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There is a lot happening at the grassroots level to address housing affordability that many people don’t know about. In this episode, Steve and Corey sit down with Kent Colton, president of the Colton Housing Group, senior research fellow at JCHS and chairman of the advisory board for the Ivory Prize – an annual award recognizing ambitious, feasible and scalable solutions to housing affordability. The Ivory Prize awards innovators and provides material support for innovative projects. It also helps to identify and raise awareness for grassroots housing efforts. In this conversation, Kent highlights several of the 2019 award-winning projects, discusses lessons learned and then looks ahead to the 2020 awards.

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In this episode, Steve and Corey are joined by Michael Novogradac, managing partner of Novogradac & Company LLP. Together, they take an in-depth look at the history of the low-income housing tax credit program – from its inception to today – and the role it has played in the affordable housing market. There’s a lot to this story, and it’s more relevant now than ever given the severe affordability challenges around the country.

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Oregon, like many states, is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis and is undertaking many different approaches to help solve the issue. New construction, public and private investment, pilot programs for workforce housing and the LIFT program are but a few aspects of the statewide housing plan. Listen in as Steve and Corey discuss Oregon’s urban and rural affordability issues with Margaret Salazar, director at Oregon Housing and Community Services.

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Small multifamily properties are an important part of the affordable rental market. They are often owned by individuals or smaller entities and are operated differently than the larger multifamily properties that many of us think of when we hear the words “multifamily” or “apartment.” In this episode, Steve and Corey talk with Meg McElgunn, co-head of SBL Production and Catherine Evans, vice president of SBL Underwriting, and take an in-depth look at some of its unique characteristics through the lens of the Freddie Mac Multifamily Small Balance Loan program.

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Nationally, the wage required to afford a two-bedroom apartment is $22.96 – much higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25. For low-wage workers, this means that housing is either out of reach, or takes a disproportionate amount of their income. In this episode, Corey and Steve sit down with Andrew Aurand, vice president for Research at the National Low-Income Housing Coalition and lead author of their annual Out of Reach report. Together, they discuss key findings of the report, take an in-depth look at wages and how that translates to the number of hours of work required to afford housing in each state, and reflect on how affordable housing markets have changed over the past 30 years.

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Over 40 million people live in California – 10 million in Los Angeles county alone. The state also has many rural areas with their own housing challenges and lack of infrastructure. This mix of urban and rural, as well as the sheer size of the state, requires unique innovations to address its affordability crisis. In this podcast, Steve and Corey talk with Mary Kaiser, the President of California Community Reinvestment Corporation, about community development and lending in the state of California.

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Recent Freddie Mac Multifamily research highlights that rents are growing faster than income and that fast-growing metros are losing affordable units at a much higher pace than the nation. In this episode, Steve and Corey sit down with Kevin Burke, lead author of the recent report Metro Affordability – Inescapable, and discuss the correlation between population growth and affordability.

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Natural disasters occur throughout the year and across the country – from wildfires and earthquakes to flash floods and extreme snowstorms. In this podcast, Steve and Corey sit down with Gina Thompson, senior director of Asset Management and Operations at Freddie Mac Multifamily. This team is the first to work with servicers following natural disasters to understand the impacts at the property level.

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There’s been growing attention across the industry on the shortage of affordable workforce housing. To increase supply, new units will need to be constructed, but this is a complex issue. This podcast focuses on innovative construction methods such as modular and manufactured housing, and how these can help close the supply gap. Steve and Corey sit down with Andrea Ponsor and Adam Cohen from Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF) and discuss their recent research.

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7.3 million – that’s the number of units that the country has underproduced from 2000-2015 according to research from Up for Growth, and that supply shortage has contributed to the affordability crisis. This podcast focuses on the general shortage housing units overall as well as the shortage of affordable housing and looks at some of the challenges that make it so hard to close that supply gap.