Mentorship is a cornerstone of personal and professional growth, and this January, during National Mentoring Month, HAND is proud to highlight its commitment to fostering the next generation of housing and community development leaders through its GenerationHAND initiative. The program provides emerging leaders with resources and mentorship to help them thrive in their careers.

Launched in 2021, the year-long program pairs mentees with experienced mentors to provide guidance, insights, and professional development support. The program not only equips mentees with essential skills but also creates a ripple effect of empowerment, as participants are encouraged to pay it forward by becoming mentors themselves. This cycle of support is key to building a robust leadership pipeline in the housing industry.

One example of this impact is Remarno Chambers, Housing Financial Analyst at the District of Columbia Department of Housing and Community Development, who has benefited from and contributed to the mentorship program. Initially joining the program as a mentee in 2023, Chambers has since transitioned into a dual role as mentor and mentee, embodying the program’s mission of continuous learning and collaboration.

 

“What inspired me to become a mentor is the opportunity to give back and pay it forward,” Chambers shares. Reflecting on the guidance he received from mentors throughout his career, Chambers emphasizes the value of helping others navigate challenges, seize opportunities, and grow personally and professionally. For him, mentorship is about creating a ripple effect—supporting mentees so they, in turn, can uplift others.“ 

Chambers joined several other mentor/mentee pairs on January 22 during an in-person kick-off meeting. The event featured a panel discussion with a previous mentor/mentee pair: Ayesha Hudson (A-Peace), Priya Jayachandran (National Housing Trust), and Gerry Joseph (Joseph & Browne Development Associates) moderated by HAND Executive Director Courtney Battle.

 

“Here at HAND, we emphasize the importance of relationships. Our members’ shared mission to build and sustain more equitable communities is not an easy goal, and it is not one that can be accomplished alone,” said Battle. “It’s exciting to hear from our participants about how the program is helping them succeed professionally and personally.“ 

 

By offering mentorship, fostering diversity, and championing equity, GenerationHAND ensures the housing industry benefits from a wide array of perspectives and ideas.

“A program like GenerationHAND is crucial in the housing industry because it provides invaluable support to professionals navigating a complex landscape,” Chambers explains. 

Through mentorship, Chambers has honed his leadership abilities and expanded his professional network. He credits the program with preparing him to take on higher-level roles and fostering a unified effort to address the challenges of the housing industry.

As we celebrate National Mentoring Month, we look forward to seeing our mentor-mentee pairs thrive and make meaningful contributions to building a stronger, more inclusive community development field.

Steven Palmer

HAND: The HAND Team is excited to have you on board as the Director of Public Policy! Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your work experience and how you will apply what you’ve learned to your new role?
Steven: I’m Steven––I’m originally from Montgomery County, Maryland, and have lived in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of the District since graduating from law school. I briefly practiced at a DC law firm before becoming legislative staff at the Council of the District of Columbia, where I worked in a few different roles, including as staff on the Committee on Transportation and the Environment and later on the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety. I also served as Ward 3 Councilmember Matt Frumin’s first legislative director. 

Working at the Council was an education in how local government functions (or sometimes fails to function) and taught me the importance of homing in on a particular issue to really get things done. I hope to bring this emphasis on focus to my new role to help strengthen the region’s policies toward creating and preserving affordable housing.  

HAND: What are you most looking forward to over the coming months at HAND? Are there any projects that you are particularly excited about?
Steven: This is certainly an interesting time to be joining the team at HAND! Many folks in the affordable housing space are struggling as we face the after-effects of the pandemic and the reduction of much of the federal and local funding that kept projects moving forward for the past few years. Although this presents a challenge, I think it also presents an opportunity to strengthen the foundation on which the region’s affordable housing industry is built.  

HAND: As the Director of Public Policy, you’ll oversee HAND’s advocacy work, including the Housing Indicator Tool (HIT). What value do you hope members can gain from the use and growth of the tool?
Steven: The HIT is a wonderful tool that I’m excited to be working on. Every jurisdiction in the region has a role to play in increasing and preserving the overall supply of affordable housing and one of the best ways to do so is to work in tandem with each other. During my time in government, I cannot count how many times I was asked by Councilmembers what neighboring jurisdictions were doing on a particular issue. Keeping track of what the region is doing and consistently allowing for a bit of friendly competition proves to be the best method for pushing forward vital policies. I hope the HIT allows members to deepen their understanding of the region’s approach to housing beyond the jurisdictions in which they work and to better communicate with local elected officials about what else is needed to increase our supply of affordable housing.

HAND: What is your “why” for working in this industry?
Steven: At the DC Council, I worked on a long list of very different issues, including education, environmental protection, and public safety, just to name a few. Every issue was important, but it felt like each problem kept leading back to our region’s lack of abundant, affordable housing. I joined the team at HAND because I wanted to support the people and organizations focused on fixing that core imbalance between the number of people seeking affordable housing and the amount of affordable housing available. To me, that is the best thing I could do to improve the lives of everyone living and working in my community.

HAND: What might you be doing if you weren’t working in this space?
Steven: There are plenty of alternate universes where I work in local government here in the District forever and ever. There’s also one or two universes where I’m toiling away practicing law somewhere. A more fun answer: as a little kid, I wanted to be a filmmaker, but I am absolutely the least artistic person I know, so there’s one universe out there in which I’m making absolutely terrible movies. Suffice to say, I’m pretty sure I’m where I should be!

By: Laura Searfoss, Senior Program Director, Enterprise

New transit investment presents incredible opportunities for our region: more resilient and equitable communities, shorter and easier commutes, and access to more places to live near transit. The Purple Line construction of an east-west light rail between Montgomery and Prince George’s counties will strengthen physical, social, and economic connections across the DMV.

The often-touted economic benefits of new or expanded transit, however, have a checkered history, especially in communities of color. As highlighted in a recent Baltimore Sun op-ed, “Purple Line must not jeopardize affordable housing,” we don’t need to look far across the Greater Washington region to see patterns of exclusion and displacement due to large-scale transit investment. Recognizing the importance of preserving affordability in communities near new transit, nearly all jurisdictions in the Greater Washington—including Montgomery and Prince George’s counties—have policies that prioritize affordable homes near transit.

In 2014, the Purple Line Corridor Coalition was formed to ensure the economic benefits of the new light rail extend into surrounding communities. The coalition spurs collaboration between cross-sector partners to realize shared goals and achieve greater impact.

The coalition has seen the power of what private and philanthropic placed-based capital can do, especially when coupled with local public funding. In three short years, the Purple Line Capital Pool supported the creation or preservation of about 1,100 affordable homes. In many cases, it provided early stage, below-market loans to buy a property or support pre-development work—critical capital that helps move a project forward but can be hard to come by. This pool, administered by the National Housing Trust, leveraged more than $104 million. 

With the Purple Line about three years from operations, now is the time to accelerate investments in Purple Line communities to stabilize households and preserve affordability.

Earlier this year, Enterprise Community Partners released a Capital Needs and Nonprofit Analysis for the Purple Line. The study calls for bigger, bolder, cross-sector investment in affordable homes and significantly more place-based capital. The study estimates a need for $740 million, in addition to the $2 billion already in Maryland’s housing system, to meet the Purple Line Corridor Coalition’s goal to stabilize or add homes for at least 17,000 households earning $72,000 or below before 2027.

It reinforces that every sector has a role to play in reaching our region’s housing goals and many of HAND’s calls to action for the private and philanthropic sectors: providing direct funding for housing preservation and development; creatively deploying resources to invest in housing development and services; and using their influence for advocacy and policy change.

David Nisivoccia

The HAND network is hard at work to address the growing housing affordability challenge across the Capital Region. Five Minutes With is a series highlighting these members and other stakeholders. This informal conversation delves into their recent projects, the affordable housing industry, and more. In this edition, we had the pleasure of chatting with David Nisivoccia, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Volunteers of America National Services. Take a look at our dialogue below.

HAND: Congratulations on your new role with Volunteers of America (VOA)! Tell us more about your background and your organization’s work.
David: I’m happy to be returning to the DMV, having grown up in Northern Virginia. I’ve spent most of my career working on behalf of public housing authorities, including Fairfax, San Antonio, and most recently serving as the Executive Director of the Denver Housing Authority. I’m just wrapping up my first 100 days in this position at VOA, and I’m already amazed at the breadth and depth of housing, healthcare and human services provided by the team. I’ve had the opportunity to travel across the country, visiting our programs and housing sites, and a key commonality across these communities is the consistent undersupply of affordable housing.

Founded in 1896, Volunteers of America is a national, faith-based nonprofit organization that serves more than 1.5 million people in 46 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. VOA National Services is a wholly owned affiliate and one of the nation’s largest nonprofit providers of quality affordable housing, with a portfolio of 13,000 units across 38 states and Puerto Rico, as well as senior healthcare facilities and other related community health programs.

HAND: Having worked all over the country, you certainly have seen the housing landscape in different markets. What are some of the trends you have noticed?
David: More than 20 million American renters today are burdened with housing costs. As a result, the average family is extremely sensitive to economic volatility and is even susceptible to homelessness should their household face acute financial challenges. This is especially true here in the District and the surrounding region. With significantly more of the average household’s income going toward housing, that means less money is available for transportation, groceries, healthcare, childcare, and especially savings that could protect folks in times of crisis. Affordable housing is one of the most significant societal challenges of our time – and we aren’t going to build our way out of it fast enough using traditional methods or doing business as usual.

HAND: What are some of the biggest challenges when it comes to building more affordable housing for those priced out of the current market?
David: The National Multifamily Housing Council estimates that 4.3 million new rental homes are needed by 2035 to meet the demand. The challenges are stark: rising interest rates and construction costs, tumultuous equity markets, strong opposition to densifying neighborhoods, limited soft funding and oversubscribed bond cap, an overwhelmed and under-resourced workforce. We must use every single tool in the toolbox, and invent new ones that address the challenge from both the supply and demand sides. We need both carrots and sticks … accelerated entitlements and expedited permitting; efficiently-designed housing; modular and manufactured housing solutions, and new capital stacks that can work well together. And we need new partnerships, and opportunities for mixed-use projects that leverage capital markets and affordable housing programs.

HAND: There certainly is no shortage of challenges facing our sector. What is Volunteers of America doing here in the Capital Region to increase the supply of supportive affordable housing?
David: In partnership with Hoffman & Associates, D.C. United, and the D.C. Government, Volunteers of America is thrilled to relocate our national headquarters into the emerging Buzzard Point neighborhood of Southwest D.C., where we will bring together more than 100 full-time employees, co-located with 110 units of deeply-affordable senior housing operated by Volunteers of America National Services. Of these units, 69 out of 110 units will be set aside for seniors earning 30 percent AMI or less, which we believe is the most critical tier of residents to house.

We are currently exploring strategies to implement best-in-class technology supports to help address social determinants of health. The building is designed to achieve LEED for Multifamily certification, and every single unit will be accessible, allowing residents to age in place and take advantage of built-in infrastructure as their mobility and health needs change. The project also will include market rate multifamily and retail. We are excited to expand our reach in the District of Columbia and bring our national expertise to support local initiatives in the city.

HAND: Why is it important for Volunteers of America to move from your current headquarters in Northern Virginia into the District of Columbia, at Buzzard Point?  
David: In a time of significant office vacancy and hybrid work, Volunteers of America will bring a commercial office presence to DC, as one of our greatest strengths as an organization is being “in-community,” leveraging relationships, trust and connections in the communities we serve. We recognize the value of human connection, as that is what we do every day with the people we serve. Co-locating our staff teams with affordable housing and services in the District is a reflection of our commitment to ensuring we are “in-community,” connected on a daily basis to the communities we live in, work in and have the pleasure to serve. We plan to continue our work as a public policy partner and thought leader in advocacy efforts around affordable housing, making our voices heard and ensuring policies work well for industry practitioners like yourselves.

I look forward to growing our presence in the DMV, and working with all of you to answer the call for meeting the region’s affordable housing needs.