Article by David Engel excerpted from the Spring 2004
issue of NeighborWorks bright ideas
March 25, 2004 -- Reducing the cost of creating
affordable housing is a challenge that requires the combined talents
of nonprofit and market-based housing providers, housing advocates,
the business sector, and federal, state and local governments.
There is no "easy fix."
In this article from the Spring 2004 issue of NeighborWorks bright
ideas, a quarterly magazine published by the NeighborWorks
Network and the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, David Engel
examines ways to address excessive, unnecessary, or exclusionary
regulations that raise the cost of affordable housing. Engel,
director of the Division of Affordable Housing Research and Technology
at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is also
a senior career member of the America's Affordable Community
Initiative team.
Through the America's Affordable Community Initiative
(www.hud.gov/affordablecommunities),
HUD is partnering with community-wide interests and organizations
such as the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation to demonstrate
the importance of regulatory reform and to develop new tools for
local governments and housing providers to use in tackling affordable
housing issues.
HUD also offers technical information to housing providers on
barriers and ways to address them. Engel urges Neighborhood Reinvestment
partners to visit HUD's Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse
(www.regbarriers.org).
This national Web-based forum, database, and listserve provide
opportunities to share ideas on barriers and learn how other communities
are addressing this unique housing challenge.
Read
the article
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