PUBLIC HOUSING AND COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT EFFORTS ARISING FROM ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE SHOULD BE BUILT ON PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS, SAYS INDUSTRY LEADER
By Terese Walton, IMC Consulting - Housing Division
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act represents the largest commitment to funding an “Urban Agenda” that most housing and redevelopment professionals will ever witness again. In fact, we haven’t seen an initiative like this one since the Great Depression’s New Deal. As industry professionals, we are particularly excited about the funding earmarked to promote community and affordable development and public housing agency missions. Specifically, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes a tremendous amount of opportunity funding for the Public Housing Capital Fund ($4 billion), Community Development Block Grants ($1 billion), HOME ($2.25 billion) and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program ($2 billion), among other programs. We now must be actively engaged in prudently preparing to take full advantage of the opportunity before us.
The question of the hour is what is the best way for public, affordable housing and redevelopment agencies to most optimally and meaningfully take advantage of these opportunity funds? The obvious answer is to prioritize the existing tremendous backlog of capital programs and infrastructure projects and ensure that the funds are used in ways that support economic recovery and job creation. Yet, the implementation of the obvious might not be at all obvious. The policies of the Bush Administration ravaged the organizational infrastructure and internal capacity of housing agencies. Capital and operating fund reductions required these critical providers to scale back staffing, reprioritize projects and rethink the way they did business. Given the new opportunities presented by the economic stimulus package, agencies should consider novel and alternative ways to help them achieve their mission. Developing lasting public/private partnerships and procuring subject matter experts to meet specialized and transitory project needs must be considered.
Why? Because the Obama Administration wants swift and sure results, and while many agencies around the nation are expected to double – and in some cases triple -- their current allocation of formula funding for capital programs, these opportunity funds are both finite and prescriptive. Agencies must not be tempted to turn back to old methods of doing business (as in the heyday of capital funding during the 90s). This allocation of funding must be viewed as an opportunity to change the way business is done, infusing some fundamental private sector principals into public sector practice. Immediate capacity is needed to manage the volume and scale of projects required to expediently utilize the funds. Finding and hiring the breadth of staff required to meet this immediate need is almost impossible. Within a few years agencies that hire internally will likely be faced with laying-off staff that just “learned the ropes.”
Forging public/private partnerships and hiring consulting firms with subject matter expertise is the most efficient way for agencies to maintain their core mission’s objectives while taking on specialized and transitory projects. The economies cannot be argued. Strategic planning services, value added construction management, financial experts, and the breadth and depth of national experience and expertise, are all at your fingertips when needed. Agencies must utilize these opportunity funds to undertake strategic short term projects that further their long term goals. Doing this in a profitable way through the use of consultants is the opportunity that must be seized in order to create real and lasting change in and for the community.
This article was written by Terese Walton for IMC. IMC is a leading firm in public sector consulting. Serving clients in local, state and federal governments, non-profits as well as private industry, IMC specializes in the implementation of government programs, and provides world-class program and project management services. IMC’s public housing practice provides support and consulting services to housing authorities around the country and has been doing so for over 15 years. Through the experience and the expertise of our team, we understand public housing, the regulations and the requirements to successfully provide housing solutions to those in need. Our team provides Public Housing Authorities and Housing Commissions with a full range of services including; capacity and infrastructure development to support core programs, obtaining and managing LIHTC programs, the creation of public/private partnerships and nonprofit entities, tax exempt financing and large scale redevelopment and multi-family property revitalization.
To speak with our experts on this topic, please call us (410-505-4666) or send us an e-mail (info@consultimc.com).
A Congressional Resolution (CR) is offering disaster relief funding and administrative provisions for a number of HUD programs. The funding could assist residents currently being served by the Disaster Housing Assistance Program (DHAP), displaced Hurricane victims, and redevelopment and community development funding programs.
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