ProInspire is now identifying nonprofits in the Washington DC region to serve as hiring partners for the 2015 ProInspire Fellowship. ProInspire Fellows are top professionals with 2-5 years of business or fundraising experience, and they spend one year working in a role focused on analysis, finance, fundraising, marketing, operations, or strategy. Fellows come from across the US, with experience at companies like Bain, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Google, JPMorgan, and Mediacom. Fellows can start their one year Fellowship between June and September 2015, based on partner needs. Find more details about hiring a ProInspire Fellow here.
5 Things to Know About the ProInspire Fellowship:
1. Due to the highly competitive selection process, only 4% of applicants are selected as Fellows each year
2. Over 63% of Fellows are persons of color
3. 81% of Fellows stay at their organization after the Fellowship ends
4. 80% of partners are very satisfied with ProInspire’s ability to find a candidate that meets their needs.
5. Our hiring partners indicate that an average salary of $64K would reflect the Fellow’s value to their organization.
Costs:
The total annual cost to hire a ProInspire Fellow is approximately $51k (Partners pay salary & health benefits to Fellow, and program fee to ProInspire).
Recommended Deadlines:
Fellow to start in June/July: April 20th
Fellow to start in Aug/Sep: June 19th
Enterprise Community Loan Fund (ECLF) is pleased to announce it has joined the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta (FHLBank Atlanta). As an FHLBank Atlanta member ECLF will have access to new resources, allowing the organization to further its work in strengthening communities by ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to live in an affordable home connected to good schools, jobs, transit and health care. ECLF joins a small group of approximately 30 community development financial institutions (CDFIs) currently participating as member institutions in the Federal Home Loan Bank System, and is only the fourth CDFI to have joined the FHLBank Atlanta cooperative.
To learn more, read the press release.
Nearly 150 HAND members, partners and friends joined us last week for the launch of GenerationHAND! This standing room only event brought out affordable housing and community development practitioners from nearly every sector within the industry and clearly showed that the appetite for professional development and leadership training is strong among our practitioners who are “on the rise.” What was also equally clear was that our current leaders are just as excited to share their hard-earned knowledge on the inner workings of our industry, and are vested in helping to cultivate a strong slate of leaders for today and tomorrow.
The expert panel answered questions from the audience and the moderator with keen insight and perspectives based on their respective functions. Composed of for-profit and nonprofit leaders the panel was composed of presidents/CEOs, architects, bankers, real estate experts, developers and syndicators. Together they provided tangible and solid advice on ways to shape your future.
Did you miss the event? Keep your eyes open for when we announce the next event later in the year.
For a full listing of the panelists and GenerationHAND background, click here. If you are interested in being apart of GenerationHAND, please email Heather Raspberry.
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself:
A: I am a proud Washingtonian. I earned my Bachelors in Urban Studies from Stanford University, my Masters in Community from the University of Maryland in Community Planning and my JD from American University, Washington College of Law. I am currently an associate at Bocarsly Emden Cowan Esmail & Ardnt LLP, where I represent investors in affordable real estate projects, primarily using the federal low-income housing tax credit. My passions have always been centered around the uplift and support of low-income and minority communities. My career and education are a direct reflection of an intentional path to create and facilitate solutions to reinvigorate such communities and the families that reside within them.
Q: What’s the biggest challenge in your industry, and how have addressed it?
A: I would describe my industry as the lawyers who represent the developers, lenders and investors in affordable housing projects. Beyond learning all of the law needed to be a great attorney, in my opinion, the hardest challenge is getting in the door. The community of affordable housing lawyers in the DC Metropolitan region is very small. Our practice area is very niche and the pathway for entering into the field is not very defined. As such, breaking in can be challenging.
In order to address the challenge, I learned to be very tenacious in my efforts to build connections and mentors. I met with everyone – developers, attorneys, investors and policy makers. I pushed myself to attend events and talk to people in the industry to learn as much as I could. And from those experiences, I learned that the leaders in this industry have a wealth of knowledge that they are beyond willing to share. Presenting myself as one who is worthy of an investment was all that was needed.
Now, as a young attorney, I continue to challenge myself to maintain and develop those connections. I am constantly striving to gain new information and facilitate my personal and professional growth. Every day, I challenge myself to demonstrate that I am one who is still deserving of investment.
Q: What’s the one piece of advice you wish you had gotten sooner that helped you be successful?
A: A piece of advice that I wish I would have gotten sooner is to release the fear of starting over. As one who is constantly striving for success, accepting the idea that a direction you have set for yourself is no longer fitting is difficult. Releasing the idea that your professional career will be linear is necessary to achieve greater heights. I constantly remind myself that I can recreate and revise the blue print and that has been freeing! I have become less and less wedded to some fictitious future that I envisioned and have learned to have faith in the process.
Q: How has being a member of HAND helped you with your community development efforts?
A: HAND has helped me to connect with the broader affordable housing community. Heather Raspberry, specifically, has been beacon in my journey to become more engaged in community development. I feel so much more informed about the affordable housing landscape and the issues that confront my practice and the industry. HAND affirms my belief that my work is meaningful and that community development and affordable housing creates change.
By Lisa A. Sturtevant, PhD
The federal budget cuts known as sequestration reduced overall discretionary spending and placed budget caps on total defense and non-defense spending. Introduced as part of the Budget Control Act of 2011, these across-the-board spending cuts were put into place as of March 1, 2013. Legislation passed in 2013 lifted the spending caps through fiscal year 2015 but the caps will return in fiscal year 2016 unless Congress acts.
While the impacts of sequestration were widespread, the greater Washington DC area was particularly hard hit by the cuts because of our economy’s dependence on the federal government. Federal government employment in the region has declined steadily since the end of 2011. Federal procurement spending—which had escalated over the past three decades—declined for three consecutive years before upticking slightly in 2014. Procurement spending supports many professional and business service jobs in the region, and that sector has taken a hit. As a result of job losses in the government and professional and business services sector, average wages have declined across the region as we have traded higher wage jobs for lower wage jobs during the recovery.
The effects of sequestration are not likely temporary. Sequestration has fundamental reset the regional economy. According to estimate from the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis, the federal government’s portion of the region’s economy will decline from about 40 percent today to just 29 percent by 2019.
The regional economy will need to diversify moving forward. Local jurisdictions across the region are planning for how to attract new businesses to a new regional economy. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has just launched an initiative on regional economic competitiveness. Thus, there is recognition that things are changing in the region. Moving forward, the region will see higher growth in the health, leisure and hospitality and other services sectors.
These jobs will come with lower wages than what we’ve become used to when the federal government and professional and business service sectors were the primary drivers of job growth.
What are the implications for the region’s housing market?
Despite some selected positive indicators around the region’s for-sale housing market in early 2015, there is growing evidence of a general slowdown in the market in response to slower overall regional job growth. And the lower wages and household incomes associated with economic restructuring in the region are evident in the housing market activity data broken down by price point; the fastest selling, most in-demand homes have been among lower priced homes. We will likely see a slowdown in price appreciation across the region in the coming year, and inventories of lower-priced homes will continue to be limited.
While changes at the federal level will make access to homeownership easier for many, demand for rental housing will continue to be strong in the region in the new economy. As a result of the economic restructuring brought on by sequestration, there will be a greater need to serve households lower down the income spectrum, as well as to serve larger households, including families that may be renters by necessity.
The Washington DC region has been very effective at producing high end rental housing. More than half of all building permits issued in the region last year were for units in multifamily buildings and the rents in those new building have topped over $2,000—or more—for a one-bedroom unit. The rapid increase in rental supply at the higher end was not coupled with similar increases in production at the lower end of the housing market. According to a recent report from the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, since 2002, the District of Columbia lost nearly half of all units renting for less than $800 per month. The study authors concluded that there is virtually no market-rate housing in the city affordable to low-income households; all housing renting for below $800 per month is subsidized housing.
There is some evidence, however, that the market is beginning to respond to the demand for lower-cost rental housing. Or that there will be a slowdown, at the very least, in targeting new construction at the very high end of the market. A recent Washington Post article documented discounts, free rent, and other incentives owners of new multifamily buildings have had to offer to potential renters to get them to sign a lease. An oversupply of rental housing across the region—from DC to Tysons to Rockville—suggests that builders have overbuilt for the high-end market, a population whose growth has slowed as a result of the new economic reality in the region. Greater demand for more moderately-priced rental homes may lead to more diverse construction, including more homes affordable to renters further down the income spectrum. High land costs, however, may mean that the majority of this new construction will occur outside the region’s urban core.
Last year, in addition to targeting the higher end of the market, developers of multifamily rental properties also targeted aggressively single Millennials. Family-sized units have been notoriously hard to come by in the region. But there will be growing demand for larger, multifamily units in the region in the years ahead. As members of the region’s Millennial population age—and marry and have children—some may seek to remain in high-density more urban environments where they will need rental or multifamily housing with two or three bedrooms. At the same time, the region’s population will continue to become more racially and ethnically diverse. Since non-white households tend to be larger, there will be additional needs for larger multifamily rental housing. And even as the economy continues to recovery and wages slowly start to rise, many workers will still be looking for housing where they can split rent, which means additional demand for two and three bedroom units.
Community opposition to multifamily rental housing is common, and NIMBYism around multifamily buildings with large, family-sized units can derail a project. Understanding the fiscal and other concerns residents have—and learning how to communicate effectively to combat this NIMBYism—will be critical for ensuring that this needed housing gets built.
The region’s new economy means shifting housing demand. The market will respond to some aspects of changing housing demand, but as the DC Fiscal Policy Institute and other local jurisdictions have shown, new supply has not been able to outpace losses in market-rate affordable housing. In order to ensure that workers in the new regional economy can find housing they can afford, we will need continued subsidies to meet housing needs for the lowest-income workers and land use and regulatory strategies to incentivize the production of housing affordable all along the income spectrum and for households of different sizes and types.
Next month: Prospects for Regionalism
The Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers is proud to share our newest program offering: Generation HAND, an emerging leader initiative designed to support the unique needs of practitioners who are on the rise within the affordable housing and community development industry. The goal of this initiative is to provide needed tools and guidance to our developing leaders as they pursue successful careers in the public and private sector.
The program will launch with an informative and in-depth panel discussion followed by a dynamic networking event for participants. The panel discussion will include seasoned professionals representing the various segments of HAND’s membership – Real Estate Development, Philanthropy, Finance, Government, Professional Firms, etc. Topics will include tips for professional success, personal anecdotes, industry trends, best practices, lessons learned and more!
We hope you will join us for this landmark event. By having a range of perspectives represented by leading industry experts who understand the inner workings of the field, a real opportunity for a well-rounded experience for all attending will occur. These kinds of interactions allow the next generation of real estate professionals to learn from this generation of leaders…and vice versa.
The George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis (CRA) has just published a new report on population growth in the Washington Metro Area. The report is available for download here:
http://cra.gmu.edu/pdfs/studies_reports_presentations/Population_2014.pdf
For other recent research by CRA, please visit their Research webpage at:
http://cra.gmu.edu/research-reports/
Many thanks to everyone one who helped reach the Exelon/Pepco proposed settlement agreement! Along with NHT, NCLC and MAHC, HAND members really showed up and successfully expressed the interests of multifamily owners and residents during the crucial negotiations.
However, we’re not done yet!
The agreement is just a proposal and Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) must still rule in favor of the settlement in order for our hard work to come to fruition. We are asking that you once again share our thoughts and send letters to PSC showing that multifamily owners and residents support the agreed upon terms.
By April 17th, please mail letters to PSC and include the following:
— Describe your mission and impact in Maryland;
— Discuss why energy efficiency is important to your mission; and
— State that you support the terms of the settlement agreement related to funding for low-income affordable multifamily housing and access to energy consumption data.
All letters should be mailed to the attention:
David J. Collins, Executive Secretary, Maryland Public Service Commission
William Donald Schaefer Tower
6 St. Paul Street, 16th Floor
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Please reference “Case No. 9361 – Public Comment”
For further background on what the settlement entails, below are some of the proposed settlement agreement highlights:
– Earmarks $6.5 million for energy efficiency investments in multifamily affordable housing.
– Creates a $50 million Green Sustainability Fund and includes affordable multifamily housing as eligible for $10 million in zero interest loans (See description of the Fund below).
– Targets 20% of a $42 million energy efficiency fund to low‐ and moderate‐ income households, including renters.
Case 9361 – Notice of Further Modification to the Procedural
After starting her legal practice in St. Louis, MO and then moving to D.C. to ultimately find her law home at (HAND member) Klein Hornig, LLP, Lauren Buckner is an emerging leader who’s learned a thing or two along the way.
“I really enjoy what I do, I feel like it matters and I know my work is making a meaningful impact on communities,” relays Lauren.
Who could ask for anything better?
Lauren worked for three years at a large firm in St. Louis in its real estate transactions department. While there, she represented commercial developers, lenders and construction companies before moving to D.C. to serve as an Assistant Attorney General for the District of Columbia’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG).
“During my time with OAG, I represented the Department of Housing and Community Development in the acquisition and disposition of abandoned, blighted and vacant properties,” shares Lauren, “this is also where I was introduced to the world of affordable housing”. “At Klein Hornig, I focus on real estate acquisitions and financing options for affordable housing and community development. I also, advise clients on a range of financing options, including low income housing tax credits, HUD insured loans, tax exempt bonds, local government funding and bridge loans.”
You know what else she does? She solves problems.
“I assist clients with the requirements associated with Federal and District of Columbia funding and advise them on regulatory matters as they arise. I get to be a problem solver, I enjoy that!”
She also enjoys getting “from behind the desk.”
“I wish someone would have told me when I started practicing that a good attorney learns to step away from the desk to interact with the rest of the world. You can’t meet new clients behind a desk. You can’t learn about new trends in the industry behind the desk. You can’t meet the developers, lenders and partners that we conduct business with behind a desk. You have to get out into the community to explore the community and its players.”
Relationship building is a strong reason to get out from behind the desk. In addition to getting to know others and creating strong working bonds, Lauren also finds it an opportunity to refocus on how she presents herself without the protection of a computer screen or a telephone to act as a shield.
“You get to be authentic and for me that energies me and pushes me to do my best. I have begun to build some very organic relationships from real raw interactions and a smile…you just gotta get from behind that desk!”
In addition to the professional highlights she has enjoyed over the years, Lauren has also faced some big challenges, too.
“I often work with people who have been in the industry for many years and who have helped to create and shape the programs and tools that we use. One of the challenges that I face is that on both the legal side and the development side, there are teams that have worked together for years and who have a way of structuring a deal which has become familiar and comfortable to them. As a young attorney it is often a challenge to work on transactions with these established teams because they often start from a position that is based on a prior deal and right out the gate you can find yourself at a huge disadvantage.”
…but there are ways to overcome practically every obstacle…
“To combat this learning deficit, I make an effort – both formally and informally – to shadow seasoned attorneys. I have also become more of a sponge, open to constructive feedback and soaking up as much institutional knowledge as possible. The key is to be alert, every moment has the opportunity to be a teachable moment and if you blink, you might miss it,” says Lauren.
Lauren also shares another helpful practice that might be best practices for everyone, not just those who are up-and-coming:
“One of my goals is to develop strong relationships with at least one seasoned person in each area that touches my practice. I am accomplishing this and am slowly building pivotal relationships by reaching across the table to the veteran developers, contractors, architects, title agents and lenders involved in transactions. It’s crucial for me to gain knowledge from all view points of the transaction, not solely the legal perspective. People are more than willing to share what they know if you just ask, and so I make a point of asking questions and trying to push myself into a less familiar, uncomfortable space.”
Lauren finds that her HAND membership has helped her further her goal of building a network of both seasoned and up-and-coming leaders in the industry.
“The HAND trainings are the best because they bring all the players together. I’ve had the opportunity to interact with local government officials, architects, contractors, non-profit developers, marketing consultants…the list goes on. HAND also has afforded me the opportunity to work with other emerging leaders as a member of the HAND Brain Trust Committee. Through this committee I am proud to be part of the launch of HAND’s new initiative, Generation HAND, which will focuses on identifying and developing emerging leaders within the affordable housing and community development industry. The initiative will bring together specialists from all areas and serve as a platform for growth.”
HAND is pleased to spotlight emerging leader Lauren Buckner, who certainly contributes to our organization’s COLLABORATION, INNOVATION and TRANSFORMATION within the metropolitan area!
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Payments: Orders placed on the event registration page are not confirmed until payment is received. A confirmation email will be sent to the email address listed in your registration. If you paid by credit card, a receipt will be sent to the email address listed in your registration. If you mail a check, all payments must be received within seven days of completing your registration form. Checks should be remitted to: HAND, PO Box 48386, Washington, DC 20002
Guest List & Dietary Preference: If your registration includes a luncheon table or multiple guests, please submit guest names and menu choices by May 1, 2020. Submit guest names here.
Housing Expo: Plan to exhibit? Download the Housing Expo FAQs here.
Omni Shoreham Hotel Room Block: For attendees looking to secure overnight accommodations on May 25th, HAND has secured a rate starting at $189 for conference attendees. There are a limited amount of rooms available, so visit this link today to reserve your room. May 10th is the last day to secure a room at the discounted rate.
Ad Submission: The artwork for advertisements should be submitted to annualmeeting@handhousing.org. You can download the ad spec sheet here. Deadline for ad submission is April 13, 2020.
Cancellations & Changes: If you wish to cancel or change your registration for the Annual Meeting & Housing Expo, please send a request in writing to annualmeeting@handhousing.org. All cancellation requests made prior to April 27th will receive a 50% refund. For cancellation requests made after April 27th, no refund will be provided.
Door Prizes: Are you interested in donating a door prize to this year’s Annual Meeting? Email annualmeeting@handhousing.org to coordinate with our team.
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