NMHC Annual Conference Panelists Focus on Housing Stability

SAN DIEGO—In one of the first national conferences to reconvene in person, NMHC held its annual conference this week in San Diego. Chief among the topics of conversation were the eviction moratorium and the $50 billion of federal Emergency Rental Assistance, which NMHC helped to secure.

Panelists during the opening general session say that eviction moratoriums “were never the right policy.” NMHC says that providing funds for residents and housing providers impacted by the pandemic is the key to ensuring the stability of residents and the housing industry.

President Doug Bibby said at the event that it is important to actually address the root cause of the financial distress faced by millions of Americans.

Moderated by Julie Smith of the Bozzuto Group, panelists in the opening session at the event discussed how to best navigate the myriad of state and local programs. Panelists talked about where they have had success securing funds and tools for communicating with residents among other things. They also shared how they have been impacted by protracted state and local eviction moratoriums and steps they’ve taken to mitigate the financial and legal exposure they have caused.

“Rental assistance is a super pressing issue for those who operate apartment communities around the country,” said Smith.

Stockton Williams, executive director of the National Council of State Housing Agencies, provided an overview of the programs to get the money out the door. “I know there is frustration,” he said. “Many of you need to be paid.”

Every state program is now open and most are beginning to make payments, he explained. But three obstacles or “realities” as he put it, about emergency rental assistance program that will not change are as follows:

The first is that, by law, emergency rental assistance is targeted to certain levels of income so some are deemed ineligible, he said. “The program is income targeted and is targeted to those who have experienced hardship.” The second thing he pointed to is that it is a government program, will require some paperwork and documentation and is bureaucratic. “The treasury department has publicly said there aren’t too many requirements for documentation, but that isn’t totally accurate.” The third challenge that Williams noted is that there are “lots and lots of programs so the way it is set up is that there are hundreds of cities, counties and Indian tribes. If you own here, for example, you are eligible for three different programs with different rules and requirements and the marketing isn’t the same across the board.”

Aside from those “inconvenient truths and uncomfortable realities,” he did say there are areas of opportunity and there are positives that can be built on. “The money will be around a while,” he said, noting that there is plenty of time to get the money. Williams also noted that there are also other resources coming that are finding their way to renters and “to your properties,” he said. “Most city budgets are actually doing better than it looked like they would at this time.”

Taryn Lewis, director of compliance at BH Management Services LLC, was up next talking about how her company has created a process and rent assistance task force comprised of regional managers. “We asked them to figure out what the programs would all look like and understand the terms and really push back if it was unattractive,” she said. “We were able to get some programs changed because of that. We have seen great success.”

Daryl Carter of Avanath Capital Management, who owns about 12,000 apartments in 13 states—many of which are section 8 housing—said that his company has greatly invested in its compliance division. For Avanath, they have had virtually no delinquencies in its section 8 portfolio. “It helps us that we have channels to most of those agencies already,” he said. “It is very difficult in 85% of our portfolio that residents can’t ghost us because there is an annual program where we have to interact with them.”

Many of the recovered delinquencies in Avanath’s portfolio came from Maryland, Virginia and California, he said, because many of those were implemented through some of the housing authorities the company already interacts with. He also noted that with section 8, there is already a payment set up so it has been easier.

Moderator Smith added that for those in conventional housing, who don’t already have those relationships with the housing authorities, that extra organizational challenge has been difficult. Walt Smith, Avenue5 Residential LLC, who has more than 80,000 units, predominantly on the West Coast, also discussed how this has all played out with his company. “We have experienced a dichotomy of experiences during Covid.” The number of payment plans in various markets and the amount of delinquency from submarket to submarket is substantially different,” he said.

The other dynamic he noted is dealing with the differences in the experiences his firm has had in collecting funds. “We have been most successful in the Midwest, Southeast and Northeast,” he said. “We have hardly collected a dime from California, while Utah, for example, has prepaid some rents.”

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