This past Monday, some of my Housing Policy classmates and I went to see HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan speak at the Harvard GSD. The event was in part sponsored by the Joint Center for Housing Studies, in honor of their 50th anniversary. A lot of folks in the housing world are pretty excited about Mr. Donovan, because he is very knowledgeable, thoughtful, and "a real housing guy" - which, from what I glean, is in contrast to previous HUD secretaries.

A few items stand out from his talk, most of which aligned with the lessons I've learned so far in Housing Policy. Among them, he emphasized the importance of place-based housing solutions, rather than relying only on voucher-type programs. To this end, employing the assistance and expertise of non-profits and other non-government entities is vital.

He mentioned briefly a new type of mortgage called a location efficient mortgage (LEM), which calculates transportation cost savings of living in places where one can easily walk or take public transportation, instead of drive. Thus, people who live in places where they save on transportation costs may qualify for mortgages that would otherwise be considered too expensive. This website does a better job of explaining it than I do: http://www.locationefficiency.com/

He also spoke about low-income homeownership. First, he said that the main alternative to homeownership, renting, warrants closer consideration as a viable solution to housing problems. (In my class I've learned that, in the policy world and culture at large, there exists a fairly extreme, somewhat unfounded bias toward homeowners and homeownership.) On the other hand, he hopes that the one thing we don't take away from the current mortgage crisis is the inapt idea that low-income families can't be homeowners.

In all, it was an engaging talk, and the enthusiasm for Mr. Donovan seems well-founded. I hope some of my classmates present at the talk will add other items from the talk that stood out to them. 

Here are a few more relevant links:

A Crisis Is A Terrible Thing To Waste (a conference from earlier this year with the best name ever)

Is affordable housing so scarce in NYC that it violates human rights?

--AR