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Event: Financing Public Housing Preservation

PRESERVING PUBLIC HOUSING: ISSUES AND OPTIONS
Session III: Financing Public Housing Preservation

July 28, 2010
2:00-4:00 p.m. ET

Listen to the event

Audio Recording

Panelists:

  • Stephen I. Holmquist, Attorney, Reno & Cavanaugh PLLC
  • Jill Khadduri, Ph.D., Principal Associate, Housing and Community Revitalization, Abt Associates, Inc.
  • Matt Schwartz, President and CEO, California Housing Partnership
  • Will Fischer, Senior Policy Analyst, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (moderator)
  • Rolf Pendall, Director, Center on Metropolitan Housing and Communities, The Urban Institute (moderator)
This is the third in a series of forums on issues raised by Obama Administration's proposed Preservation, Enhancement and Transformation of Rental Assistance Act (PETRA).

Public housing confronts a backlog of capital repair needs that likely exceeds $20 billion. PETRA proposes to address those needs by providing higher subsidies and making it easier for housing agencies to leverage these subsidiesto obtain private financing. Panelists will discuss the potential of this approach to generate resources to renovate public housing developments, the risks raised by mortgage financing and the options for minimizing those risks, and other strategies beyond those proposed in PETRA that could generate resources to preserve public housing.

This proposed legislation calls for converting public and some other subsidized housing to a new type of Section 8 rental assistance, leveraging public funding to access private capital to meet public housing preservation needs, and expanding housing choices for assisted housing residents. The proposal has far-reaching implications for the future of public housing – and ithas been met with both praise and criticism from stakeholders.

The forums will focus on three sets of critical policy issues raised by PETRA: residents' rights and participation, the financing of public housing preservation, and housing choice and mobility. In each session, a panel of expert practitioners and scholars will discuss these issues in light of their experience in the field and the evidence from relevant bodies of research, as well as the options for addressing concerns expressed by tenants, housing authorities, and others.

At the Urban Institute
2100 M Street N.W., 5th Floor, Washington, D.C.

 
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