Established	1931
President and CEO	Maureen Friar
Chair	Dan Nissenbaum
Headquarters	Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution.... , USA United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Research Affiliate	Center for Housing Policy Center for Housing Policy The Center for Housing Policy, the research affiliate of the National Housing Conference , works to broaden understanding of the nation’s housing challenges and to examine the impact of policies and programs developed to address these needs...
Homepage	www.nhc.org

The National Housing Conference (NHC) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 based in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 established in 1931. Its stated goal is "ensuring safe, decent and affordable housing for all Americans."

The Center for Housing Policy

Center for Housing Policy

The Center for Housing Policy, the research affiliate of the National Housing Conference , works to broaden understanding of the nation’s housing challenges and to examine the impact of policies and programs developed to address these needs...

, NHC’s research affiliate, specializes in developing solutions through research. In partnership with NHC and its members, the Center works to broaden understanding of the nation’s housing challenges and to examine the impact of policies and programs developed to address these needs.

History

In 1931, Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, a reformer and social worker, formed the National Public Housing Conference, which became the National Housing Conference (NHC), the first non-partisan, independent coalition of national housing leaders from both the public and private sector. Simkhovitch believed that imaginative programs could replace slums with decent housing and revive the creative spirit of a community. In 1934, NHC pushed hard to get the Federal Home Loan Bank Board set up, and helped engineer the passage of the National Housing Act of 1934

National Housing Act of 1934

The National Housing Act of 1934, , also called the Capehart Act, was part of the New Deal passed during the Great Depression in order to make housing and home mortgages more affordable. It created the Federal Housing Administration and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation.It was...

, which created the Federal Housing Administration

Federal Housing Administration

The Federal Housing Administration is a United States government agency created as part of the National Housing Act of 1934. It insured loans made by banks and other private lenders for home building and home buying...

 (FHA).

NHC’s efforts in the 1950s and 1960s helped secure the expansion of the Housing Act of 1949 in 1954, which included authorization of slum clearance and permitted rent adjustments based on income. Part of Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

’s “Great Society

Great Society

The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States promoted by President Lyndon B. Johnson and fellow Democrats in Congress in the 1960s. Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial injustice...

” included the creation of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 1965, a cabinet level department with decent housing as its only goal.

In 1973, Clara Fox, executive director of the Settlement Housing Fund, organized developers, lenders, builders, property managers, residents and others interested in affordable housing into a powerful coalition to fight President Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

’s actions to limit federal housing programs. The following year, this coalition, the New York Housing Conference (NYHC), affiliated with NHC. Fox served as co-chair of NYHC until her death in December, 2007.

After Presidents Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford

Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...

 and Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

 authorized record high budgets for HUD in the 1970s, the election of Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

 in 1982 led to drastic housing budget cuts. Despite the reluctance of the Reagan Administration

Reagan Administration

The United States presidency of Ronald Reagan, also known as the Reagan administration, was a Republican administration headed by Ronald Reagan from January 20, 1981, to January 20, 1989....

, NHC successfully lobbied for Low-Income Housing Tax Credit legislation, which gave private investors a 10-year tax incentive to invest in affordable housing by providing equity for multi-family housing with a designated number of units for low-income tenants. This remains the most important incentive for financing low-income housing.

In 1992, President Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

’s new HUD administration approached NHC for help in determining how best to preserve the 940,000 Section 8 program units facing defaults. NHC convened a special task force numbering over 110 industry leaders from all different sectors of the housing industry. The coalition drafted a proposal that resulted in “Mark to Market” legislation, helping to preserve hundreds of thousands of rental units. Also in 1992, NHC created the Center for Housing Policy

Center for Housing Policy

The Center for Housing Policy, the research affiliate of the National Housing Conference , works to broaden understanding of the nation’s housing challenges and to examine the impact of policies and programs developed to address these needs...

, an affiliated housing research organization dedicated to conducting practical and relevant research for housing practitioners and policymakers. Jeffrey Lubell serves as executive director of the Center.

In the late 1990s, a group of California NHC members decided that the time was long overdue for California to become a more significant player in the affordable housing policy arena. In 1997 they formed an affiliate organization of NHC, the California Housing Consortium (CHC). Since 1997, CHC has become a major affordable housing player in California. Its efforts have resulted in major state housing bonds focused on ensuring affordable housing.

In December 2000, Congress established the bipartisan Millennial Housing Commission

Millennial Housing Commission

The Millennial Housing Commission was created by Congress in 2000 as part of the FY 2000 Appropriations legislation. The Commission was directed by Congress to conduct a study that examines the importance of housing, particularly affordable housing, to the infrastructure of the United States and...

. The Commission was charged with examining, analyzing and exploring: 1) The importance of affordable housing; 2) Possible methods for increasing the role of the private sector in providing affordable housing; and 3) Whether exiting HUD programs work. NHC's then-policy director, Conrad Egan

Conrad Egan

Conrad Egan was president and CEO, succeeded by Maureen Friar, of the National Housing Conference , a public policy and housing advocacy organization.From 1969 to 1986, Egan served the U.S...

, was the executive director of the Commission. Egan served as president and CEO of NHC until February 2010, when he was succeeded by Maureen Friar.

Leadership

Maureen Friar serves as president and CEO of NHC, and Dan Nissenbaum, chief operating officer of the Urban Investment Group, a division of Goldman Sachs Bank USA, is chair of NHC. Jeffrey Lubell is executive director of the Center. John McIlwain, senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute and ULI/J. Ronald Terwilliger chair for housing, is chairman of the Center.

Regional Housing Forums

NHC holds several regional housing forums each year, in partnership with a network of other national, state and local housing and related organizations. The forums discuss national issues, including affordability, sustainability, and housing's connections to transportation, economic development, education, public health, and more. It also regularly brings together local and national leaders to discuss inclusionary housing, also known as inclusionary zoning, at a National Inclusionary Housing Conference. Inclusionary housing helps ensure the construction of low- to moderate-income housing by requiring developers to set aside affordable units in an otherwise market-driven development.

Regional affiliates

The New York Housing Conference (NYHC) was established in 1973 to develop and advocate for affordable housing policy and programs at the federal, state and city level. NYHC has worked with local government agencies to create low- , moderate- and middle-income housing programs locally and has helped gained enactment of major housing legislation.

Founded in 1997, the California Housing Consortium/CHC Institute is a coalition of developers, lenders, state and local government officials, homebuilders, investors, property managers, residents and housing professionals who share the common goal of expanding and improving affordable housing opportunities for all Californians.