GlobeSt.com: In terms of growing the inventory of affordable housing, what can the local--or even the state or federal--government do that local developers and investors haven't been able to accomplish?

Menino: Local government has some tools available to us. We have vacant land and buildings, and we can establish our own housing funds, either through property dispositions or special revenue streams such as linkage dollars. We have done both in Boston, providing more than $30 million in housing funds from surplus property dispositions and millions more in linkage dollars.

GlobeSt.com: Your concern at the National Housing Forum went far beyond a single focus on affordable. If Congress accepts your proposals, what would you hope the forum will initiate in terms of public/private partnerships, the creation of private-developer incentives and changes in dispersals of tax incentives and HUD programs?

Menino: As a result of the Forum, I'd like to see the enlistment of new partners, both to advocate for more resources at the national level and participate in solving our housing crisis. This can mean more participation in employer-assisted housing, more universities taking responsibility for building on-campus units, unions building housing that members can afford and so on. I'd like to see more mixed-income housing, so that we don't build housing for the richest and the poorest. We need more low-income housing, but we cannot isolate that housing.

GlobeSt.com: Doesn't any policy recommendation that emanates from the forum bring with it the drag of bureaucracy? How can you justify that in the case of such a critical need?

Menino: Getting resources to the local level is the most efficient way of building housing. Some people want all the housing money to go to the states, which adds an extra layer of bureaucracy. We support local developers, for profit and non-profit, and in cities like Boston, where the need is so great that we meet weekly to fast-track this housing.

GlobeSt.com: What is the crisis like in Boston and how does it stack up against the other cities that were represented in the forum?

Menino: Different cities have different needs, which is why we need flexible programs out of Washington. In Boston, private-market prices have skyrocketed, and we don't have large tracts of land upon which to build massive numbers of units, so we have to put housing wherever we can. This means more downtown units, more mixed-use buildings and more creativity to put housing where we can.

GlobeSt.com: Don't politicians who embrace low-income development run the risk of alienating other members of the voting populace?

Menino: We have to communicate to people the need for housing. The National Housing Coalition says that we'll need 11 million more units over the next decade. They can't all be for the wealthiest among us. That's why I advocate for mixed-income developments.

GlobeSt.com: Summarize the forum's goals in each of the areas broken out for discussion.

Menino: We hope to expand access to homeownership at a price that young families can afford and reach out to the communities of color that have been left behind. The President's homeownership tax credit would help.

In the realm of rental housing, the goal is production, particularly in high-cost areas like Boston. We need a new federal initiative in this area. We should also provide an additional tax credit for the creation of moderate-income units--the Low Income Tax Credit gets you 25%; a moderate-income credit should be set at 10 to 15%.

In public housing, we urge that cuts stop in such areas as capital repairs and drug elimination. Then we need to build on the success of programs like HOPE VI and turn public housing into areas of "opportunity" with job training and business-creation assistance. Then we need to create transitional housing for those who want to move up the ladder.

To preserve low-income housing, we need to create new incentives for non-profits and others to acquire expiring-use units, give current tenants protection and compensate communities that lose these units with funds for replacing them.

GlobeSt.com: How do you address NIMBY-ism personally?

Menino: Part of it is education. Part of it giving suburban communities the capacity to build housing. Cities have CDCs, and they have well-trained staffs. Towns do not. In my state, I advocated for a statewide housing-development authority that could partner with localities to get housing built. The authority would bring the knowledge and expertise as well as some resources; the town would supply the land and the knowledge of the local community.

Thomas Menino