Friday, March 22, 2013 — 10:45 a.m.–12:00 p.m.

Around the Beltway and Beyond: Federal Housing Policy Update
All planning is local and all development is local, but what happens inside the Beltway can have major implications for states and localities. Join this session for a look behind the headlines and inside the Beltway! What are the prospects for and implications of budget cuts, tax reform, and housing finance reform over the next year? How might congressional or administration actions change the way in which we think about providing affordable housing and stronger communities? Panelists will share updates on the current federal policy landscape and what it may mean for real estate development in 2013 and beyond.

Speaker Biographies

Alazne (Ali) Gandarias-Solis, Enterprise Community Partners Inc. (moderator)
Ali Gandarias-Solis is senior vice president and public policy and corporate affairs executive for Enterprise Community Partners. Gandarias-Solis is known for leveraging public and private partnerships to provide capital and resources for the development of affordable housing and sustainable communities. Her experience leading national campaigns and her capability as a political strategist have gained national attention, leading to public speaking engagements at academic institutions that include Harvard, American, and Tulane universities.

A large part of Gandarias-Solis’s outreach efforts involve testifying before Congress on housing, banking, and legislative issues. Her expertise has been instrumental in advancing a wide range of public policy priorities, including preserving $40 billion for community development programs and securing $7 billion in congressional appropriations to stabilize communities overwhelmed by the housing foreclosure crisis.

In addition to her career at Enterprise, Gandarias-Solis serves on the boards of various national nonprofit organizations, including the Urban Land Institute’s Terwilliger Center for Housing, the Montgomery Housing Partnership, and AmericaSpeaks.

Chris Estes, National Housing Conference
Chris Estes became president and CEO of the National Housing Conference (NHC) in 2012. Formed in 1931, the nonprofit NHC has been dedicated to helping ensure safe, decent, and affordable housing for everyone in America. He leads the NHC’s policy and advocacy work both in Washington and throughout the country. The NHC has earned its reputation as “the united voice for housing” by actively convening and engaging its membership in nonpartisan advocacy for effective housing policy solutions at the national, state, and local levels. The NHC’s research affiliate—the Center for Housing Policy—works in concert with the NHC’s policy, advocacy, and education efforts to highlight evidence-based learning and best practices in housing development.

Estes comes to the NHC after nine years as executive director of the North Carolina Housing Coalition (NCHC), one of the nation’s best-known state housing groups. Prior to his work with the NCHC, he worked for CAHEC, a regional tax-credit equity syndicator, and DHIC, a nonprofit affordable housing developer in Raleigh, North Carolina, as well as several other area nonprofit organizations as a resource development officer.

In 2007, he cowrote The Economic Cost of Substandard Housing Conditions Among North Carolina Children with David Chenoweth. In 2008, he was named a Local Urban Community Adviser for the Triangle District Council of the Urban Land Institute and a Fannie Mae Fellow. In 2009, he was appointed to the Housing Study Committee of the North Carolina General Assembly. And in 2011, he joined the board of directors of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. He has served two years on the board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond: 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina, and 2013 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Estes graduated from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, where he double-majored in economics and industrial relations. He also holds two master’s degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill: one from the School of Social Work, with a concentration in community practice, and the other from the Department of City and Regional Planning, with a concentration in housing and community development.

Jason Jordan, American Planning Association