GRAPEVINE

Alphonso for Albania

By Andre Shashaty

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE • DECEMBER 2006

With Democrats poised to take over Congress in January, you have to feel sorry for the Republican loyalists who run the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

On one hand, if they stay in office, they will face probing questions from newly empowered Democrats who want to know just what they actually do in their concrete bastion of bureaucracy in southwest Washington.

On the other hand, if they resign, they will be lucky if the White House cares enough to reward them with even a third-tier ambassadorship or a seat on the President’s Commission on Paper Clip Counting, or something similarly pointless. And their earning power as future lobbyists just went way down.

For Secretary Alphonso Jackson and other senior HUD execs, the changing of the guard in Washington must be horrifying. But for the affordable housing practitioners gathered here for AHF Live: The 2006 Tax Credit Developers’ Summit, it was the dawning of a bright new day.

The attendees at AHF Live agreed on what they hope the new day will bring: bipartisan collaboration among smart people who care about housing and know how to get things done. The Democrats can and will make progress on housing with help from Republican leaders who have been staunch housing defenders in the current Republican-controlled Congress, said Henry Cisneros, chairman of CityView and former secretary of HUD under President Bill Clinton.

His positive view was echoed by Rick Lazio, executive vice president of JPMorgan Chase, and a former Republican congressman from the 2nd district of New York who served as chairman of the House Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs.

The Bush administration budget for HUD will probably be dead on arrival this winter as Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and other new Democratic leaders are widely expected to try to get the federal government back in the housing production business.

Rep. Charles Rangel of New York will support improvements to the low-income housing tax credit program as the soon-to-be-chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

I urge the new Congress to enact common-sense improvements to the tax credit program, and I hope they will find new ways to use federal dollars to help tax credit developers target lower-income households without running in the red.

I also think public housing is an urgent priority, including revival of the HOPE VI program and reversal of the Bush administration’s ongoing effort to starve public housing agencies of operating funds.

But even if they enact the best policies and programs, the Democrats still have the problem of what to do about HUD. Even with new budgetary support, results will be painfully slow in coming with HUD in charge. That’s why the first order of business for Congress should be to reinvigorate HUD with a sense of mission and purpose, and set about the urgent task of motivating remaining career executives and recruiting new talent.

Maybe they can even lure back some of the very talented people who resigned in recent years in silent protest against the politicization of the department.

A good place to start is to say goodbye to Jackson, and if he has not resigned before you read this, I urge him to do so now. If he doesn’t, Congress should vigorously investigate his self-proclaimed desire to deny HUD contracts to anyone who does not support the president.

If President Bush should wish to reward him for his loyalty, he could solve the HUD management problem at the same time by giving Jackson a foreign posting.

How about ambassador to Albania? I hear Tirana is very nice this time of year.