The Community Development and Housing Committee, chaired by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, met on January 18 to discuss a number of policy issues, including homelessness funding, predatory lending, HUD transition and plans of the Millennial Housing Commission.

Seattle Mayor Paul Schell presented a letter to be sent to President George W. Bush which requests a "three-fold increase in McKinney Act funding." Mayor Schell urged the mayors to sign the letter which would be sent by the City of Seattle.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Dwight Robinson, Senior Vice President of Corporate Relations of Freddie Mac, next introduced an anti-predatory lending toolkit. Mayor Menino and Dwight Robinson explained that abusive and predatory lending practices are threatening the increased homeownership rates in America's cities. To help cities protect families and neighborhoods, Freddie Mac developed a toolkit based on an effort originally pioneered in Boston called "Don't Borrow Trouble." Last year, Freddie Mac expanded the "Don't Borrow Trouble" campaign to 12 additional cities. With the announcement by Mayor Menino and Robinson, the toolkit will be made available to all cities. The toolkit includes a CD-ROM containing the art work for all print materials, a video tape containing PSAs ready for dubbing, and template letters and fact sheets. Instructions on how to use the materials are included.

Robert L. Woodson, Team Leader of the HUD Transition Team for President George W. Bush then briefed the mayors on the efforts of the transition team. Woodson, opened his remarks with an overview of the themes of HUD Secretary Mel Martinez. He said that Secretary. Martinez will focus a lot of his attention on growth management issues, having had experience with the issue by serving as chair of a task force on growth management established by Florida's Governor Jeb Bush. Woodson said that Secretary Martinez is contemplating the establishment of an inter-agency task force on growth management. Other themes of Secretary Martinez are affordable housing and the availability of housing.

Woodson told the mayors that several new housing programs are being discussed. During the campaign, President George W. Bush talked about section 8 vouchers for down-payment and closing costs assistance that would help low-income citizens become homeowners. Another program would be the creation of an investor-based tax that would be used to build single family homes and rehabilitate abandoned housing.

Finally, Woodson said that Secretary Martinez wants "to work in partnership with mayors, with county executives, and governors, in delivering programs and ensuring that HUD products are acceptable by those who need them." To that end, Woodson added, the Secretary "wants to reformulate some of the HUD programs and make them more user friendly."

Conrad Eagan, Executive Director of the Millennial Housing Commission, briefed the mayors on the activities of the congressionally mandated group. Quoting the co- chairman of the group, Susan Molinari, Mr. Egan said, "there are over 28 million American households from all walks of life, working families, middle income people, the elderly, the handicap, and others, who do not have access to decent affordable housing. We've been charged by Congress to recommend legislation that will deal with how all levels of government can help foster affordable housing." The other co-chairman, Richard Ravitch, raised several basic questions. Eagan said, "how do we increase the role of the private sector; how do we leverage community and economic development; and, particularly, how are our federal, state, and local housing programs doing? Are they doing everything they should be, everything they can be doing?"

Eagan told the committee that the Millennial Housing Commission would spend about one year gathering information for a report that is due to Congress in March 1, 2002. The timetable will be very fast, but the Commission, which will be formed into six task forces, and hold a series of field hearings, looks "forward to a special relationship with the United States Conference of Mayors and looks forward to working with the mayors very actively, Eagan said.

The Committee then heard from Nicky Gavron, Deputy Mayor, Labour Party, and Meg Hillier, Labour Party, North East Constituency, both of the London City Government. Deputy Mayor Gavron and Ms. Hillier explained to the mayors how London is dealing with the problem of population density and housing.

A number of acknowledgments were made at the end of the meeting. Rockford Mayor Charles Box, who has decided not to seek reelection, was praised by Mayor Brown and the members of the committee for 12 years of service. Mayor Box held a number of positions at the Conference of Mayors, including Chair of the Community Development and Housing Committee.

Mayor Brown then thanked several members of the Clinton administration, who had been particularly helpful to the Committee, including Cardell Cooper, HUD Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development and former Mayor of East Orange, Nancy Kirshner-Rodriguez, HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Relations and Christiana Simpson, Intergovernmental Relations, FEMA.