Please join the Center for American Progress for an expert discussion of the potential and perils of the Obama administration’s new initiative aimed at reducing the inventory of foreclosed homes for sale.
The administration’s Request for Information expressed interest in one promising approach: fixing up and converting to affordable rental a large number of properties. The aim would be to improve the government’s recovery of losses, help stabilize neighborhoods and local home values, and, where appropriate, increase the supply of affordable rental housing. The administration seeks responses by September 15. CAP experts have written before about many benefits to this approach, which could potentially also help address rising rental demand and even offer an opportunity to make a dent in reducing the energy consumption of our housing stock. But there are potential pitfalls as well. Sometimes investor ownership of single-family homes has been a detriment to communities. And "scattered site" rental housing has proven difficult to do at scale.
How can this approach be designed to realize the benefits and overcome the challenges? The Center for American Progress is bringing together a group of experts for a conversation about how this concept can be made to work.
Introduction:
David Abromowitz, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Keynote speaker:
Senator Jack Reed, (D-RI)
Featured panelists:
Meg Burns, Senior Associate Director for Congressional Affairs and Communications, Federal Housing Finance Agency
Tom Eggleston, Principal, Real Property Management
Jeff Foster, Senior Policy Advisor and Director of the Office of Capital Markets, U.S. Department of the Treasury
Andrew Jakabovics, Senior Director, Policy Development & Research, Enterprise Community Partners
Thomas Skinner, Managing Partner, Redbrick Partners
Moderated by:
Alon Cohen, Housing Policy Advisor, Center for American Progress