Hello housers!

 

It seems that more and more we are an industry in flux. The one thing we know for sure is that nothing stays the same. In fact, sometimes even catching one's breath before the next big change comes along can be a challenge. This has made us extremely reactive as opposed to being proactive as those not actually working in the trenches determine what works best for our agencies and for our residents. I challenge us to strive to change this.

 

I look at RAD as an example. RAD has provided great opportunity for many of our agencies to move out of public housing, retain ownership, and address a backlog of repairs and needed upgrades. Although this vehicle has been a perfect answer for many agencies, we must be mindful that it just doesn't work for many others. While RAD makes it clear that HUD would prefer to move away from the Public Housing portfolio, what happens to the agencies that are left behind?

 

Another example is the growing discussion around regionalization/consolidation. It has always been my position, and the position of NAHRO, that voluntary consortia/consolidation are absolutely appropriate when so determined by the participating PHAs. The key word in that statement is voluntary.  Community needs are best met through local control and should not be mandated.

 

So what does work? What are the viable options? Although I do not have specific answers, I do have ideas about how we get there. I know that, as housers, we have a deep understanding of our programs. Additionally, I know that we are an especially creative group of professionals. Using that knowledge and creativity, we should be the ones who are able to develop specific solutions and drive advocacy for those specific program changes or implementations.

 

I have heard so many creative and well thought out ideas that range from ways to move our properties out of the public housing portfolio and still maintain ownership to thoughts on term limit implementation. We need to be talking about these ideas openly as opposed to having hushed, in the back corner conversations out of fear HUD will hear or that our colleagues will laugh. Let's be bold! Let's brainstorm and then share the ideas that make sense. Let's change our conversations from those focused around surviving every rule change thrown our way to creative and possibility thinking discussions. These are ways our ideas can begin to take hold and to grow.

 

Begin the discussion today! If you have specific ideas, share them! I would love to hear them!