The Housing Authority Insurance Legislative Affairs Department is implementing a two-prong plan to help improve circumstances for public housing authorities and their residents. Via the Summit on Public Housing, its goal is to support the joint action of the major industry stakeholders (CLPHA, NAHRO, PHADA, NLIHC, etc.) and convince the incoming Presidential Administration to move public housing-related issues up the pecking order.

HAI Group also is working to support efforts by major housing groups to get advantageous housing legislation passed and onto the current President’s desk. This is accomplished via education on the CAPWIZ system and a plan to provide increased research capabilities for joint legislative and regulatory initiatives.

Public Housing Summit

Objectives of the Summit are creating a shared vision of the future of this industry, laying out a strategy for moving in that direction, and engaging the next Administration early to offer a specific set of proposals.

At the first Summit session in June, three working groups were formed to meet via bi-weekly conference calls to put together position papers in three broad areas:

1. Increased Public and Private Investment and Services
2. New Partners for Investment and Services
3. Institutional and Regulatory Changes to Make PHAs Effective Brokers/Partners

The drafts of these position papers will be debated and finalized at the next Summit, to be held in Washington, D.C. in September. Once finalized, they will be presented to the transition teams of both Presidential candidates.

The Housing Rescue Bill

The recently-passed Housing Rescue Bill, best known for bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also contains a major victory for those who have campaigned long and hard for a National Housing Trust Fund. This portion provides that in 2010 a certain amount of the “profits” from these two government-sponsored enterprises will be dedicated to the preservation and expansion of affordable housing. A significant amount of that money will be given to the very low and extremely low income portion of our population. It is estimated that between $300M and $700M per year will flow from this source, requiring no further action by Congress. This effort was led by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and supported by the major industry groups and other key stakeholders.

Research and analysis capacity building

HAI Group continues to work with PHADA, CLPHA and NAHRO to develop a shared research capacity for this industry coalition. Once in place, HAI will provide the technological and staff support to this industry coalition to conduct the research- and data-gathering abilities needed to support the industry’s legislative and regulatory objectives. As the data is reported, the intent is to provide coalition-member PHAs access to the HAI Group Web site to view results.