Annual Affordable Housing and Community Development Conference

14th Annual San Diego Affordable Housing &
Community Development Conference
"Voices for Affordable Choices"

Friday, October 21, 2005

Marina Village Conference Center (NEW venue)
Mission Bay, San Diego, CA

Title Sponsors

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Keynote Speaker

Richard Brooks, Action Media

Communicating Affordable Housing Issues - A New Model

Lunch Topic

Richard Friedman, Deputy Director
California Department of Housing & Community Development
"Proposition 46 - A Success in San Diego County"

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

8:30 - 9:30 Welcome & Keynote Speaker

9:30 - 9:45 BREAK

9:45 - 11:00 Workshop Session I

Housing Finance: Open For Business-New Initiatives in Affordable Housing Finance & Development
A panel of government and private affordable housing finance agencies will introduce their new products and opportunities for affordable housing development.
Speakers:

• Ken Sauder, Wakeland Housing and Development Corporation
• Mark Rasmussen, CCRC
• Matt Mielewski, Citibank
• Richard Shea, PNC Multifamily Capital
• Barry J. Schultz, San Diego Capital Collaborative
• Dale Royal, CCDC
• Cissy Fisher, San Diego Housing Commission

Supportive Housing: Planning for the End of Homelessness in San Diego
This workshop will focus on presentations about current efforts in San Diego to develop plans for ending homelessness for all those who experience homelessness locally, including the “chronically” homeless and other populations.  Special emphasis will be on the important role of different housing models, including supportive housing, within those plans’ recommendations.
Speakers:

• Patricia Leslie, Point Loma Nazarene University
• Dene Oliver, OliverMcMillan
• Matthew Doherty, Corporation for Supportive Housing

Design & Development: Cohousing: A model for at-risk populations
Cohousing describes a form of housing in which the physical design itself encourages and facilitates cooperation, collaboration and social contact. Cohousing as an idea began in the “socially progressive” countries of Northern Europe during the 1960s. The model has slowly gained interest in the United States, with numerous communities being designed and developed from coast to coast.
Housing that fosters interaction among neighbors offers many social and practical benefits. The non-profit social service sector has begun to look at cohousing as a way of creating safe, supportive communities for populations ranging from battered women to the developmentally disabled. This panel will discuss real-world, built examples of the cohousing model and consider its successes as well as its limitations. Topics will include balancing shared and private space needs, the “extended family” home, on-site amenities, and security.
Speakers:

• John Sheehan, Studio E Architects
• Daniel Wu, Charities Housing
• Chris Block, Charities Housing

Must Know Track: New Challenges in Density Bonus & Inclusionary Housing Issues
Recent changes in the state's density bonus law present both opportunities and challenges for affordable housing developers and local government.  Some local governments may be granting incentives they never intended to provide.  And affordable housing developers have additional choices to make regarding levels of affordability and additional incentives available. The increasing popularity of local inclusionary housing ordinances and redevelopment law's inclusionary housing requirements can complicate use of density bonus programs.  The panel will discuss the basic requirements of the new law, provide examples of programs that can take advantage of the law while meeting developer and government goals, and discuss how to reconcile programs that have seemingly inconsistent requirements.  In addition to the panel presentations, there will be time for questions and discussions with audience members.
Speakers:

• Rafael Mandelman, Goldfarb & Lipman
• Michelle White, Affordable Housing Services
• Barbara Kautz, Goldfarb & Lipman
• William Levin, City of San Diego

Must Know Track (Special Session): Reframing the Housing Debate
To understand how best to communicate the need for increasing the supply of low cost housing in California, ActionMedia conducted eight focus groups in March 2005.  The focus groups were designed to surface the values and context widely applied to considerations of housing issues and policy by a diverse cross section of California voters.  Unlike a survey, this research is not about what people think, but how they think about the issues – what ideas they already have, how they process new ideas, what values and stories they use to make sense of new information. This workshop will share those in depth and discuss how to use them to communicate to the general public on affordable housing issues.

Speaker:

• Richard Brooks, Action Media

Innovations: Design & Implementation of Homeownership Programs
Homeownership assistance programs are popular with local governments and developers, but can present special challenges in both design and implementation.  This panel will discuss issues such as household eligibility, compatibility of program funding sources (such as HOME and Redevelopment), resale controls, price restrictions, credit for homeowner improvements and options to purchase.  In addition, the panelists will discuss what happens when homebuyers violate program rules and how developers and local governments can enforce program rules.  In addition to the panel presentations, there will be time for questions and discussions with audience members.
Speakers:

• M David Kroot, Goldfarb & Lipman
• Amy DeVaudreuil , Goldfarb & Lipman
• Debbie Fountain, City of Carlsbad
• Gabe del Rio, Community HousingWorks
  

11:00 - 11:15 BREAK

11:15 - 12:30 Workshop Session II

Housing Finance: The Future of State Funding:
Life After Prop. 46
The passage of Proposition 46 in 2002 brought more than $2 billion in state bond funds to affordable housing development throughout the state.  Starting next year in 2006, these funds will begin to be exhausted.  With the state currently spending less than 0.5% of its general funds on housing, affordable housing developers, local governments and lower income households need to focus on life after Proposition 46.  Come hear what some leaders in the field say about what is being planned and what you can do to be part of it.
Speakers:

• Julie Spezia, Housing California
• Laurie Weir, CDLAC
• Bill Pavao, CA Tax Credit Allocation Committee
• Rich Friedman, CA Dept. HCD
• Matt Schwartz, CA Housing Partnership Corp.

Supportive Housing: Supportive Housing Policy Initiatives at the Local, State and Federal Levels
Come hear about the status of efforts to plan for the use of Mental Health Services Act to help expand housing programs for persons with mental illnesses, especially persons who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness.  This session will also focus on the Governor’s recent initiatives affecting how the State will address the housing needs of persons experiencing homelessness and what those initiatives could mean for San Diego.  Additionally, participants will be provided with up-to-date information about Federal policy initiatives that may impact the creation of new supportive housing opportunities in San Diego.

Speakers:

• Jonathan C. Hunter, Corporation for Supportive Houisng
• Carol A. Goodman, California Housing Finance Agency - Multifamily Programs
• Piedad Garcia, County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency, Mental Health Services
• Matthew Doherty, Corporation for Supportive Houisng

Design & Development: In Sickness & in Health:  Effective Strategies in Joint Ventures
Joint ventures can present benefits and challenges in the development of affordable housing.  Using case studies involving joint ventures, this panel will explore various business model and their distinctions from a public benefit perspective and the risk taken commensurate with the return received.
Speakers:

• Anne Wilson, Community HousingWorks
• Ken Sauder, Wakeland Housing & Development Corporation
• Paul Beesmyer, CA Housing Partnership Corp.

Must Know Track: The Golden Arrow:  Penetrating News Clutter, Getting Stories Placed
24-hour cable news. The Internet. Podcasting. Advertorials. Working in today’s news cycle is like playing racquetball: without finesse, every shot you hit just bounces of another wall.  How can we penetrate? How do we resonate? We need a shot that gets our message down the middle.

In this workshop, we'll talk about how to chat up reporters so they'll listen, how to write press releases that get read, how to put on events that get photographed and how to write soundbytes that ring. You'll leave this session with real strategies to amplify you organization's good news - and manage its bad news - so your stories survive the racquetball court.
Speakers:

• Chris Bender, Housing California

Innovations: San Diego’s CDC:  Fifteen Years of Progress, Challenges for the Future
This session will present the results of a recently completely first-ever comprehensive study of the status of San Diego’s nonprofit developers of affordable housing.  In the early 1990s San Diego’s CDC sector started to take off.  In the subsequent years, local nonprofit developers of affordable housing have achieved success in numerous areas and have confronted challenging obstacles at the same time.  This session will highlight some of these successes and challenges.  Included in the session will be a presentation of the study’s findings in areas such as communities served by local CDCs, housing and community development activities, economic development activities, organizational capacity, community partners, and funding sources.  After presentation of the key findings, a panel of local CDC executive directors will discuss and interpret the results.
Speakers:

• Mirle Rabinowitz Bussell, Urban Studies and Planning Program at UCSD
• Claire Carpenter, El Cajon Community Development Corporation
• Matthew Jumper, San Diego Interfaith Housing Foundation
• Sue Reynolds, Community HousingWorks

12:30 - 1:45 Lunch

2:00 - 3:15 Workshop Session III

Housing Finance: Will You Marry Me?  How Developers & Tax Credit Investors Select Each Other
The courting dance between investors and developers is based on many negotiable points, experience, and promises.  The panel of developers and investors will explore the decision -making process in selecting each other; challenges to maintaining a healthy long-term relationship; and issues involved in the eventual separation.
Speakers:

• Evan Becker, Red Capital
• Jason Barrios, NEF, Inc.
• Jahi Akobundu, California Housing Partnership Corporation
• Tammy Harpster, Phoenix Realty Group

Supportive Housing: Special Fair Housing Issues in Supportive Housing
Supportive housing developments are typically designed to assist residents with particular needs, and so have physical and programmatic characteristics to serve the target group.  At times, the orientation toward a specific group can run afoul of various fair housing laws.  Because of the complex web of both state and federal fair housing laws and program assistance requirements, developers can find it difficult to implement a program and obtain adequate funding sources that allow the intended population to be served.  The panel will discuss the basic fair housing requirements, some common conflicting legal and programmatic requirements and provide examples of some innovative program solutions.  In addition to the panel presentations, there will be time for questions and discussions with audience members.
Speakers:

• Karen Tiedemann, Goldfarb & Lipman
• Heather Gould, Goldfarb & Lipman
• Kimberly Russell-Shaw, TACHS
  
  

Design & Development: ZENH and the Art of Affordable Housing – A Case Study

A collaborative effort to design, finance, and build  affordable multifamily housing projects aimed at producing close to as much energy as they will use.  The ZENH approach aims to enhance affordability, durability, and provide more healthy, productive and comfortable housing.  A combination of programs, financing models, energy efficient building design, and on-site generation system design will be presented. 

Speakers:

• Mary Jane Jagodzinski, Community HousingWorks
• Walker Wells, Global Green
• Julieann Summerford, Heschong Mahone Group, Inc.
• Todd Henderson, County of San Diego Housing & Community Development
• Ingrid Alverde, Poway Redevelopment Agency
  

Must Know Track: In Plain English:  Affordable Housing Isurance for "Dummies"

This program is for anyone who ever felt confused about the incomprehensible insurance babble that usually accompanies the acquisition of institutional property and liability coverage. The program will involve an interactive question and answer dialog between a housing professional and an insurance broker experienced in representing affordable housing managers and developers. The housing person will assume the role of  relative newcomer to the job of acquiring insurance for her organization.  She will request clarification of many of the fundamental issues regarding coverage for non-profit housing operations.   The Insurance professional’s role will be to answer her questions in lucid terms that a non-insurance person can understand and utilize in making adequate, cost effective insurance decisions.

Additional questions from the audience will be welcomed and addressed.
Speakers:

• Jeff Scales, Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services

Innovations: Got Lawsuit? Widening Doors to Accessible Housing

This workshop will discuss compliance with fair housing regulations, especially the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, when you construct Multifamily housing.  Learn what the laws require, what extra oversight or monitoring might be necessary, what extra costs might be anticipated, and how you fit in input from third parties.  Is retrofitting latter a better solution or is it more costly? You will also hear from an attorney who performs complex civil litigation.
Speakers:

• Myrna Pascual, San Diego HUD Field Office
• David Quezada, HUD Region IX
• Gabriel Banuelos, Access Center
• John Seymour, So Cal Housing Development Corporation
• Palma Cesar Hooper, Law Office of Quinsaat & Hooper

Click here to see details of our 2004 Confernence