affordable housing stakeholders, who are both encouraged by the renewed federal commitment to fair housing and somewhat uncertain about what rights and obligations states, localities, and other housing stakeholders have related to the recent Supreme Court decision on disparate impact and HUD’s new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule. The Court and HUD have both stated that communities must make both investments to revitalize communities and policy changes to encourage mobility to opportunity. This timely event explored these issues and more.
Xavier de Souza Briggs of the Ford Foundation and Gustavo Velasquez, Assistant Secretary of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at HUD, started the event with a discussion of the new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule and its implications for development. Assistant Secretary Velasquez stressed the importance for communities to use their soon to be released Assessment Tool with data and mapping functions to analyze challenges to fair housing choice and establish goals and priorities to address barriers in communities.
This informative introduction was followed by a panel of national experts (Michael Bodaken, National Housing Trust; Amy Glassman, Ballard Spahr LLP; Denise Scott, LISC and Kevin Walsh, Fair Share Housing Center of New Jersey) and moderated by Chris Estes, NHC. We learned more about policy developments at the federal level and also about the importance of focusing on goals shared by both the fair housing and affordable housing communities. LIHTC Income Averaging, a top policy priority for NYHC, was also mentioned as a policy tool with potential to improve income diversity in neighborhoods.
The national panel was followed by a New York line-up (Rafael Cestero, The Community Preservation Corporation; Ingrid Gould Ellen, NYU Furman Center for Real Estate & Urban Policy; Commissioner James Rubin, NYS Homes and Community Renewal; Barika Williams, ANHD) moderated by Mathew Wambua, Richman Group. Panelists explored how fair housing issues are playing out in efforts to both preserve and increase the supply of affordable housing in the region. There was also discussion of HUD’s Small Area FMR proposal, upcoming changes to LIHTC Difficult to Develop Areas and Community Preference.
This event was a great first step in taking a hard look at federal housing policies and discussing what’s fair and feasible in NY. We’ll be thinking more about this issue when we shape our 2016 policy agenda this autumn. We will be making recommendations on a balanced approach to housing policy which revitalizes communities and also creates affordable housing choices in high-opportunity areas. Stay tuned for more on this topic.
