Sunday, October 25, 2020
In 1948, the United States signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), recognizing adequate housing as a component of the human right to an adequate standard of living. The challenges surrounding this basic right have been exacerbated over the last 8 months of the pandemic and the need for housing has reached epic proportions.
The Hudson Valley region is not immune from these challenges and the housing crisis is worse than it has ever been. It is critical for the regions leaders, decision makers, businesses, and residents to understand the complexities of housing and the importance of this basic human right.
The Pattern for Progress Center for Housing Solutions & Community Initiatives is hosting its 13th annual Hudson Valley Housing Forum: Housing Matters | Shelter from the Storm. The event is designed for professionals working in the fields of community and economic development, affordable and market rate housing, real estate, municipal government, planning and engineering, and community lending.
This week long, multifaceted event is bringing nationally recognized keynote speakers together discuss policy, trends, and new perspectives for a highly informative, provocative, and timely conversation about the challenges in housing.
The event is being presented entirely in a virtual format, hosted on a Zoom platform over five days November 16th – 20th, 2020. The sessions are designed in 2-hour blocks of time, which includes a 30-45 minute keynote; 30-45 minute panel discussion; and a 30-45 minute “Solutions Lounge”.
The “Solutions Lounge” will happen directly after each panel session. The panelists, moderator, and keynote will be available for a facilitated conversation about the challenges presented by the keynote and panelist to answer the question, “So…what are we going to do about it”?
The schedule for the week will cover the following topics:
- Chasing the American Dream of Home Ownership
- Multi-Family Development & Market Dynamics
- Gentrification with Balanced Development
- The Real Estate Market Rollercoaster
- Race, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion in Community Development & Housing
Monday’s morning session will focus on Home Ownership challenges in this complex and volatile market. Karen Hoskins, National Director for Home Ownership at NeighborWorks America, begins our conversation with the State of Homeownership, discussing current challenges in homeownership, including first time buyers looking to enter the market and existing owners trying to hold onto their home. Karen will also address inequities of homeownership at the national and regional levels.
Ms. Hoskins will then be joined with Kevin O’Connor, CEO of RUPCO and Dina Levy, Senior Vice President of Single Family and Community Development for NYS Housing and Community Renewal for a panel discussion on local challenges and potential solutions to achieve the American Dream of homeownership.
Monday evening, the Center for Housing Solutions is honored to host Diane Yentel, CEO and President of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, to provide an overview and update from Washington on affordable housing policy, the eviction moratorium, economic distress of renters, and the demands of assisting the growing number of homeless.
On Tuesday, Ruthanne Visnauskas, Commissioner, New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, will provide attendees with an update on housing programs from the state. The panel discussion will be moderated by Sadie McKeown, Executive Vice President and Head of Construction Lending and Initiatives with the Community Preservation Corporation. The panel includes Luiz Aragon, the Commissioner for Development at City of New Rochelle, Darren Scott, Upstate Development Director with NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal, Lisa Kaseman, ESQ., Regional Vice President at Conifer Realty, Jeffrey Nelson, Senior Vice President at RXR Realty, and Ken Kearney, the Founder & President of Kearney Group.
Ed Poteat, Founder and President of Carthage Advisors, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, and author of The Fiscal Cliff will kick off the day’s events as Keynote speaker on Wednesday.
Investment and the revitalization of our urban centers without displacement has been a longstanding challenge in the Hudson Valley. While many view these improvements as an important evolution, others are finding themselves left behind — and wondering how they fit into changing communities and afford to remain. The region is facing the challenges with balancing demographic shifts, growth, and residents’ needs. Mr. Poteat will deliver a provocative keynote on we can meet the challenges of our changing communities.
The panel discussion will feature Graham Trelstad, AICP, Vice President and Director of Planning with WSP as a facilitator of a conversation between a market rate developer, David Garten, Senior Vice President at RXR Realty, an affordable housing developer, Guy Kempe, Vice President of Community Development at RUPCO, and two elected officials from two of our rapidly changing cities, Mayor Lee Kyriacou – City of Beacon and Mayor Steve Noble – City of Kingston.
On Thursday, Mike Kingsella, Executive Director of Up for Growth will keynote this event discussing impacts of housing inventory, pricing, and the demographic shifts away from large urban centers to the surrounding suburban and rural areas. Mike will link these issues with economic development, housing affordability, and balanced growth.
The Real Estate Market session will continue with a discussion on the local housing market. Our panel includes local experts, including Joe Rand, Executive Director for the Broker Public Portal and COO at Howard Hanna Rand Realty; Paula Elaine Kay, Esq., Attorney at the Law Office of Paula Elaine Kay; William O’Keeffe, Esq., Attorney at O’Keeffe & McCann, LLP; and Bill Calderara, the President and CEO of Ulster Saving Bank.
To wrap this entire event together and connect all the dots, Friday’s program will open with a keynote address by Don Trahan, Jr., PhD., Director of Race, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (REDI) for NeighborWorks America. Dr. Trahan will frame the conversation about REDI and link each day’s themes together to understand the implications of REDI in community development, housing, and on the organizations working in this industry. We are very excited for Dr. Trahan to stay with us for an extended question and answer period and a facilitated community exercise on how to deal with real life challenges during the Solutions Lounge.
This year’s event – Housing Matters: Shelter from the Storm is covering an enormous range of issues in housing and community development and promises to deliver substantial content for practitioners, local officials, boards, and other professionals in the industry.
Get tickets to this incredible event: https://www.pattern-for-progress.org/housing-forum/
