Search Results for: workforce housing forum

The local REALTORS® saw that the draft Climate Action Plan developed by the City of Bakersfield would make real estate transactions more costly and would violate private property rights. With a coalition of concerned partners, they resisted its adoption. A Land Use Initiative review by Robinson & Cole provided the critical analysis they needed to convince the City Council to re-think the plan.

Thanks to a Smart Growth Grant from NAR, the Santa Fe Association of REALTORS® (SFAR) is boosting the re-development of a dated and underutilized commercial corridor. Santa Fe REALTORS® could see potential in the mile-and-a-quarter stretch anchored by the Santa Fe University of Art and Design at one end and a hospital at the other end and decided to do something about bringing it to life. SFAR commissioned a Housing Advocacy Study that proposes a vibrant new design for the area -- including up to one thousand housing units. In February 2012, the Santa Fe City Council embraced the plan...

The lobbying strategy of the Marin Association of REALTORS® (MAR) reflects Benjamin Franklin’s advice that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Four years ago, MAR initiated a lobbying campaign to advocate fair and equitable alternatives to onerous point-of-sale retrofit mandates. The focus of the campaign was the launch of a computer program that graphically shows it takes as much as 70 years for local housing stock to switch ownership. This means there is an urgent need to implement speedier, more effective solutions to address sewer lateral and other environmental-related issues. The index is proving useful in...

Inspired by a national report on challenges faced by African Americans in the housing market, the 9,500-member Austin Board of REALTORS® formulated a plan to do something about it in their own back yard. They began by securing a Diversity Grant from NAR to host a two-day conference to which they invited a variety of local minority organizations and stakeholders...

As the nation was riveted by the violence that followed the Ferguson shooting last summer, relief for the riot-torn suburb of St Louis came from the local REALTOR organization. The 6,600-member St. Louis Association of REALTORS® first helped with deliveries of basic supplies to the citizens of Ferguson.

The 5,000-member Akron Cleveland Association of REALTORS® (ACAR) had taken just about enough. When troubling and overly restrictive rental housing proposals arose in two of this association’s communities, the ACAR took on City Hall. By tapping into NAR’s Land Use Initiative, ACAR was able to get a legal review of the proposed ordinances to help make convincing arguments to city leaders in both cases. The proposal was tabled in one jurisdiction and referred back to committee in the other.

The Rogue Valley Association of REALTORS® in southwestern Oregon had already raised more than $100,000 for homebuyer-assistance grants. Now it needed a way to get the word out. Radio was the answer! An NAR Housing Opportunity Grant enabled the 1,000-member association to sponsor a popular local radio show and tell listeners about area housing opportunities—many of them provided by the charitable giving of their own members.

With the help of a Housing Opportunity Grant, the 64-member Hopkinsville Christian & Todd County Association of REALTORS® hosted a fun-filled Military Appreciation Picnic to showcase the housing opportunities in their small town.

NAR’s president elect Vince Malta provided congressional testimony on housing finance reform to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on Wednesday, March 27.

Leadership from the National Association of Realtors® met with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and other senior Department officials on Wednesday in Washington to discuss fair housing issues just hours after unanimously passing a new plan to tackle the issue.