|
|
Get the Latest News by Following PNRC on Social Media!
|
|
|
A Letter From Your President, Cupid Alexander |
|
Greetings Housers,
Over the last couple weeks, no matter if it’s a zoom meeting, a call in meeting, or a conversation with friends, I make sure to give myself a moment to be centered- to make sure I’m addressing what needs to be addressed, but also give myself a moment to breathe…can you all take a moment to inhale deep and exhale deep with me? 5…4…3…2…1…breathe in. Hold it. Breathe out. Feeling better? OK!
This month we have our annual housing conference online! This exciting for all of us, and you still have time to register your co-workers, leadership team, commissioners and those who would love to learn, engage and network with those in the housing industry all over the pacific northwest!
We are seeing advocacy actions on the national level scaling up, and we know each of you are critical to the conversations about the future- and are delivering a need that will support our most vulnerable citizens. Please be sure to keep an eye out on how you can “opt-in” to supporting NAHRO’s advocacy and initiatives.
As always, I thank you all for your hard work and leadership and I can’t wait to see you all at our E-conference!
With respect,
|
|
August Advocacy Week 3: Rental Assistance and Increase Housing Supply |
|
The Senate officially departed Washington last week, joining the House on its August recess. America is experiencing a housing crisis that did not have to be this severe. A severe lack of affordable housing in nearly every community in the country combined with decades of low wages have pushed many families to the brink financially. The Aspen Institute estimates that 30 million – 40 million families may be at risk of eviction in the coming months. As the country’s most experienced rental assistance system, Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) should be looked to work with families and landlords to administer this assistance. Congress alone can prevent mass homelessness in America. Tell Congress and the White House to approve rental assistance today and urge them to increase the affordable housing supply for the future.
The current affordable housing crisis take root in our community for years, which is now playing out catastrophically for many families. The persistent shortfall in new housing supply is compounding housing affordability pressure across the country. The Urban Land Institute estimates the current production of new affordable multifamily units, 100,000 annually, is not enough to meet existing needs. Since 1999, almost 300,000 permanently affordable units were removed from the inventory of public housing units.
At the core of recovery from the pandemic and the economic fall out should be a commitment to dramatically scale up production of affordable housing, creating quality jobs while giving Americans housing options.
|
|
Don't Have Time to Send Letters? Let the Service Office do so on your behalf. Just submit the form below! |
|
Individual Awards
NAHRO offers a variety of awards and recognition to persons who have made
outstanding contributions to the housing and
community development field.
DEADLINE EXTENDED
September 30, 2020
NAHRO’s most prestigious award honors an exceptionally qualified person who has made outstanding contributions to the quality of life through service in the field of housing or community development.
The International Research and Global Exchange Award, formerly known as the John D. Lange International Award, acknowledges a person who has made contributions to the international community.
The Commissioner of the Year Award, formerly known as the Elizabeth B. Wells Memorial Award, celebrates the accomplishments and service of an outstanding commissioner.
Emerging Leader Award highlights an individual who has been involved in NAHRO at the national level for six years or less and has distinguished him/herself as an Emerging Leader.
The award recognizes both a vendor partner and a housing agency or community development agency whose partnership best exemplifies a joint effort that creates positive change.
|
|
2020 Virtual Annual Conference
Session Sneak Peek
|
|
HUD Staff will demo the HCV Two-Year Tool. This tool is available on HUD’s website and is intended to provide PHA’s an option for forecasting leasing and spending over a two (and now longer) period of time. PHA’s can test scenarios considering variables including attrition, success rate of issued vouchers, time to lease a unit, the cost per unit and funding proration. HUD staff will also take a look at HUD’s Payment Standard tool which allows a PHA to determine the effect of the payment standard change on both participant rent burdens, over time, as well as the associated cost effects on a PHA’s HAP payments. |
|
Help Available for Idaho Renters |
|
Help Available For Idaho Renters
Help us make sure these valuable resources are directed to renters in need
Hello,
We are reaching out to be sure you are aware of this valuable program aimed at helping renters affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic crisis. The Housing Preservation Program (HPP) is available only to Idaho renters and provides assistance not only for rent, but utilities as well.
If you know anyone who needs assistance, please share this information with them.
To learn more about the Housing Preservation Program and its eligibility requirements, click here or go to idahohousing.com/covid-19.
A call-line (1-855-452-0801) is available to applicants in need of assistance with submitting an application. You may be able to assist applicants by making a phone available for call line access, providing internet access, scanning documents and/or submitting documents to IHFA via fax.
The following resources are available for you when messaging your clients. If there is anything else we can provide to assist with this effort, please let us know by emailing marcomm@ihfa.org.
Thank you.
Resources:
Need help paying your rent? This program could help you. The Housing Preservation Program can provide short-term rent and utility support for Idahoans affected by the pandemic. For more information on eligibility and how to apply, visit idahohousing.com/covid-19.
- Email template for your contacts:
Subject Line: Need help paying your rent or utilities? This program could help you.
Body:
Dear Renter,
Have you, a friend or family member been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and can't afford to pay your rent or utilities? Idaho Housing and Finance Association has a program that could help you pay your rent and may prevent eviction.
To learn more about the Housing Preservation Program or to see if you are eligible, click here or go to idahohousing.com/covid-19 and click on the "Help for renters: Housing Preservation Program" tab to submit an application.
|
|
Inspiration For Tomorrow: 2020 Conference Keynote Speakers Eric Bailey & Calvin Terrell |
|
Brought to you by Keybanc Capital Markets |
|
Eric Bailey
Tuesday's Keynote Speaker
|
|
Calvin Terrell
Wednesday's Keynote Speaker
|
|
Our Keynotes Speakers are made available thanks to our Platinum Sponsor Keybanc Capital Markets |
|
|
|
New HUD rule counters Fair Housing Act
by Andrew Lofton, Executive Director, Seattle Housing Authority; Stephen Norman, Executive Director, King County Housing Authority; Michael Mirra, Executive Director, Tacoma Housing Authority; Mark Gropper,Executive Director, Renton Housing Authority
|
|
As leaders of public housing authorities in the Puget Sound region, we are distressed that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is enacting a new rule that is directly counter to the Federal Fair Housing Act, which requires all federal agencies to affirmatively further fair housing in the administration of their programs. As the primary housing oversight arm of the federal government, HUD bears a particular responsibility to do this.
An important tool for this purpose has long been HUD’s regulation requiring local and state governments, as a condition of receipt of federal funding, to demonstrate that they are affirmatively furthering fair housing. Yet, in its new rule, HUD is largely removing any meaningful enforcement by terminating the current Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule and its reporting requirements.
HUD explains the rule change as a deference to local control, and even calls it “Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice.” The administration has suggested that accountability on matters of housing discrimination by state and local recipients of federal funding would “destroy the suburbs.”
This shows an astonishing disregard of the national and local racial history in housing policy, how that history still shows prominently in the nation’s local housing markets and the impassioned outcry in this country right now for meaningful change in racial inequity.
Intentional federal policies over a hundred years, with the full complicity of local and state governments, incented or mandated overt racial exclusion of people of color from most neighborhoods and from programs that built a prosperous middle class. They encouraged the redlining of credit necessary to purchase homes and promoted exclusionary zoning, actions that were extensively supported by public and private connivance, and even violence.
This history of racial injustice in housing policy has played a pivotal role in racial inequity overall. The lack of homeownership, household wealth gap, concentrations of people of color in neighborhoods with underfunded schools and a lack of well-paying jobs, disparities in health outcomes and disproportionate levels of homelessness all trace to deliberate local and national housing policies. What this means is that there is not only a lot of work to do, there is also a lot of work to undo.
The doing and undoing of this work is the central purpose of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule. The housing challenge, and the nation’s challenge, is to create diverse communities that eliminate deeply embedded dividing lines by race, income, color, gender, national origin, language, age and physical ability.
HUD’s rule change disavows the federal role in creating the problem, delegates the solution to communities that helped to create it and abdicates the federal responsibility for fixing it that is embedded in the Fair Housing Act.
We encourage anyone who believes we need strong anti-racist housing laws that include accountability to contact HUD and members of Congress.
|
|
2020 Virtual Annual Conference
Session Sneak Peek
|
|
This session will discuss alternatie ways to finance your project, including using average income, hybrid 4% and 9% projects and opportunity zones. Thomas Stagg, Partner with Novogradac & Company LLP will also talk about issues to be aware of with seller carryback notes, layered financing and more. |
|
Commerce awards $12.5 million to preserve affordable housing in rural communities |
|
State Housing Trust Fund to help preserve 150 units facing expiration of low-income use restrictions
OLYMPIA, WA – The Washington State Department of Commerce today announced $12.5 million in grants from the state’s Housing Trust Fund to seven affordable housing projects located in rural communities throughout the state.
- Catholic Housing Services of Eastern Washington, $2.5 million for Pine Crest project in Deer Park
- Housing Authority of Chelan County and city of Wenatchee, $1.64 million for Bavarian Village Apartments in Leavenworth
- Housing Authority of Okanogan County, $1.69 million for Elmwood Apartments in Okanogan
- Housing Authority of Okanogan County, $2 million for Peach Tree Place in Brewster
- Joint Pacific County Housing Authority, $1.3 million for Pacific Place Apartments in South Bend
- Spokane Housing Ventures, $2.3 million for South Hill II project in Sunnyside
- Spokane Housing Ventures, $1 million for Sunnyside Manor, Sunnyside
“The need for affordable housing has only increased with the economic strain of COVID-19,” said Lisa Brown, director of the Department of Commerce. “These funds are essential to keep housing options available to vulnerable people and strengthen communities throughout the state.”
These grant funds will help preserve 150 multifamily rental units that are at risk of being lost from Washington’s stock of affordable housing due to expiration of low-income use restrictions on prior funding these projects received years ago from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development program. Owners are now eligible to pre-pay their USDA loans and sell their properties.
This investment by the state Housing Trust Fund will help nonprofit housing providers purchase and rehabilitate the seven properties, preserving them as affordable for the next 40 years.
Commerce received eight grant applications, requesting over $14 million. The $12.5 million announced today comes from a $10 million special appropriation to the Housing Trust Fund by the 2020 Legislature, provided solely to preserve units in multifamily rental housing projects that are at risk of losing affordability. Another $2.5 million will come from a $40 million flexible appropriation for affordable housing in the state’s 2020 Supplemental Budget.
“Thanks to this important $12.5 million capital investment, these units will continue to provide safe and affordable housing to the current tenants without displacing them. Moreover, many of the units will be able to continue to receive rent assistance from USDA for many years to come,” said Housing Trust Fund Managing Director Corina Grigoras.
|
|
2020 Virtual Annual Conference
Session Sneak Peek
|
|
Ethics plays a significant role in the life of a commissioner. Increases the commissioner's understanding of professional conduct guidelines, and the ability to recognize and appropriately address ethics-related issues and problems that may occur. Learn about industry laws and regulations impacting ethical conduct and build your capacity as a board member. This course, intended for the new commissioner and a refresher for the veteran, uses practical applications and skills assessment exercises to reinforce ethical concepts.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Both new and veteran Commissioners
TOPICS COVERED:
• Introductions and Expectations, Program Purpose and Objectives
• Introduction: global Perspectives on Ethics
• Defining Ethics and Ethical Conduct
• Ethical Dilemmas
• Ethics and Housing and Community Development
• Ethical Leadership: Improving Ethical Conduct within the H/VD Industry
|
|
A Message From Our Swag Sponsor
Yardi Systems
|
|
WHEN GRANDPARENTS LIVE WITH YOU: HOW TO PROTECT OLDER ADULTS AT HOME FROM COVID-19 |
|
Living with multiple generations in one home can be a wonderful way for children to bond with grandparents and for older adults to be an active part of family life. During the coronavirus pandemic, however, living in a multigenerational home requires some additional steps to prevent COVID-19. When there are multiple people in the household, there can be additional risk for older relatives who are more vulnerable to serious illness from COVID-19. This may be a particular worry for the essential workers who have to leave the home to provide the needed services for the community–like workers in healthcare, postal and delivery service, warehousing, food and grocery service, transportation, and sanitation.
If you have older adults living at home, or family members with medical conditions, take the following steps to protect them from possible infection.
If You Have to Go Outside the Home
If you need to leave your home to go to work or run errands, please take these steps to protect yourself and prevent carrying the virus into your home:
- Wear a cloth mask which covers your mouth and nose.
- Stay at least 6 feet away from others.
- Carry hand sanitizer or disinfecting wipes with you so that you can disinfect surfaces before you touch them or sanitize your hands if you don’t have access to running water.
- Travel alone, if possible. Try not to bring children with you. They are more likely to touch things in public and could carry those germs back to your home.
If You are an Essential Worker
Before leaving work, wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. When returning home from work, change your clothes and shoes and wash your hands, especially if you’ve had any interaction with others. Children who go to childcare should take the same steps.
|
|
With children home from school, grandparents and older relatives may enjoy taking care of children in the home. Unfortunately, children can carry the coronavirus disease and infect others. Grandparents, older relatives or adults with health conditions should not be the main caretakers for children whenever possible.
If you need childcare and are an essential worker living or working in King County, you can receive free childcare.
- If you live or work in King County, outside Seattle, please call the Child Care Aware of Washington Family Center at 1-800-446-1114.
-
If you live or work in City of Seattle, please fill out an interest form.
|
|
Inside the Home
If you cannot separate, try to stay 6 feet away from vulnerable family members when in the same room. We know it may be difficult or impossible to follow these recommendations in your home–after all, young children naturally want to cuddle and get close. Do the best that you can for your situation. It is most important to avoid close contact with vulnerable family members.
Providing Care
If you are the primary caregiver for an older adult in your home, and you help them with daily activities like bathing and getting dressed, take extra precaution. If possible, ask someone within your household who is not leaving the home for work to help them with these activities.
If you are the only one available to assist, please do the following:
- Wash your hands thoroughly before providing care.
- Wear a cloth face covering when providing care. Cloth face coverings should be worn by you and the person receiving care. You can use cloth masks, bandannas, or a piece of cloth tied snugly over the nose and mouth.
- If you use towels and wash cloths, make sure to use clean ones each time.
Preparing and Sharing Meals
When you cook meals:
- Wash your hands before, during, and after preparing food.
- Wash utensils and surfaces after each use.
- Cook foods to a high enough temperature to kill germs that can make you sick or give you food poisoning.
During meals, try to maintain 6 feet of distance between family members. If your table or dining space does not allow for this distancing, consider eating at different times, eating in separate rooms, or in a larger space that allows everyone to maintain six feet of distance.
To protect vulnerable family members:
- Every family member should wash their hands before and after eating.
- Wash serving utensils and dishes before vulnerable family members serve themselves foods.
- If prayer is part of your family’s mealtime routine, pray without holding hands.
|
|
Cleaning the Home
Clean and disinfect surfaces that your family frequently touches. Use a household cleaner to disinfect countertops, door knobs, handles and buttons in the kitchen, TV remotes, sink faucets, and anything else that people touch often. Do this more than once a day, if possible.
How to wash laundry
When doing laundry, take these steps to protect your family:
- Use the warmest temperature setting and dry items completely. If hand washing, use the warmest temperature possible and soak clothes for 20-30 minutes before rinsing.
- If you use a laundromat or shared laundry room, try to go at times when it’s least crowded. Stay at least six feet away from others.
- Wash your hands after handling dirty laundry.
|
|
Practice Healthy Habits
Every family member should practice healthy habits so they don’t get sick and expose vulnerable members of the household.
- Wash hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.
- Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or a sleeve.
Enjoy Time Together
Despite the challenges of this outbreak, living with older family members has so many benefits, including keeping strong bonds across generations. The daily social interaction also can lift the mental health of everyone in the home. Finding safe ways to continue to interact and demonstrate your affection for one another is important. Keep those conversations, stories and laughter coming, just from across the room! Thank you for all you do to protect and care for your family members who are in the high risk groups for COVID-19.
|
|
2020 Virtual Annual Conference
Session Sneak Peek
|
|
THREE EXPERT TIPS ON PANDEMIC DECISION-MAKING |
|
Like it or not, decision-making during a pandemic is complicated, and easy solutions might turn into long-term headaches. Here’s some advice for leaders looking to find a balance. |
Association leaders always face difficult decisions, but the ones they’re being asked to make now may be the toughest in a long time. They’re deciding how to make big changes quickly to salvage hard-hit revenue streams from meetings, sponsorships, and member dues. At the same time, they’re considering important operational questions, like whether and when to reopen offices or reduce their workforce through furloughs and layoffs.
Experts in careful decision-making have a few guideposts for leaders to follow as they’re navigating difficult choices brought on by COVID-19.
Agility needs to be balanced with caution. Many leaders are eager to respond on the fly to urgent needs, but acting too quickly can threaten long-term strategic efforts. Decision-making should take into account long-term goals, not just short-term initiatives, write Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott of Harvard Business School. “Strategic planning, converting strategic objectives into activities, is central to most organizations,” Groysberg and Abbott write. “Still, it is not possible to anticipate every event that might impact those plans. Executives need to be agile in order to adapt plans in response to unforeseen problems or opportunities. In doing so, they need to balance flexibility and speedy reaction times with long-term strategic focus. It is difficult to get this balance right!”
Now is a bad time for shortcuts. According to leadership strategist Brett Whysel, many people are tending toward the path of least resistance right now, but shortcuts are a bad idea. “In the absence of reliable information, analysis, and leadership, we are left with our gut feelings and decision-making shortcuts,” Whysel wrote recently in Forbes. “Yet, in a novel pandemic, we lack the experience and expertise to form reliable and unbiased intuitions or know which shortcuts work.” He recommends following the advice of trusted sources and being gracious to others doing their best to make hard decisions.
Clear decisions are critical in a pandemic that doesn’t follow common logic. As University of Pennsylvania law and psychology professor Tess Wilkinson-Ryan writes in The Atlantic, the complexity of the problem makes it difficult to resolve. Exploring the human impulse to “shame” other people’s bad decisions, she suggests that mistakes are inevitable when leaders don’t provide clear direction. “Individuals are being asked to decide for themselves what chances they should take, but a century of research on human cognition shows that people are bad at assessing risk in complex situations,” Wilkinson-Ryan writes. “During a disease outbreak, vague guidance and ambivalent behavioral norms will lead to thoroughly flawed thinking.”
The lesson for leaders: Be clear and specific in your decisions and how you communicate them. In the absence of that, the problem gets worse. Consider people’s inconsistent response to social-distancing recommendations.
“Most people congregating in tight spaces are telling themselves a story about why what they are doing is okay. Such stories flourish under confusing or ambivalent norms,” she writes. “People are not irrevocably chaotic decision makers; the level of clarity in human thinking depends on how hard a problem is. I know with certainty whether I’m staying home, but the confidence interval around ‘I am being careful’ is really wide. Concrete guidance makes challenges easier to resolve.”
|
|
Commissioners Fundamentals
Aug 26 - Sept 3
|
|
Length: Four (4) Three-hour modules of interactive study
Schedule:
Week 1
Wed, August 26 from 1:30-4:30pm ET
Thurs, August 27 from 1:30-4:30pm ET
Week 2
Wed, September 2 from 1:30-4:30pm ET
Thursy, September 3 from 1:30-4:30pm ET
Cost:
$410 Non-Member
$310 Members
Make sure to use Promo Code PNRC2020
(ALL CAPS) For an additional discount!
Please note this code must be used when registering as it cannot be retroactively applied.
Objectives: By the completion of this course, you will be able to:
· Identify the various roles of a commissioner
· Explore the principles of board governance
· Define the commissioner’s role in agency policies
· Describe the commissioner’s role in the oversight of agency finances, and
· Explore the boundaries and relationship between commissioners and the Executive Director
|
|
Training Description: Join our Commissioners Fundamentals course to create a strong foundation for your work as a housing commissioner. The commissioner’s role is complex and can be daunting at times. We hope you will join us as we:
• explore the roles and responsibilities of housing commissioners,
• discover the multi-faceted commissioner roles as advocate, leader, team builder and strategist, as well as the intricacies of board-staff relationships and boundaries,
• review the principles and strategies of board governance, as well as some of the oversight functions of the board.
This virtual classroom includes four online modules, over four days. You will need to attend all four days to receive your course completion certificate. Commissioners Fundamentals is one of two NAHRO courses required to obtain your NAHRO Commissioners Certification. Becoming a NAHRO Certified Commissioner is a great way to show your commitment to becoming a knowledgeable, engaged and ethical leader in your organization. Ethics for Commissioners is the other course you’ll want to complete to apply for your certification.
Who should attend? (e.g., position titles we can market to): This course is recommended for new housing commissioners, as well as experience commissioners wanting to expand their knowledge or working to complete their NAHRO Commissioners Certification.
|
|
MAKE SURE YOU USE PROMO PNRC2020 For Additional Discount When You Register!!
For more information, contact NAHRO Professional Development at
PNRC NAHRO Regional Service Officer | 202.580.7203
|
|
The murders and violent mistreatment of communities of color over these last months has compelled residents to take to the streets in one of the largest movements for racial equity and justice this nation has ever seen. That movement sets against the backdrop of a worldwide pandemic as well as broken systems that have led to health inequities, mass incarceration, growing economic inequality, increasing segregation and polarization, and concentrated poverty. Where are housing and community development leaders and organizations in the midst of this movement? Are we leading, present, or absent all together? This session will begin to unpack some of the answers to these questions, digging into policy shifts necessary for racial equity, confronting white supremacy culture within organizations, and exploring how housing and redevelopment organizations can move a collective equity agenda forward.
Members of NAHRO's Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Advisory Committee present a pointed and timely discussion on race, equity, and social justice featuring members of NAHRO's leadership. The discussion will focus on identifying areas of tension, sensitivity, and opportunity and seeking recommendations for remediation and reconciliation within NAHRO's footprint.
|
|
Be Sure To Complete the 2020 Census |
|
You have until Sept. 30 to complete the Census and be counted. It's important to participate in the 2020 Census which will determine funding our state and community receives, including emergency aid, housing assistance, health care, job programs and more. The federal government distributes more than $1.5 trillion in federal spending, and the results of the Census determine how much funding each state receives. The Census also determines the number of representatives Washington state has in the House of Representatives.
The 2020 Census is an effort to count everyone in the country. The Census is conducted every 10 years, so it's important that you are counted. The Census is a short questionnaire available in multiple languages that asks basic information about your household and the people who live in it. It takes less than ten minutes to answer the questionnaire. There are three ways to respond to the Census, either online, by mail or phone.
You may have received multiple mailings from the Census Bureau in March or April, including an invitation to respond to the 2020 Census and follow-up postcards and letters. If you do not respond online or by phone, you may also receive a paper questionnaire.
Census takers in your neighborhood
A key way to identify scam websites is to look at the website's address. All valid Census Bureau websites will always have ".gov" at the end. 2020census.gov provides key information about the 2020 Census and how to respond. My2020census.gov is the direct website address you can use to respond to the 2020 Census online. 2020census.gov will also direct you to my2020census.gov to respond.
It is important to know that the Census Bureau will not send unsolicited emails to request your participation in the 2020 Census. You won't receive Census Bureau emails unless you have signed up to receive them. Remember, the Census Bureau will never ask for your information via email. Further, during the 2020 Census, the Census Bureau will never ask for:
- Your Social Security number.
- Your bank account or credit card numbers.
- Anything on behalf of a political party.
- Money or donations.
In addition, the Census Bureau will not contact you on behalf of a political party.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
