by Chris Estes, National Housing Conference
This is my first of what I am hoping will be many regular messages you will be getting from me as a member of the National Housing Conference. I am happy to report that I have settled into D.C. and completed my first week at NHC successfully. Like any transition, it is a bit of a whirlwind, especially when you are relocating to somewhere new.
After nine years as the director at the North Carolina Housing Coalition, I chose to make this move because of both the tremendous need for a strong advocacy and resource organization in Washington that could reach the entire spectrum of the affordable housing community and because of NHC’s unique position to be able to fill that role. You should know that I am a passionate advocate for affordable housing and am fully committed to working with our great staff on being the best resource for you as possible as well as having the biggest impact possible on housing policymaking. My ultimate goal is that the National Housing Conference is an organization that everyone working in affordable housing in every capacity will find value in and will want to be a part of.
I have been very busy working with our staff to fully understand all of NHC’s work, communications and products. This will continue for the next few weeks as I meet with board members, funders and key stakeholders about how to increase NHC’s impact on affordable housing policy both in Washington and across the country. As part of this work we will be re-examining all of our publications and correspondence as well as our other media like our website and blog to make sure we are providing comprehensive content about housing as well as what NHC and our research affiliate the Center for Housing Policy are doing to improve housing policymaking.
Most importantly, I am excited to connect with our members both through regular writing in the Washington Wire and in getting out to communities across the country as much as possible to learn from and add to the work on affordable housing efforts at the local level. You will start to see some changes soon as we work to improve the look and feel of the Washington Wire and our website over the coming months. My goal is to have a regular presence in the Wire so members can stay connected to all the work we are doing here in D.C. as well as across the country. One of the first changes you will see is an experiment to move the Wire to Tuesday morning distribution to see if folks find that more convenient.
I am eager to hear from you about what you want from NHC, what you think of any changes we make to our communications and how we can be a part of your work at the state and local level.
Thanks for your support,
Chris