Feeling Hopeful? A Status Report on Emerging Urban Policy

Scott Bernstein, CNT

June 12, 2009

CNU 17, Denver

http:/htaindex.cnt.org

scott@cnt.org

Presentation Goals

•! Review recent federal Administration and Congressional actions that might support urban policy

•! Identify some resources you can use for near-term action

•! Suggest a priority agenda for CNU

RETOOLING HUD for a Catalytic Federal Government: A Report to Secretary Shaun Donovan

HOUSING THE NATION

RETOOLING HUD

Facilitating Green Housing and Communities

Report to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan

•! Scott Bernstein Center for Neighborhood Technology

Task Force Members—

•! Co-Chairs: John Cleveland, Innovation Network for Communities and Anne Evens, Center for Neighborhood Technology

•! Members: Bracken Hendricks, Center for American Progress; Stockton Williams, Enterprise Community Partners; Jonathan Rose, Rose Companies; Ben Hecht, Living Cities, Joel Rogers, Center on Wisconsin Strategy

Assumptions and Opportunities

•! HUD has direct influence over 10% of nation’s housing

•! It is the largest direct residential bill payer

•! To help people, strategy must address both people and places

•! Growth of population and housing ~1%/year> focus mostly on existing stock

•! Energy price spikes contributed to economic crisis and energy/trans costs will limit current solutions’ effectiveness

•! Economy is 18-36 mos. From next spike

•! Green building retrofit is a $640 billion, 7 million job market

•! Work that needs doing is in the places that need work

RETOOLING HUD

Strategies

1.! Aggressively Green the HUD Portfolio

2.! Make HUD a Leader in Developing the National Building Retrofit Market

3.! Locate Housing to Create Transit-Oriented, Walkable, Accessible Communities

4.! With White House Leadership, Organize a Cross-Department Strategy for Retrofits as an Economic Development Strategy

RETOOLING HUD

Strategy 1—

Aggressively Green the HUD Portfolio

•! Direct investments in Public Housing, Sections 8/202/811/HOPE VI, HOME Grants, and also Green Retrofit for Lead Hazard Homes

•! Grants, loans, incentives, regs (e.g. manufactured housing), green standards, including increase in allowable Total Development Costs for green

•! Disclose energy costs and change the way HUD pays for energy

•! Lead demand-side strategies, e.g. w/smart grid & advanced metering investments

Early actions include—

MOU between HUD and DOE to coordinate home retrofit activities for working families (ann. Feb 27)

$4.75 Billion in ARRA funds for public housing ($4B), MF retrofit ($250M) + Native American ($510M) to match $11.5 billion at DOE

Proposed reorganization to include new Office of Sustainable Housing & Communities led by Deputy Secretary

Major initiative to support Energy Efficient Mortgages and home energy cost disclosure and local capacity building (FY2010 budget initiative, pending)

RETOOLING HUD

ARRA Accomplishments

HUD Programs

$4 billion PHA retrofits

$250 million HUD assisted retrofits

$510 million Native American Housing

$1.5 billion HOME green units

$10 million Non-profit housing retrofits

Related Programs

$5.0 billion Low income weatherization

$3.2 billion Energy Efficiency & Conservation

Block Grants

$3.4 billion State Energy Programs

$4.3 billion Home energy efficiency tax credits

$0.5 billion Green Job Training

$300 million Energy Efficiency Appliance Rebates

Strategic Opportunities:

•!Leverage energy efficiency investments

to stimulate the private retrofit market

•!Screen investment decisions to assure

that combined housing and

transportation costs are optimized

•!Collaborate across agencies on building

the energy efficiency economy

•!Support the development of a national

network of regions investing in

aggressive energy efficiency retrofitting

Accomplishments and Opportunities

Facilitating Green Housing RETOOLING HUD

Strategy 2— Make HUD a Leader in the Building Retrofit Market

•! Create a $5 Billion Building Energy Efficiency (BEEF) Fund

•! Create a national capacity building network of public, private and community institutions to support regional retrofit strategies

•! Create a HUD Office of Sustainable Development

•! Invest in R& D to support development of the housing retrofit market

Early Actions Include—

•! Requested appropriations for these activities in the HUD FY2010 Budget request

•! Proposed creating an Office of Sustainable Communities led by Deputy Secretary

•! Budget proposal includes an “Energy Innovations Fund”

•! Budget proposal to boost PD & R support beyond traditional functions

RETOOLING HUD

•! Reward location efficiency in new construction and retrofit

•! Raise Total Development Costs for higher density, infill, TOD and brownfield redevelopment

•! Redefine “affordability” to include both housing and transportation costs

•! Utilize Location Efficient Mortgages

•! Support local and regional planning that advances these objectives

Early actions include—

•! MOU by HUD + DOT to support transit & livable communities, regional planning, redefine affordability, harmonize programs

•! Proposed initiatives in FY2010 budget and in new OSHC

•! Regular mentions by President Obama and USDOT Sec. LaHood linked to “urban policy” (e.g. April 16 HSR event)

Strategy 3— Locate Housing to Promote Walkable, Transit-Oriented Communities

RETOOLING HUD

H = 13.25 to 72.07 Percent of AMI H + T = 34.68 to 119 Percent of AMI

Chicagoland MSA Housing Affordability at <30% of AMI vs

Housing + Transport Affordability at <45% Drop of 977,000 HHs from Affordability

When Transportation is Counted,

= Drop of 29.6% of Total Stock

RETOOLING HUD

Ten Years of Foreclosures in Metro Chicago

1998 2008

RETOOLING HUD

It’s Not Over Yet—

-Gas Costs Keep Climbing, -12 month’s foreclosures Up 5% in Cook County -Up 70% in surrounding collar counties -Worst where income is low &

both sub-prime +VMT exposure is high

Strategy 4—Retrofits as an Economic Sector Development Strategy

•! Fully fund the proposed Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants and use to support regional strategies

•! Use HUD’s leadership in greening to create green, higher wage jobs for public housing residents

•! Expand residential energy efficiency tax credits

•! Build national capacity and supply chains to serve the retrofit market

Early actions include—

•! EECBG funded in ARRA at $3.2 B, inc. planning as “strategy development”

•! EECBG funded from DOE, not familiar with cities or with energy planning, program desperately needs to add a TA network

•! ARRA included residential energy tax credits, & increases in qualified energy bonds

•! Multi-agency and public-private discussions under way to build retrofit market support

•! HUD Secretary included in regular meetings of White House Office of Energy & Climate Change

RETOOLING HUD

Other Supportive Actions •! Supportive legislation—HR6078,

the GREEN Act, passed last year as part of HR6899, Energy Bill, about to be reintroduced, supports standards, green retrofit, and both Energy Efficient and Location Efficient Mortgages and upgrading Consolidated Plans to include sustainable development, transportation

•! Supportive hearings—Transportation & HUD Appropriations, two supportive hearings on coordinating housing and transportation

•! Supportive hearings—Senate Banking symposium on livable communities

•! Ownership taken by President Obama on green jobs, 21st century economy, and transit/livable communities

•! Supportive press response to HUD-DOT collaboration

•! Large networks of labor unions, community developers and cities coming together around retrofit and green jobs markets

•! Innovative uses of Build America Bonds and related tools aimed at building retrofit

RETOOLING HUD

Possible Problems

•! While much of this can be implemented under current authority, much cannot without new legislative authority for both budgetary and non-budgetary items

•! Appointments process has been slow

•! Unprecedented amount of coordination required

•! HUD’s federal partners, other than DOT, lack a focus on and experience with place

•! Proposals that may ultimately reduce risk are still seen as risky for financial markets

•! Assumes an unprecedented level of regional and local capacity

•! Readiness to plan effectively—only 12 states have planning statutes, these were the ones with most integrated stimulus proposals but most of America may not be ready

RETOOLING HUD

Signs of Life in Congress

•! Recent reorganization puts HUD and DOT in same appropriations subcommittees in both houses

•! Modest increases over FY2008 in FY2009 budget

•! Supportive hearings on HUD and DOT Coordination in Transportation/HUD Appropriations Subcommittee 3/18 and 3/19

•! In-depth symposium on transit and livable communities held by Senate Banking on March 26

•! Nominations process is very slow

•! Few hearings of substance, and overshadowed by economic situation and stimulus package

•! House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman to introduce transportation bill shortly

•! No agreement on revenue sources, especially for transportation, probably means continuing resolution

RETOOLING HUD

Framing that Seems to Help

•! Economic success requires both higher incomes and lower cost of living

•! America is a nation of communities and regions and success requires place-based partnerships

•! We cannot win on climate change and energy independence without deep retrofit and location benefits

•! We’re running out of time—gas prices will spike again soon, no time to waste

•! The “stimulus” was both the American Recovery AND Reinvestment Act, we’re doing the first, need the second

•! Cities and metro areas are the solutions to climate, energy, and economic problems

•! Transforming HUD into this kind of leader is essential to getting us where we need to be fast enough

RETOOLING HUD

Two Views of Chicago and CO2— Location Efficiency Reduces Financial Risk AND Per-Household Emissions, Changes “Cities are the Problem” to “Cities can be the Solution”

RETOOLING HUD

Source: Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company

Location Efficiency & the Transect Reveals Carbon Benefits of Good

Urban Form

9.7-14.6

5.8-10.7

3.9-6.1 2.4-

4.4 0-2.43

This Place

Has the

Disappearing

Carbon

Blues…!

Transport Carbon in Tons of CO2/HH/Year

Federal updates

•! Banking Committee symposium, dates

•! Upcoming hearings next week

•! House FSC GREEN Act, HR2336, Hearing June 11, record open 30 days, Senate to introduce shortly

•! House FSC, HUD will testify June 16

•! HUD – FY2010 budget proposal includes several hundred million dollars for metro, TOD, mortgage innovation, R&D in support of the HUD-DOT partnership agreement

•! Nothing yet on DOT

Federal updates cont.

•! Much energy consumed by the climate bill (ACES)

•! Very little in it for spatial planning, Section 841 reqs States and MPOs to submit plans for achieving national GHG reduction goals from transportation and land use investments

•! One small provision for MPOs

•! Supreme Court has upheld right of EPA to regulate GHGs as pollutants under the CAAA

•! Transportation reauthorization—not likely to happen this year

•! Marker bills

•! National transportation planning—Lautenberg/Rock in Senate, Carnahan/Inslee in House, latter has H/T

•! Support for H+T affordability—Blumenauer, pending

•! Federal “patch” on Trust Fund from General Fund of $8 B last year, $18 to $34 this year

Stimulus provided some important openings

•! High speed rail--$8B, three rounds of funding

•! Green infrastructure set aside—20 percent of $ into state revolving funds must be for green infrastructure

•! Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant--$2.8 Billion entitlement for CDBG cities and balance of states—one-third States, two-thirds cities, +$400M competitive

Resources Available

•! Re-Tooling HUD—www.upenn.edu

•! EECBG Guide—www.cnt.org

•! T4America—www.t4america.org

•! STPP—www.transact.org

•! Affordability Index—http://Htaindex.cnt.org

Possible CNU Actions

•! Form a policy agenda and partnerships with key coalitions

•! Market New Urbanism as a pathway to sustainable urban policy

•! Translate the networks project into a near term action agenda

•! Pick some States and metro areas and work them

Thank You!

•! Scott Bernstein

•! www.cnt.org

•! scott@cnt.org

RETOOLING HUD