CNU summit takes on low-cost housing issues

With debate over low-cost housing policy increasingly polarized between those hostile to government housing programs and those who ignore the potential of market-based solutions, the Congress for the New Urbanism is spearheading an effort to promote a more constructive approach. In March, CNU will host a housing summit at the Johnson Foundation’s Wingspread Conference Facility in Racine, WI, featuring a small group of high-powered housing experts and policy specialists. In bringing staunch critics of government programs together with government officials, advocates, and experts in urban design, CNU plans to shift the focus to effective ways of providing affordable housing in today’s difficult fiscal environment. The idea for the summit grew out of the rewarding experience new urbanists had in shaping the federal government’s Hope VI program – and the frustration they experienced watching it get dismantled. In helping the Clinton Administration create the framework for replacing failing high-rise housing projects, new urbanist designers such as Ray Gindroz and Dan Solomon showed the powerful benefits of remaking these sites into close-knit urban neighborhoods containing a diverse mix of low-income and market-rate housing — and a diverse mix of residents. When the program won an Innovations in American Government Award in 2000, it seemed a hopeful sign that federal policy would better acknowledge the role of urban design in helping the nation meet its housing needs. Hope VI came under attack, however, with the Bush Administration slashing funding, citing development backlogs at some local housing bureaucracies. (The critique overlooked those housing authorities that excelled in implementing Hope VI’s mixed-finance model and administrative fixes to the program that had begun improving local performance markedly.) Led by Howard Husock, a director of case studies at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, influential critics were soon arguing for a federal withdrawal from government-owned housing on the grounds that the private market and charities could perform better. Traditional housing advocates succeeded in restoring some of the cuts but haven’t effectively engaged the critics’ arguments. With the Wingspread conference, CNU sees an opportunity to restart the stalled discussion. “What happened to Hope VI was unfair, but given the federal government’s huge deficits, it’s not realistic to expect full-scale federal funding to return anytime soon,” said CNU President and CEO John Norquist. “Policymakers must examine things such as market capitalization of low-cost housing and regulatory reforms that make it easier to build urban types like the duplex or three-flat that traditionally met part of the need for affordable housing.” uniquely qualified With its experience bridging the worlds of urban design, government regulation, and real estate development, CNU is in a unique position to contribute to the discussion. New urbanists agree that the market could do a much better job of providing low-cost housing if zoning regulations were changed in much of the country to legalize the urban form. Similarly, secondary mortgage providers such as Fannie Mae favor single-family homes over multifamily residences or mixed-use buildings, distorting the housing market and reducing the supply of affordable housing. Conservatives have led recent criticism of Fannie Mae. “If they’re serious about market-based reforms, we want to be in on the discussion,” said Norquist. Invitees to the summit include Husock; former HUD housing administrator Elinor Bacon; Sam Staley of the Buckeye Institute; former chief Freddie Mac economist Richard Green; Peter Calthorpe of Calthorpe Associates; Ray Gindroz of Urban Design Associates; Jonathan Miller, ranking Senate staffer on the Housing, Banking, and Urban Affairs Committee. The summit is receiving the generous support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In his talks with the conservatives, Norquist has heard an underlying belief that existing federal housing programs foster a culture of dependency and single-parent families. He suspects the debate on federal housing policy today may be where federal welfare policy was in the early 1980s, before it experienced rigorous debate and finally compromise. “The conservatives won the AFDC debate but President Clinton dominated the dismantling of “welfare as we know it,” improving welfare reform with enhanced earned income credits, child care and healthcare support for the working poor. The AFDC debate may well be the model for where the policy on public housing should go.” Housing’s new reality Ray Gindroz, principal of Urban Design Associates, says there’s no denying “a new reality” in the government’s orientation toward housing. ”If there is any financial function for the federal government, it’s going to be greatly diminished,” says Gindroz. He believes a major goal of the summit should be identifying and connecting with alternative players ready to tackle mixed-income, mixed-finance strategies that build community and provide housing for those who need it, perhaps creating new models for government involvement. Another task will be repairing the reputation of Hope VI, which, rather than continuing cycles of dependency, actually made significant strides in breaking them. “There’s an almost untold story of the great social benefits of the Hope VI program,” adds Gindroz. “It turned a program that reinforced lifelong dependency into one that promotes independence and opportunity. And it saw federal and other government intervention not as a “spaceship” that lands on a community but something that becomes a tool for communities to use in rebuilding themselves.” u