National Housing Conference's Robert Reid

There’s a crisis in the land. It’s not terrorism and it’s not subleases and it’s not the economic slump. It’s a shortage in affordable housing that, according to Robert Reid, executive director of the National Housing Conference (nhc.org), will only get worse next year. The head of the Washington, DC-based lobbying group says that a new but inadequate HUD budget, coupled with a growing number of investors itchy to take their affordable housing to market rates and a presidential administration that is at best lukewarm to the concept are all contributing to a crisis that is the worst since the 1930s. This has been a battle that the NHC has been fighting since its inception in 1931, says Reid. The 800-member group is comprised of state and local officials, community-development specialists, builders, bankers, investors, syndicators, insurers, owners, residents, labor leaders, lawyers, accountants, architects and planners and religious leaders. And yet, the problems continue. Here is Reid’s take on the current crisis.

GlobeSt.com: On many levels–economic, political, social–these are not fast times in the affordable housing sector. What is the tone in Washington, DC, particularly with a new administration in place?

Reid: It’s not very good right now, but that’s largely because of the continued squeeze on the domestic budget. In terms of the Bush administration, there seems to be no change from the Clinton years, although the White House now is less warm and fuzzy to affordable housing. This could be simply that their commitment has not been made evident yet. The new $30-billion HUD budget is really a standstill budget, which means that while they advertise that they’ve increased the budget by a billion or a billion and half dollars, it’s really a little less because of prior years’ obligations. If we adjusted the HUD budget for inflation since 1980, it should be in excess of $80 billion now.Also, while there was an increase in low-income-housing tax credits, it is still inadequate; it comes down to $3 billion per year, which sounds like a lot of money, but not when it’s compared to need.