By Eugene T. Lowe
January 31, 2005

Mayors were briefed on a bipartisan housing strategy, the Habitat for Humanity Asian Tsunami disaster relief effort, the Office of Thrift Supervision's regulation to weaken the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and the potential cut of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, during the meeting of the Community Development and Housing Committee. The Committee, chaired by Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman, met on January 17 during the 73rd Winter Meeting of the Conference of Mayors.

Henry G. Cisneros, former HUD Secretary during the first term of President Bill Clinton, discussed the essence of a book that he authored with former HUD Secretary Jack F. Kemp, Kent W. Colton, and Nicolas P. Retsinas. The book, "Opportunity and Progress: A Bipartisan Platform for National Housing Policy", written by a bipartisan team of two Democrats' Cisneros and Retsinas — and two Republicans — Kemp and Colton — offers a number of recommendations to address the nation's housing problem.

Cisneros, now chair of American CityVista, a homebuilding enterprise focused on "villages within the city" in the central neighborhoods of metropolitan areas, said that "the most important advances in housing have come about when there has been a bipartisan effort." He said that it is important that mayors recognize that housing is an issue for them. Cisneros said, "Mayors must be attentive to housing."

Cisneros then outlined a continuum of seven steps of housing in the United States that is developed in the book: Step 1- Emergency Shelter Beds; Step 2 — Supportive Housing; Step 3 — Public Housing; Step 4 — Subsidized Rental Housing; Step 5 — Market Rate Rental Housing; Step 6 — Entry Level Homeownership; Step 7 — Sustained Homeownership. Along with the seven steps, an examination of housing should also include a number of larger factors such as housing affordability, the supply of housing, demographics (housing units that must be produced for a growing population), labor market trends, and regulatory barriers to affordable housing.

The book presents twelve recommendations, but Cisneros' remarks concentrated on six recommendations that he said is directly related to mayors. He encouraged the mayors to take an active part in resolving these issues: 1) reducing chronic homelessness; 2) redirecting public housing streams and supporting the restoration of HOPE VI, the severely distressed public housing program that has been effectively used by cities across the nation; 3) protecting housing vouchers; 4) eliminating barriers to the production of workforce housing; 5) encourage employer- assisted housing; and 6) help enforce fair housing and fair lending laws.

Tom Jones, Vice President of Habitat for Humanity International, in speaking of his organization's Asian Tsunami disaster relief effort said that volunteers over the last three weeks have taken on emergency tasks — medical care, purification of water, delivering supplies, etc. "This week", he said, " we are beginning the formidable task of providing housing in the long range. And this is the challenge that we bring to the Conference of Mayors." Jones said that "we have divided our efforts into two phases. The first phase is to get as many people who are presently in relief camps out of those camps and to begin to help them have decent housing. The goal is to provide 25,000 homes for persons in the relief camps over the next six months. For the next 18 months, Habitat will move these persons into permanent homes." Jones also said that Habitat is also developing training centers to teach people how to go about building their own homes. To accomplish all of this, Habitat is appealing for $25 million dollars.

Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street outlined his city's approach to fighting the possible cuts to the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. Newspaper accounts report that CDBG could be cut by as much as 50 percent in the FY06 budget, which will be released on February 7. Street said, "to receive a 50 percent cut would have a devastating effect. It would mean that Philadelphia would lose $30 million dollars." The mayor said that we can show that $21 million dollars in CDBG funds turned into over $200 million in affordable housing." The strategy that Philadelphia is pursuing, Street said, "could be effective in other cities." Street said, "We are organizing bankers, builders, building trade unions, city departments, advocates and other constituencies. Builders will work with their state and national associations. If we broadened the interests of CDBG to engage in this effort, we can be successful. From our point of view, this is a fight that we cannot afford to lose."

Josh Silver, Vice President of Research and Policy, of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), briefed the mayors on the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) proposed changes to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations that will reduce lending, investments, and banking services in low- and moderate-income communities. Thrifts are the nation's savings and loans, which have traditionally focused on home lending. The OTS will allow large thrifts with more than $1 billion dollars in assets to pick and choose which community needs they will meet. CRA requires banks and thrifts to meet all needs, not pick and choose among them. The mayors responded to Silver's remarks with a decision to send a letter to the OTS opposing the proposed changes. The letter would be signed by mayors attending the 73rd Winter Meeting of the Conference of Mayors.