Top Ten Take-Aways from the Chicago RAD Workshop Hosted by CLPHA, Enterprise, and NEF
9/20/2012
On September 6 and 7, approximately 100 attendees
representing nearly 40 housing authorities (PHAs) of various sizes from around
the country and 25 private developers, syndicators, lenders, consultants, and
other interested parties attended the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD)
Workshop, Making a RAD Deal Work, in
Chicago, IL. The workshop was hosted by
CLPHA, Enterprise Community Investment (Enterprise), and the National Equity
Fund (NEF), and featured two days of presentations from and dialogue with
members of the financial industry interested in helping housing authorities put
together RAD deals.
Steve Holmquist, partner at Reno & Cavanaugh and
legal counsel to CLPHA, represented CLPHA at the workshop and presented on a
number of regulatory and legal issues related to RAD. Presentations included:
In addition to the above presentations (which can also be
found on the CLPHA RAD website),
workshop presenters put together the Top Ten Take-Aways from the workshop.
The workshop provided an open dialogue format for housing
authorities to ask specific questions about their potential RAD deals. Many
attendees reported that the high level of experience and expertise in the room ensured
that almost every question received a thoughtful response on how to achieve a
solution. Discussion focused on the
needs of the audience, and break-out sessions to discuss individual deals on
the second day of the workshop were structured around the specific interests of
the attendees.
Housing authorities can continue to connect with
potential partners and experts to help with RAD deals through the RAD Capital Marketplace. The website is designed to encourage
contact and information sharing among housing authorities and multifamily
owners considering a RAD conversion and the lenders, investors, development
partners, financial intermediaries, professional financing advisors, and
consultants that offer services and products that PHAs and owners may wish to
use in preparing their RAD application and/or financing plan.
CLPHA would like to hear from members planning to apply
for RAD (and would be interested to hear from others on their decision not to
participate). Questions about RAD can be
directed to CLPHA Research & Policy Analyst Theresa Finney Dumais.
