AHF Live to Focus on Industry’s Changing Landscape

Affordable housing developers and owners have been hit hard over the last year with a struggling low-income housing tax credit market and troubled financial markets.

AHF Live: The 2009 Affordable Housing Developers’ Summit will explore the changing landscape of the affordable housing industry and how owners and developers can get deals done in this new climate through a variety of sessions featuring some of the smartest people in the industry.

You will learn the latest from Capitol Hill, the outlook for tax credit equity, an update from state housing finance agencies, innovations in green, and what’s new on the debt financing front. And you will leave the conference with takeaways that will help you continue to build and sustain housing for low-income Americans.

“More than ever developers need to attend to understand how significantly the world is changing and what their opportunities are,” says R. Lee Harris, president and CEO of Cohen-Esrey Real Estate Services, LLC, and an AHF Live moderator and speaker.

The conference, which will be held Oct. 26-28 in Chicago, will kick off with the annual Editorial Advisory Board Roundtable. This all-star group of tax credit developers, financiers, and legal and accounting professionals will discuss the most important issues and trends in the affordable housing industry, including the continued challenges of today’s tax credit market.

Another highlight of the event will be the keynote address by Carol Galante, deputy assistant secretary for multifamily housing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The former president of California-based BRIDGE Housing, Galante will share the latest development and preservation initiatives at HUD as well as her view for what’s on the horizon for the affordable housing industry in 2010.

The event will conclude with Affordable Housing Finance magazine’s Hall of Fame and Readers’ Choice Awards Luncheon, where we will honor and induct five outstanding individuals into this year’s Hall of Fame. The inductees are Renee Glover, CEO of the Atlanta Housing Authority; the late George Knight, former executive director of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp. (now known as NeighborWorks); John McEvoy, former executive director of the National Council of State Housing Agencies; Sister Lillian Murphy, CEO of Mercy Housing; and the late I. Don Terner, principal founder and first executive director of BRIDGE Housing (see more about these Hall of Fame inductees in the October issue of Affordable Housing Finance).  Also, the winners of the magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards for the Nation’s Best Affordable Housing Developments will be recognized (the deadline for readers to vote for the nation’s top developments is Aug. 31).

AHF Live also will feature two in-depth pre-conference workshops from 8:30 a.m.-noon Oct. 26 for $199.

Attendees can learn from other developers about what they are doing internally and externally to position their companies to be successful in these tough economic times during “Keeping Your Business Alive.”  And industry veterans will guide attendees through the essentials of the low-income housing tax credit and tax-exempt bond during “Tax Credit and Tax-Exempt Bond Boot Camp.”

The sixth annual conference will be held at the Palmer House in Chicago (with a new lowered rate of $209 per night). Attendance is reserved exclusively for people who are primarily owners and developers of affordable housing, plus state and local housing finance agency representatives and nonprofit organizations focused on the business of affordable housing.

The early-bird registration fee for those who sign up before Sept. 18 is $549. Regular registration is $649. Save $25 off each registration if three or more people from the same firm attend the event. Nonprofits and government agencies receive a $149 discount per registration.

Visit www.ahflive.com to register or for more information.