How Chicago Learned Privatizing Public Housing Isn't Enough

July 20, 2017                           By: Debra Bruno

Too many residents got lost in the effort to tear down some of the worst public housing in the nation.

For decades, public housing Chicago has been synonymous with the very worst of what government has provided as shelter for poor people. The 28 high-rises that accounted for much of the public housing in the city became monuments to crime and decay that defied improvement. Stories like the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl in 1997 made national news. A lack of building maintenance led to deaths: Three children died in a fire because of a broken elevator that prevented firefighters from reaching the 14th floor in time to rescue them.

Tim Boyle/Getty

The city tried, but never managed the fundamental transformation that was so obviously required. Then, slightly more than 15 years ago, Chicago embarked on just such a plan to improve the lives of the families that called public housing home.

Broadly, the new plan introduced three options: vouchers for residents to choose their own homes, mixed-income housing to remove the isolation of many of the most poor residents and improved public housing. But the $1.5 billion Plan for Transformation, which included the demolition of 18,000 units and the rehabilitation or new construction of another 25,000, has had mixed success..................Read More

Affordable multifamily housing 'not just a developer problem'

July 17, 2017                   By: Patrick Hoff

Affordability is the No. 1 issue facing multifamily housing in the Charleston area, and it’s going to take work from multiple parties to take on the problem, according to a panel of industry experts.

Four industry experts spoke about multifamily housing, affordability and cost at the Business Journal's Power Breakfast on Thursday. (photo/Kim McManus)

“I know various municipalities have made efforts to addressing this problem, but there’s still a great divide in terms of what the private sector can do to address that and what the public sector can do to provide a solution,” said Dan Doyle, senior vice president of development for The Beach Co.

Doyle, who was among four panelists at the Charleston Regional Business Journal’s Power Breakfast on Thursday in North Charleston, said municipalities need to provide developers with incentive to build and make the investment in affordable housing rather than just giving land to them................Read More

Attacking The Affordability Crisis

July 17, 2017                                          By: John Salustri

Multifamily is the perennial darling of the CRE industry. But a deeper dive shows a major gap in specific markets between supply and demand. NorthMarq Capital’s Melissa Marcolini Quinn offers a mortgage banking perspective.

ORLANDO–There’s a downside to the economic upturn, and it comes in a rather odd space–the ever-flush-and-fertile multifamily market. The rush by developers to cash in on upper-scale housing has contributed to a national dearth of product for those who need it most, namely the candidates for affordable and workforce housing. And, of course, a shifting regulatory environment adds fuel to the fire.

Quinn: "NorthMarq Capital is on the front lines working with the Agencies on developing solutions aimed at addressing the need for more workforce and affordable housing."

In this exclusive interview, Melissa Marcolini Quinn, SVP and managing director of NorthMarq Capital’s Orlando office, provides the background to the current state of affairs and outlines some of the groundwork being laid by the GSEs to correct the critical imbalance..............Read More

Waters Calls for Investment in Housing for Seniors

July 10, 2017                                 By: Respa News

At the Save HUD 202 Rally, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, said President Donald Trump’s budget proposal would slash essential housing programs for the elderly through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

According to her prepared remarks, Trump’s budget proposal would:

• Cut nearly $2 billion in funding for public housing
• Cut nearly $1 billion in funding for Section 8 housing choice vouchers
• Eliminate the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative
• Eliminate the Community Development Block Grant program
• Eliminate the HOME Investment Partnerships program
• Underfund Section 202 and Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance

Waters added that the budget contained no new funding to create new housing for seniors..............Read More

A surprising way to increase property values: build affordable housing

July 6, 2017                                                       By: Tracy Jan

Despite the lawsuits, media spotlight and conventional wisdom, affordable housing developments built in poor, heavily black communities can lead to greater racial and income integration, according to new research by Stanford economists.

Such housing, funded by federal tax credits, also raises property values and lowers crime in surrounding neighborhoods as higher-income white residents move in, the researchers found.

“When a corporate developer comes in and builds nicer, new housing, it makes the neighborhood more desirable as a potential place to live,” said Rebecca Diamond, a professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business who authored the study with her colleague Tim McQuade.

WASHINGTON, DC: People sit on the stoop of The SeVerna I apartment building in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

The surprising findings, to be published in the Journal of Political Economy, are being widely circulated this week among academics following a New York Times story asserting that federal tax credits for affordable housing promotes racial segregation despite the program’s intent.

While it’s true that such housing is disproportionately located in minority communities, the federal program actually results in more racially desegregated neighborhoods over time, said the researchers who analyzed a decade's worth of relevant data around more than 7,000 developments built with federal tax credits in 15 states................Read More

Trump's 15% Corporate Rate Debated During Tax Meetings: Official

June 27, 2017                                             By: Justin Sink

President Donald Trump’s call to slash the corporate income tax rate to 15 percent has faced resistance during private tax meetings, according to a senior White House official.

While Trump has been clear that he thinks cutting the rate, which is currently 35 percent, is essential for job creation, others have said that it’s impossible to cut it as much as he wants without adding to the federal deficit, said the official, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. The official didn’t specify who had raised the objections, but said administration officials have met with over 200 members of Congress as part of the effort to craft the tax bill.

Offering a first glimpse into closed-door sessions on tax policy between Trump’s top economic advisers and congressional leaders, the White House official said the sides have yet to agree on whether tax legislation should be “deficit-neutral.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have both called for such neutrality -- meaning that any tax cuts would be offset either by higher revenue from other sources or by spending cuts -- though some of Trump’s advisers have questioned the need for it................Read More