Earlier this month, NACCED welcomed members from across the country to Washington, DC for NACCED’s annual Legislative Conference.
On Thursday, February 9, NACCED leadership took part in a Hill day with congressional offices, holding impactful conversations on the application of federal funding in counties. Federal initiatives discussed included the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME). NACCED met with the offices of Representatives Kay Granger (R-TX), Sean Casten (D-IL), Lauren Underwood (D-IL), Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), and Senator Tina Smith (D-MN).
NACCED staff have created educational one pagers on both HOME and CDBG for member use in their advocacy efforts. To access these files click here.
On Friday, February 10 NACCED welcomed additional members from across the country both in-person and virtually to take part in its 2023 Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. Participants were greeted by NACCED President Tonja-West Hafner before engaging in conversation with NACCED Policy Director Josh Brandwein and National Association of Counties (NACo) Legislative Director Mike Matthews on a discussion covering an outlook for the 118th Congress and what to expect from congressional action throughout the year.
Next, attendees heard presentations on trends presently affecting housing, community development, and homeownership. The first topic, “Office to Residential Conversions: Scalable Opportunity or Too Unique to a City Block?” by Up for Growth Senior Policy Analyst Anjali Kolachalam, reflected on community development in a post-pandemic world. A timely topic, members engaged in the opportunity to learn about recent efforts to transform previously vacant commercial properties into home dwelling units and how that will impact city centers nationally.
Next, attendees heard a presentation considering perspectives from both an analytical and congressional vantage point on the growing concern over institutional investment in affordable housing and its detrimental effects on communities in recent years. CoreLogic Principal Economist Molly Boesel presented trends in property investment and housing affordability, followed by remarks from Thomas Mayo, Legislative Assistant to U.S Representative Adam Smith. Thomas discussed the Saving Homes from Acquisition by Private Equity (SHAPE) Act, an upcoming Congressional response to slowing the spread of this type of investing and which applies an increased real estate property transfer tax for large private investors. Members of Congress in both chambers are interested in solving this problem through proposed legislative solutions, seeking to further federal restrictions that prevent institutional investment and, in turn, increase affordable housing.
A highlight of the event, NACCED welcomed representatives from HUD for the afternoon’s conversations. HUD Community Planning and Development (CPD) Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS) Marian McFadden provided members with updates on upcoming HUD action regarding CDBG and HOME reform. Other areas of interest covered included increased disaster recovery aid, green housing support to promote clean energy growth, technical assistance feedback, current existing program funding priorities and a discussion about HUD’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing proposed rule. PDAS McFadden emphasized that HUD desires to be a partner with its local government grantees.
Following PDAS McFadden’s remarks, Paul Webster, Director, Financial Management Division and Jorge Morales, CPD Specialist/ Loan Origination Team Lead, HUD presented on the uses of the Section 108 Loan Guarantee Program.
James Hoemann, Director, Entitlement Communities Division, HUD Office of Block Grant Assistance, presented a CDBG overview. James provided attendees an update on CDBG expenditure priorities, technical assistance opportunities and HUD’s upcoming celebration of CDBG’s 50th anniversary. Members with ideas on how to promote the upcoming anniversary are encouraged to reach out to NACCED staff for next steps.
Following James, Virginia Sardone, Director, HUD Office of Affordable Housing Programs (OAHP), and Peter Huber, Deputy Director, OAHP, gave members an overview of HOME and further HUD rulemaking for 2023. Virginia and Peter provided a deep dive on initiatives including upcoming HOME reform later in the year, program performance concerns with uncommitted allocations and HOME American Rescue Plan (ARP) guidance.
Over the weekend of February 11-12 NACCED attended NACo’s 2023 Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. Members attended the Community, Economic and Workforce Development (CEWD) Policy Steering Committee where NACCED Representative to the NACo Board member Mary Keating, who serves as the Director of Community Services for DuPage County, IL, presented FY23 federal funding resolutions for the CDBG, HOME, and related programs. CEWD voted unanimously to adopt the resolution. Mary joined Cache Valley, UT Economic Development Director Shawn Milne and Clackamas County, OR Commissioner Martha Schrader to present a roundtable discussion called, “Are you utilizing your county staff?” Shawn, Mary and Martha reflected best practices for local elected officials and their staff to work together, including the importance of elected officials communicating their vision to their staff, and encouraging them to be involved in professional organizations like NACo and NACCED.
NACCED also had the pleasure of hearing from federal and state representatives during both the CEWD and Large Urban County Caucus (LUCC) meetings at the NACo Legislative Conference.
Jacob Leibenluft, Chief Recovery Officer and Counselor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury, provided an update on affordable housing assistance programs including emergency rental assistance, eviction prevention efforts, the Homeowner Assistance Fund and best practices for leveraging State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.
Jessica Ch'ng, Fellow, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education (ED) explained the rollout of the administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which included $65 billion in broadband investments. Jessica highlighted ED utilization of U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) Digital Equity Act Programs. These programs are administered through DOC’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and assist state digital equity plans to increase affordable broadband development in communities.
Mitsuko Herrera, Montgomery Connects Program Director, Montgomery County, MD gave the audience state perspectives on digital equity plans in action. Mitsuko gave attendees a state overview on identified communities of digital access need, youth-based tech employment programs and grant funded progress on affordable internet buildout.
NACCED is looking forward to joining NACo at their annual meeting this July in Travis County (Austin, TX).
NACCED Rep. to NACo, Mary Keating, pictured with Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL.)
