The crises of the last year – plummeting housing prices, accelerating foreclosures and collapsing financial institutions – and a new administration in Washington have created an opportunity to fundamentally rethink federal housing policy.
With support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation, New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy is convening leading thinkers on Thursday, February 12, and Friday, February 13, 2009 to reexamine federal housing policy, and its connections to the broader economy and other areas of federal policy.
The conference will provide President Obama, Congress, and the president’s appointees in housing and urban policy with specific recommendations for how to reconstruct the mortgage finance system, bring new models for first-time homeownership to scale, link affordable rental housing with economic opportunities for families, and forge more effective connections between housing programs and transportation, environment and education policy.
By bringing together national and local policy makers, developers, advocates, academics, and private sector leaders from fields as diverse as finance, urban development, environmental protection and child advocacy, the conference will present realistic perspectives on which of the most ambitious and creative ideas in housing can be introduced and brought to scale by the new administration.
This invitation only, two-day conference will feature keynote addresses by members of the Obama Administration, a breakfast roundtable, and a series of panel discussions. Each of these sessions are designed to generate frank conversations on the challenges and opportunities the current crisis has left us with, and result in concrete strategies for moving forward.
