Transitions

By Marty Bell
March 1, 2017 4 min read

Transitions are times of anxiety and uncertainty. We know what we have, but we don’t know what we are going to get. Patience is probably the best antidote. It is difficult to anticipate outcomes. But that is not going to stop us.

This month we attempt to shed a little bit of light on how our governmental transition may impact our industry.

We begin with Darryl Hicks’ interview with former Federal Housing Administration Commissioner Brian Montgomery, who served at the end of the Bush Administration, and walks us through the goings on within the Department of Housing and Urban Development during a time of transition. (Talking Heads) I have always been interested in how the career employees within government with a variety of party loyalties find the means to collaborate with a new administration that may not share their viewpoints, and Commissioner Montgomery tries to explain that.

While it may not be a surprise that Dr. Ben Carson, with his accomplishments in medicine and education, accepts a role in President Donald Trump’s cabinet, it is surprising that the position is HUD Secretary. How will the experiences and philosophies that made Carson a hero in other fields cross over into housing policy? I take a stab at that one. (Life’s Lessons)

We all share a fear that the tax cuts the new administration promises may create a struggle for us to maintain the credits that support our development. The best argument for sustaining our support might well be the experiences of the people who live in our buildings. Aware of potential change amidst the turmoil of the election, the forward thinking Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority created “Portraits of the Human”(Our Renters’ Stories) that captures the emotional journeys of residents in both photos and interviews. We are honored to grace both our cover and our pages this month with the intensely beautiful and moving portraits by Tom Casalini, Indiana’s state photographer and a serious visual artist with a unique eye.

“I felt really blessed to be able to do this,” Casalini said from his studio in Zionsville, IN. “Many people have a negative attitude towards affordable housing. They don’t understand it is caused by circumstance: the man who had an auto accident, broke his back and lost his job; the vet who has trouble fitting back into the community and finding a job; divorced women and single moms; the broke man who was able to start a photography business because he lived in affordable housing until the business enabled him to buy a house. Affordable housing enables people with problems to hit the reset button.”

We have done a good amount of coverage of the dreaded NIMBYism as an obstacle to providing the housing that communities desperately need. Last month, Sharon Dworkin Bell, who occupies the office next to mine, handed me a story that appeared in Forbes Magazine about the YIMBYism movement. That’s “YES in My Backyard.” I not only was eager to share the story with all of you, but I was determined to attract its writer, Scott Beyer, to our team.

Scott, whose website is Big City Sparkplug, is traveling to 36 different American cities, one per month over three years. In addition to finding his YIMBY Nation piece, in this issue we introduce Scott’s new monthly column, “Housing USA.” Every city has its own housing issues and so each month Scott will report to us from his current location, beginning this month with Los Angeles.

Welcome Scott. I feel like a sports general manager who just made a move he believes upgrades his team.

Marty Bell
Editor

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