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A digital-age summit in the oral tradition

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The J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America’s Families held a daylong “housing summit” Friday attended by assorted luminaries and seven presidential candidates (six Republicans and one Democrat).

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No doubt you’re wondering what they said. You’re probably also wondering about J. Ronald Terwilliger. He is, among other things, a developer of rental apartments in Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh/Durham. He established the foundation last year, the foundation’s website informs us, “to recalibrate federal housing policy to more effectively address our nation’s critical affordable housing challenges and to meet the housing needs of future generations.” The foundation’s five-member executive board, besides Terwiller, comprises former senator Scott Brown, former congressman Rick Lazio, former HUD secretary Henry Cisneros, and Harvard Business School real-estate lecturer Nic Retsinas.

Besides the candidates, who were each allotted about a half-hour in a conversation format, the event featured several panel discussions, including one on “Accessing Private Capital to Build Affordable Housing.”

Fine, so what was said of substance? Don’t ask the J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation. No transcript was made of the proceedings. For some reason, perhaps because it’s relatively new, the foundation didn’t take any steps to “seize the narrative” of its own event. The only record of the summit is in a spotty collection of news stories and snarky commentaries.

Chris Christie got a fair amount of attention, in a Boston Globe story and a harshly critical Times blog post, but also for his Twitter-worthy remark that housing doesn’t get a lot of notice in the presidential campaign “because it’s not the sexiest issue in the world to talk about, and it kind of depresses people.”

The most comprehensive account we’ve found was an article on a TV station’s website. The Republicans (who also included Jim Gilmore, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul and George Pataki) acknowledged that many Americans have an affordability problem, but some tried to link that to federal regulation. The lone Democrat, Martin O’Malley, called for doubling funding for the low income housing tax credit program and Community Development Block Grants.

But we’re not going to attempt a synopsis. You’ll just have to be satisfied with the summaries you get at places like Real Estate News or Forbes or NH1 TV news, or a video clip of Huckabee, on base guitar, backing Scott Brown’s daughter, the singer. Good luck finding any account of the panel discussions.

 

Sleeper issue, Part II

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Last week we looked at what the official websites of Democratic presidential candidates had to say about affordable housing, or fair housing, or ANY kind of housing, and we came up empty. Affordable housing may be a national crisis, and residential segregation may be a national scourge and a key contributor to the unrest in Ferguson, Baltimore and elsewhere, but these issues missing from the Democrats’ campaign discourse these days.

The same is true for the Republicans, but perhaps it’s just as well. A primary candidate in a crowded field benefits by mobilizing zealots and true believers, so the fact that housing is not a flashpoint for various segments of the Republican “base” might not be a bad thing.

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HUD’s affirmatively furthering fair housing  (AFFH) rule has been getting a rise out of conservative commentators, but the presidential candidates apparently don’t think flogging it will get them very far. They’re sticking with more familiar standbys, such as Obamacare and gun regulation.

In any case, just for the sake of balance, we looked at websites of the 17 Republican candidates. Many had “issues” tabs. (Donald Trump, interestingly, has a “positions” tab, and when you click on it there’s only one: Immigration Reform.)

Any mention on these sites of the housing problem in any form?

Jeb Bush: No

Ben Carson: No

Chris Christie: No

Ted Cruz: No

Carly Fiorina: No

Jim Gilmore: No

Lindsey Graham: No

Mike Huckabee: No

Bobby Jindal: No

John Kasich: No

George Pataki: No

Rand Paul: No

Rick Perry: No

Marco Rubio: No

Rick Santorum: No

Donald Trump: No

Scott Walker: No

HUD gets a pass from all of them, even those who inveigh against “regulation” and “big government.”

 

A sleeper issue for our time

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Early as it is in the presidential campaign, but it’s never too early to point out the important issues that the candidates are ignoring or overlooking.

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Issues such as — you guessed it — the affordable housing problem.

Today’s synopsis comes from “The State of Nation’s Housing 2015” by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, which states, among other things, that:

“The shortfall in affordable housing remains substantial as the number of cost-burdened low-income renters continues to rise. Reversing this trend will require a firm recommitment of the nation to the goal of secure, decent, and affordable housing for all.”

How big the national shortfall? For every 100 extremely low-income households (less than 30 percent of median income), there were just 34 affordable units. And for every 100 very low income households (up to 50 percent of median income), there were 58 affordable units. Moreover, housing cost burdens are increasing for moderate-income households as well, especially in pricey metro areas.

What is to be done? The report states (emphasis added):

“Since the private sector cannot profitably supply very low-cost units, the government must play a critical role in ensuring that the nation’s most disadvantaged families and individuals have good-quality, affordable housing.”

This brings us to the presidential candidates. If either major party is going to favor government intervention on behalf of affordable housing, it’s likely to be the Democrats, so we begin our seat-of-the-pants research project with them. We check in on each of their campaign websites, and go to the “issues” or “priorities” or “vision” tab, whatever it’s called. Is there any mention of the affordable housing problem?

Lincoln Chafee: No.

Hillary Clinton: No.

Martin O’Malley: No

Bernie Sanders: No.

Jim Webb: No.

Mind you, these people have plenty to say about fortifying the middle class, expanding Social Security, making college more affordable, creating good jobs, and so on –all of which could weigh in favor of millions of benighted renters. But they’re not talking about what government can or should do to address the housing problem per se.

Oh, well, it’s still early. One of these days we’ll look at the Republicans.