Yesterday, NMHC President Sharon Wilson Géno participated in a roundtable discussion with HUD leaders, housing providers and other housing stakeholders on policy solutions to grow the nation’s housing supply.
Hosted by HUD Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman, the discussion focused on the Biden administration’s Housing Supply Action Plan, an effort which NMHC strongly supports. The Plan, which was announced last year, recognizes the nation’s critical shortage of housing, especially of affordable homes, by proposing a comprehensive package of regulatory and legislative measures to help address these challenges.
The discussion came just as the White House released two new fact sheets—an update on the administration’s Renter Bill of Rights and actions being taken to lower housing costs and boost housing development. Importantly, all of the efforts announced yesterday by HUD and other Federal actors already fall within existing agency authority and do not include new mandates.
“Policies that actually move the needle and expand housing supply are the only real way we are going to lower the cost of housing and broaden housing availability,” said Géno. “I applaud HUD and the Biden administration for taking steps in the right direction. Moving forward, NMHC will continue to work proactively with lawmakers to further policies that cultivate the creation of more needed housing while educating them about the research that demonstrates that more regulatory focused policies, such as rent regulations, only make housing less available to renters who need it.”
Yesterday’s roundtable discussion follows a conversation with apartment residents and other housers earlier this week called HUD’s National Conversation @ The Community Table. This event provided an opportunity to hear perspectives from rental housing residents and for HUD to give updates on the White House’s Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights and the voluntary commitments made by various housing providers and other groups as part of the Resident Centered Management Challenge. These include NMHC’s commitment to work with our 2,000 members to identify business standards and management practices to support residents and communicating such practices through a new resource hub on our website designed to help both residents and housing providers.
“This week’s dialogue made one thing crystal clear—there is so much that housing providers, residents and stakeholders agree on. Sadly, the Federal government only provides needed housing subsidies to 1 in 4 households that qualify for existing programs.
“Now more than ever, housing providers and residents need to work closely together to convince lawmakers to expand programs that support renters in need, including emergency rental assistance and housing choice vouchers, as well as incentives to increase housing supply,” Géno stated. “We welcome additional opportunities to listen to renter perspectives on rental housing solutions and work together to advocate for our common goals.”
