Public Housing

In their recent article for Reverse Mortgage Daily, Gate House Founding Partners Brian Montgomery, Keith Becker and Dror Oppenheimer discuss the implications of the first positive capital ratio for the HECM program in six years.

The Gate House team, who worked together at the Federal Housing Administration managing the HECM program, provided their unique perspective and explained that important policy changes, and most certainly strong home price appreciation, have contributed to the substantial improvement in the HECM capital ratio.

Nevertheless, they argued, the results do not “provide a reason for complacency or assurance of future (positive) results” and therefore continued vigilance to ensure the program “is not continuously subsidized by the premiums … in the forward book, will be vital for the HECM program to continue to serve its mission.”

Montgomery is the only person to have served as FHA Commissioner twice under three presidents. Becker served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary and Chief Risk Officer for FHA. Oppenheimer served as a Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of FHA.

Gate House Vice Chairman Hunter Kurtz joined @ConsultQuadel President and  @Forbes_Books contributor Katie Goar for her podcast series “Change Makers with Katie Goar, Finding the right solutions for the affordable housing community” to share his insights on affordable housing through the lens of his experience in public housing and community development. Based on his experience as former HUD Public & Indian Housing Assistant Secretary, his career serving in other significant roles at HUD and Michigan state government in Detroit, and his current work with Gate House Strategies, in Part 1 of the series, Hunter discusses his career path in affordable housing, specific challenges and solutions to solving current supply constraints in affordable housing including through programs like “Faircloth to RAD” (the Rental Assistance Demonstration program), the importance of graduating renters on public assistance into market rate units, combatting veteran homelessness through programs like the HUD-VASH program, and what it will take generally to improve the shortage of affordable housing in America.

In Part 2 of the series, Hunter discusses the work of Gate House’s new subsidiary, Gate House Digital, including our colleague Dain Ehring’s perspective on the emergence of Artificial Intelligence in mortgage lending, the receipt of the “Sammies Award” by his former HUD colleague’s for their mutual work preventing homelessness of foster youth aging out of the program, his work with public housing authorities and the success of PHAs during the height of the Covid pandemic, and being part of “the rebirth of a great American city,” Detroit, where he resides today.

Gate House Vice Chairman Hunter Kurtz, when he served as Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing (PIH) at HUD, had led a team of staff who were determined to address a critical challenge for a vulnerable population in America, our nation’s youth who age out of foster care and are at risk of homelessness.

The HUD PIH team designed a new program, the Foster Youth to Independence Initiative (“FYI Initiative”) which now provides rental assistance and other supportive services to these individuals.

In his recent article for HousingWire, Kurtz congratulates his former colleagues for receiving the prestigious “Sammies” Award in recognition of their innovative approach and execution of the FYI Initiative.

Kurtz applauds the work of his former colleagues as well as the many families of the Foster Youth program who volunteer to make a tremendous difference in the lives of at-risk youth. They are “un-sung heroes” in our national life, Kurtz says.

The FYI Initiative has now issued over 1,000 housing choice vouchers for former foster youth. Without support, an estimated 25% of youth aging out of foster care experience homelessness within four years.

Happy Friday. After completing a remarkable first two weeks for Gate House Strategies, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone with whom we’ve had the pleasure of engaging and many others who have been in touch.

Already, the firm has forged meaningful partnerships with longtime colleagues in the housing market and beyond, rekindled relationships that we believe will help the industry resolve critical and timely policy challenges (some age-old and others arising out of the pandemic), and been contacted by numerous others whose unique goals and enterprises portend well for future relationships with our firm.

We are hard at work discovering paths forward, finding new avenues for success – merging the unique expertise and perspective within the industry with our knowledge, experience, and relationships, forming coalitions of key allies, and leveraging it all to achieve results.

Now while that’s a mouthful after just two-and-a-half weeks, as we tried to convey at the launch we are on a mission to assist our clients’ efforts to build, to innovate, and to grow — to add to the long tradition and commitment to a strong and vibrant financial services and housing market that serves the interest of all Americans.

A few days after announcing this venture, I was on a plane to Jacksonville, FL to attend the Mortgage Bankers Association of Georgia (MBAG) annual conference, the first in-person event I have attended in over 14 months and one rescheduled twice last year (and I suspect the same for the other attendees).

Suffice it to say we were all incredibly excited to come together once again like real, non-virtual people, to see one another, and to begin to share ideas again amidst a sure sign that things are starting to get back to normal.   The excitement was palpable and it warmed the heart to see close friends and colleagues see each other face-to-face for the first time in many, many months.

The next morning, Rob Chrisman and I conducted a panel together, and we could feel the readiness to look ahead and to build upon what was an extraordinary year in housing.  Just before we walked on stage Rob turned to me and whispered, “I have the hiccups!”

Perhaps it was the perfect metaphor for involuntary, seemingly inexplicable contractions of the COVID-19 era that require creative, innovative solutions in front of a live audience.

Without missing a beat, our moderator (upon hearing a hiccup) declared she had a sure-fire cure that never fails.  She rose up and walked over to Rob imploring him to stand up and raise his arms high above his head.  She asked for a glass of water but saw one on the podium (Note: it was mine from the previous session which I did sip from (sorry Rob)).  The moderator then held the glass and told Rob to tilt his head back and keep drinking but to wave his hands when he had enough.  I immediately thought of waterboarding but Rob kept chugging before giving the audience his version of “jazz hands.”  And it worked much to the audiences laughter!

We had a great session and can’t wait to do it again soon. (And thank you, Rob, for the shout-out on your unmatched-in-influence blog about Gate House as “the new kid on the block.”)

But getting back to business, we are hearing from a lot of people, new and old, who are seeing the challenges we are seeing and who are looking for the best solutions, working to position themselves to both take advantage of new opportunities this year has in store and looking beyond the pandemic to strategies that will achieve the mission.

Again, we are looking forward to it all and can’t wait to help our partners navigate this journey ahead.

–Brian Montgomery, Chairman and Founding Partner, Gate House Strategies

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Few issues are more salient to the challenges our country faces today than the shortage of decent, safe, affordable housing.

As became abundantly clear during the COVID-19 pandemic, our homes are the foundation of much of our lives, they have a profound effect on our health and well-being, and impact our education and productivity, as well as our ability to take advantage of opportunities in a free country.

As the coronavirus forced Americans to use their homes as safe havens, offices, and classrooms, it also put increased pressure on public and private housing markets that were already undersupplied and putting greater numbers of vulnerable citizens at risk.

And as the nation focuses on fairness and equity throughout our society and economy, it is evident that housing is integral to that fabric of American life, and, ultimately, the belief that everyone has a stake in its success.

Both in response to COVID-19 and in the Administration’s focus on infrastructure, we are seeing an unprecedented increase in funding for affordable housing.

The latest round of COVID-19 funding included over $46 billion for rental assistance, funds that will help individuals and families either get back on their feet or simply maintain life without the stress of whether there will be a roof overhead.

There is another staggering $200 billion being proposed in Washington through increase in the budget and infrastructure.

All of this is presenting tremendous possibilities, providing potential new funding sources for communities, developers, and public housing authorities. The increase in the Capital Fund for public housing authorities, for example, presents both private public sector partners with enormous opportunities over the next few years to improve the current affordable housing stock and to expand it as well.

These opportunities are coupled with enormous challenges to get it right in order to make a lasting impact on the lives of millions of people. We are already hearing the frustrations with trying to deploy this kind of money in a short period of time. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission gave notice to the largest landlords this week that the rules and tenant rights will need to be followed.

We have new and more administrative hurdles to spending this funding quickly and wisely. Stakeholders are going to need assistance to ensure they are following the rules and deploying the funds in an effective and efficient manner, a manner that not only helps the people intended to be helped but also ensure funds are spent in a timely fashion.

The timing of deploying funds will determine the ability of individuals, families, and communities to more fully recover and achieve goals that will impact their lives for many years.

-Hunter Kurtz, Vice Chairman and Founding Partner, Gate House Strategies