Due to an ongoing, chronic shortage of affordable housing, many of our neighbors face the unfortunate reality of housing insecurity and instability. Low- and moderate-income households and persons of color have been hardest hit by the worsening housing crisis.  The lack of access to quality, affordable housing is but one of the lasting impacts of a historic legacy of discriminatory public policies and private practices that also include growing wealth gaps for Black and Latinx households, disparities in educational attainment, lack of access to quality healthcare and food options in disinvested neighborhoods. To adequately address these urgent housing needs, we can’t operate on our own – we can only truly drive impact with an all-hands-on-deck, collaborative approach.

Join HAND, Forsyth Street Advisors, Goldstein Hall and CohnReznick on July 19th (1 – 2:30pm) for an update on the Joint Ownership Entity (JOE) exploratory phase for the DC, Maryland and Virginia metropolitan area (DMV). Over the last several months, HAND and its partners have undertaken a series of activities to assess the feasibility of developing a collaborative mechanism for nonprofit community-based housing developers in the region.

The proposed initiative is designed to transform the current landscape for the development and ownership of affordable housing by nonprofits in the DMV, strengthen the capacity of nonprofits to expand the supply of affordable housing in the region, and preserve economic diversity in communities subject to gentrification. Based on a similar program created in New York City, the JOE recognizes that all community development is local and that a collaborative effort in the DMV must respond to the region’s unique market, housing finance programs, and regulatory environment (additional background here).

The goal of the exploratory phase was to determine whether a collaborative strategy could be crafted among nonprofit housings within the DMV which could help increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the nonprofit housing industry while maintaining nonprofits’ project control and enhancing the groups’ abilities to compete for pipeline with private developers. Our speakers will provide an overview of these activities, key findings and analysis from participating organizations, collective challenges to address, and recommendations for moving forward.

We encourage all interested organizations to join us, whether or not you participated in the exploratory phase. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to strengthen your organization’s operations, while ultimately creating a more equitable region through the vehicle of housing.

Who should attend? Presidents & CEOs; Executive Directors; Board Chairs; Directors of Development; and Asset Managers

Featured Speakers

David Goldstein  Managing Partner Goldstein Hall PLLC	Esther Sandrof  Partner Forsyth Street Advisors	Marc Jahr Senior Advisor Forsyth Street Advisors

Registration Fees: This event is free and only available to current HAND Members

Many thanks to Local Initiatives Support Corporation for its generous support!

Cohort members can expect to gain a thorough understanding of the curriculum and the need for supportive housing, get to know the other teams and learn some best practices in producing and operating quality supportive housing.

Registration fees: This session is only open to cohort members in the Northern Virginia Supportive Housing Institute region. 

The second session will include a series of activities for team building, generating a shared vision, and defining team roles.

Registration fees: This session is only open to cohort members in the Northern Virginia Supportive Housing Institute region. 

Cohort members will start their day with a tour of The John and Jill Ker Conway Residence led by Chapman Todd of Jaydot. The John and Jill Ker Conway Residence opened in 2016 and is the first mixed-income supportive housing development in Washington, DC. After the tour, cohort members will enjoy a working lunch at Farmers & Distillers.

Registration fees: This session is only open to cohort members in the Northern Virginia Supportive Housing Institute region. 

This virtual session is all about how to design a project to meet quality standards. We’ll discuss how to work with an architect, how to create a project design that meets your project goals, and how to integrate accessibility and sustainability into your project concept.

Registration fees: This session is only open to cohort members in the Northern Virginia Supportive Housing Institute region. 

In this session, cohort members will learn how to coordinate and plan services to support tenants in using housing as a platform for individual health, wellness, and recovery. Topics covered include services coordination, services and staffing models, and services design and planning.

Registration fees: This session is only open to cohort members in the Northern Virginia Supportive Housing Institute region. 

This introduction to supportive housing budgets will cover the types of financing necessary to build and operate supportive housing, key budgeting considerations and priorities, and an overview of the development process.

Registration fees: This session is only open to cohort members in the Northern Virginia Supportive Housing Institute region. 

In this session, cohort members will dive deeper into supportive housing budgets with material about sources and priorities for services and operating budgets. Discussions will center around types of local financing available for pre-development and gap financing as well as the sources of services funding available to projects.

Registration fees: This session is only open to cohort members in the Northern Virginia Supportive Housing Institute region. 

This program will focus on how local governments are investing in affordable housing through their government budget, housing justice legislation, and programs and how they measure against housing needs and the goals of the HIT Tool, a platform designed to track local efforts to produce affordable rental housing in the Washington region. 

Registration fees: This is an open event.

This final session on budgeting includes an overview of sources of capital financing as well as the entire development process. Tools and resources will be shared to help you plan out your budgets as a team.

Registration fees: This session is only open to cohort members in the Northern Virginia Supportive Housing Institute region. 

Registration fees: This event is free to current HAND Members; Non-Member Fee: $75.

This penultimate session will focus on quality: how to engage in the CSH Quality Endorsement process, how to assess a project’s alignment with the Dimensions of Quality, and how to track outcomes to seek Quality Improvement. 

Registration fees: This session is only open to cohort members in the Northern Virginia Supportive Housing Institute region. 

Teams will present their project concept and connect with possible funders to get their projects moving forward.

Registration fees: This session is only open to cohort members in the Northern Virginia Supportive Housing Institute region. 

We invite you to join us for the next installment of HAND’s Resident Services Affinity Group on February 16, 2023 (12-2 pm). As community development professionals, many of us recognize that safe, healthy and affordable housing is the foundation for our communities to thrive. But the story does not end with housing. The individuals we serve – which include some of our most vulnerable populations earning 60 percent or less of area median income – require the combination of affordable housing and resident services designed specifically for their needs. 

Many of the traditional services that our communities provide include: health and educational programs, financial literacy, and homeownership preparation. But what does this work look like in an ongoing pandemic? Is your community applying a racial equity lens to your programming? Are there blind spots in your community that could be off your radar? Resident services providers must consistently evaluate whether or not the program is truly adding value or simply checking a box. Further, organizations must learn how to effectively navigate the dynamic between resident services and property management staff to maintain a healthy working environment, lift up resident voices, and work towards the shared mission of creating a community where residents thrive. Join us at the next session where we will cover: 

• Maintaining a healthy tension between resident services and property management teams;
• Creating an effective model of communication between the two entities; 
• And how local practitioners are working through these challenges. 

Who can attend? All HAND members who are engaged with resident services and property management! This includes, but is not limited to:

• Resident Service Coordinators
• Resident Service Managers
• Resident Relations
• Resident Service Specialists
• Property Managers
• Property Administrators

Featured Speakers

Khyati Desai-Seltzer Community Engagement Specialist	Natasha Lasley-Philemon Area Manager CAPREIT Management

Registration Fees: This event is free and only available to current HAND members.

Registration Fees: This event is free.

• HAND
• Daniel Henson, President, Henson Development Co.
• John Lin, President & CEO, CapStar Commercial Realty

Registration Fees: Tickets are $100 per person, $800 per table, and $50 for Young Alumni (who graduated in the last five years)

Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS), the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), and the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers (HAND), in collaboration with state and local partners, are excited to announce the first multi-regional Supportive Housing Institute in the Commonwealth of Virginia beginning this August 2023.

This is an exciting opportunity for supportive service providers, housing developers, and property/asset managers in the NoVA (Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William) and Hampton Roads (Chesapeake, Eastern Shore, Hampton-Newport News, Middle Peninsula-Northern Neck, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Western Tidewater, Williamsburg) regions to receive over 10 days of practical training and individualized technical assistance on developing supportive housing. Additionally, each project team participating in the Institute will have access to up to $300,000 in grant funding to help support the successful initiation and development of high-quality supportive and affordable housing.

Please join HAND, CSH, and DBHDS for an informational session on May 15th from 2:30-3:30pm. This session will provide more details on the Institute structure and how to participate. Applications will be available immediately following the informational session and will be due June 30, 2023.  

Registration fees: This event is free and only open to those working in Northern Virginia (Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William) and Hampton Roads (Chesapeake, Eastern Shore, Hampton-Newport News, Middle Peninsula-Northern Neck, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Western Tidewater, Williamsburg) regions. We highly encourage both HAND members and Non-HAND members to attend. 

Funds from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) can be used to preserve affordable housing and reduce energy costs – but how do we implement programs and design projects that will make the best use of these funds? Low-income households are disproportionately more affected by the impacts of climate change, so it is essential that the affordable housing industry be prepared to leverage IRA funds once they are available. We invite you to join us for HAND’s Environmental Justice Affinity Group on June 1, 2023 (12-1:30pm) to learn IRA funding opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in affordable housing.

We also invite you to bring other topics you’d like to discuss over the course of our future meetings. We will set aside time for everyone to share any other points of concern, success stories and questions to the group.

Who can attend? All HAND members who are engaged with making environmental impact decisions – financiers, developers, property managers, asset managers, etc. 

Featured Speakers

Nick Burger Deputy Director of the Energy Administration DC Department of Energy and Environment	Gary Decker   Director of Strategic Engagement DC Green Bank	Joe Knackstedt Deputy Manager Development Finance Division DC Department of Housing and Community Development	Todd Nedwick Senior Director of Sustainability Policy National Housing Trust

Registration Fees: This event is free and only available to current HAND members

We invite you to join us for the relaunch of HAND’s Asset Management Affinity Group on June 6, 2023 (12-1:30pm). Even though many residents still have not recovered financially from the pandemic, most of the COVID-19 rent relief programs have gone away. As landlords grapple with rising operating costs, they are even more sensitive to ensure rents are being collected. During this meeting, we will discuss the challenges caused by increased operating expenses, what beyond inflation has impacted those costs, and how organizations are addressing these concerns. We will also talk about what collection rates are looking like across the region, whether you manage these in-house or through a third-party firm, best practices and solutions.

We also invite you to bring other topics you’d like to discuss over the course of our future meetings. We will set aside time for everyone to share any other points of concern, success stories and questions to the group.

Who can attend? All HAND members who are engaged with asset management and property management!

Meet your Affinity Group Chair: 

Beverly Hanlin Director of Asset Management TM Associates

Registration Fees: This event is free and only available to current HAND members.

HAND invites you to join us for the Resident Services Affinity Group meeting on June 7, 2023 (12-1:30pm). As more communities begin to serve targeted populations: seniors, youth aging out of foster care, permanent supportive housing units, returning citizens, developmentally disabled, and veterans, developers and resident services must ensure they are addressing their unique needs. That requires us to consider what those different needs are and how we can provide the necessary support. How do the needs of senior developments differ from traditional multi-family housing? How do you address social isolation?  What partnerships are necessary to move the work forward? What are the best practices in serving non-multi-family units? These are just a few of the different questions the group will discuss, and we encourage you to bring your insights as well! 

What you’ll learn:

• Key partnerships to serve targeted populations
• How to implement collaborative impact practices to stabilize families
• How local practitioners can continue to build inclusive communities

Who can attend? All HAND members who are engaged with resident services.

Featured Speakers

Regine Gerard  Foster Care Supervisor Arlington County	Claude Thomas  Program Coordinator & Community Outreach Our Stomping Ground	Kelley Vallecillo  Resident Services Coordinator Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing

Registration Fees: This event is free and only available to current HAND members.

Same celebration, new name.
The HAND Annual Meeting is now HAND Honors. We can’t wait to celebrate you!

Continuing the tradition of HAND’s Annual Meeting, we welcome HAND members and friends to come together at the 32nd Annual HAND Honors. Join us for an evening of inspiration and connection where you’ll cultivate partnerships with changemakers and celebrate the accomplishments of affordable housing industry leaders.

We see you. We see the great obstacles that our communities face from day to day in the midst of unprecedented housing affordability and inventory challenges. We also see the work you are doing to build first-class homes that are affordable to our neighbors, the attention you put into your resident services programming and the impact of creating space for residents to thrive. Most of all, we see the incredible opportunities in front of us to work together towards a more equitable region. 

HAND is excited to announce that Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, will be joining us at the 32^ndAnnual HAND Honors as the Keynote Speaker. Secretary Fudge is our 2023 President’s Choice award recipient, HAND’s highest honor. This prestigious award recognizes Secretary Fudge’s state-of-the-art response to providing affordable housing and supportive services. Most importantly, her dedication to prioritizing racial equity across the spectrum of housing aligns so closely with the mission of HAND that we cannot wait to celebrate her achievements!

We will also recognize the outstanding triumphs of our other Housing Achievement Awardees, the Children’s Essay Contest winner and the first recipients of the new GenerationHAND Scholarship, benefiting local college-bound high school seniors. Don’t miss this special occasion to celebrate our members who are advancing our communities at The Kennedy Center (Nations Gallery, 2700 F St NW, Washington, DC)!

Creating impactful and long-term equitable solutions requires inclusive decision-making, a deep understanding of the roots of inequity, and the ability to assess current barriers or biases that prevent progress moving forward. Join this discussion to learn research-based evidence on how BIPOC communities experience economic inequality in the DMV and what diverse leaders work through to manage the impact. In this roundtable, you will explore how Effective Collaboration, Policy & Advocacy, and Philanthropic Funding play a key role in closing racial wealth divides.

Join Prosperity Now on June 29th, from 12:00-4:00 pm at Marshall Heights Community Development Organization, to participate in the discussion.