2023 Symposium: Richard F. Burns, CEO, NHPF
In the affordable housing industry, all of our work today is for a tomorrow where residents live in safe, sustainable housing that won’t require heart wrenching choices to make monthly rent. The future we hope to see would include the ability for families, seniors, those with disabilities and others to have abundant housing choices—everything from traditional multifamily housing to single-family rentals ultimately available to purchase. And this housing must include amenities uniquely tailored to the wide variety of generations in need of housing, everyone from the Silent Generation, the Boomers,
Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, and those yet to come. This same future would take sustainability seriously, using materials and processes that ensure high-quality long-lasting and durable buildings, constructed safely and cost- effectively in areas where natural and other disasters are a part of life. Affordable housing for the future would factor in proximity to the places residents need to access. This means abundant local transportation, shopping, medical facilities and jobs. The future workforce would ideally have housing near their places of employment. We also have a future in mind where authorities at all levels—city, county, state and federal—are able to modify archaic zoning restrictions that inhibit affordable housing construction. It is incumbent upon our industry to encourage elected officials to make changes to these restrictions that can benefit all communities. With this same future in mind, NHPF’s teams of developers, asset managers, construction personnel and others are striving to ensure that our industry is as inclusive as possible, providing and encouraging opportunities for all. This year’s Symposium offers up experts with plenty of recommendations and bright ideas for the affordable housing of the future. We hope you will start thinking about incorporating their suggestions for a future that will most certainly impact affordable housing as we know it today.
4 The Future of Affordable Housing: Interconnecting Construction,Demographics, Government & Innovation
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