You are invited to attend the Rural Housing Summit 2012!

This year’s summit theme…New Visions for a New Landscape will directly involve participants in efforts to improve the housing conditions of Rural Californians during one of the most challenging times we have ever faced.

At this year’s Summit, attendees will formulate an agenda to guide rural housing providers and advocates through the remainder of 2012 and in 2013. In doing so, we will ensure that recent successes will lead to future victories and opportunities for rural housing improvement.

Keynoting the Summit will be two excellent speakers:

Carolina Reid, Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley, will discuss current housing and demographic trends, including foreclosures, which challenge Rural California.

Bob Rapoza, Legislative Advocate, National Rural Housing Coalition, will report on the latest housing budget developments in Washington and ongoing struggles to preserve the rural eligibility of California’s communities.

Lenny Goldberg, Lenny Goldberg and Associates, will address the very provocative issue of how Proposition 13 limits local property tax revenues, drives up land costs, and distorts land use decisions.

Also speaking will be Federal and State Housing Directors Ophelia Basgal, HUD (invited); Glenda Humiston, USDA RD; Sean Spear, CDLAC; Bill Pavao, TCAC; and Linn Warren, HCD.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

Inclusionary Housing: Zoning for Affordability in a Post-Inclusionary Era – Exploring local impacts and work-arounds resulting from recent negative and favorable court decisions, as well as possible corrective legislation.

Foreclosure Prevention: Ongoing Efforts to Keep Families in Their Homes – Evaluating the efficacy of federal, state, and local prevention efforts, Obama Administration initiatives, new State legislation, and the Attorneys General settlement.

Homeownership: Outlooks for Self-Help and Other Purchase Programs? – Fighting to preserve federal funding for home purchase, financial work-outs of State-financed homes, shared equity, and the future of self-help.

Farm Worker Housing: Immigration Reform and Shelter Innovation – Innovating to meet chronic needs and respond to changes in farm labor demand, the farm labor population, and immigration policy.

Redevelopment Agencies: Protecting Existing Housing Obligations and Generating New Dollars – Understanding the “brave new world” of redevelopment agency dissolution, successor agencies, and proposals to recreate redevelopment.

Low-Income Housing Tax Credits: Cost Containment, Apportionment, Competition – Integrating cost containment, reviewing new geographic apportionments, and dealing with increased competition with fewer public resources.

Housing Planning: Aligning SB 375 and Housing Element Updates – Discussing the latest efforts to implement SB 375 and align Housing Elements and transportation plans in rural communities.

Foreclosure Disposition: Successful Strategies for Recovering Foreclosed Homes – Examining the successes and shortfalls of the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program, use of eminent domain, lease-to-own, and other strategies.

State Tax Reform: Affordable Housing and Progressive Tax Strategies – Learning about the nexus between sensible local property tax reform, land prices, fiscal solvency, and the implications for affordable housing production.

HCD and CalHFA Housing Programs: Sustainability and Agency Consolidation – Considering the future of State housing finance in light of dwindling Prop 1C funds and federal support and proposed merger of the two agencies.

USDA Housing Programs: Budget Woes and the Changing Rural Definition – Retaining rural community eligibility for housing assistance in California and resisting efforts to reduce and end traditional housing programs.

Diversity, Leadership Succession, and Nonprofit Housing Survival – Analyzing the current state of the rural housing sector, diversity and succession, new lines of business, doing more with less, and the current organizational paradigm.

Rural Lenders: Banks, CDFIs, and Community Reinvestment – Preserving and increasing rural lending by private financial institutions and turning back attempts to weaken the federal Community Reinvestment Act.

Permanent Revenue Source: Strategies for Winning in 2013 – Building on the successful campaign to pass permanent source legislation in 2012 by strategically mobilizing a much broader base of support and winning adoption in 2013.

Greening Existing Affordable Housing: A Path to Economic Survival – Accessing new State resources to retrofit and green older properties and achieve significant cost savings for building owners and tenants.