Next, u. S. For president of jamie raskin and acting housing secretary Adrian Tomlin talk about the importance of Affordable Housing. Congressman raskin highlights the relationship between Affordable Housing, democratic governance and Public Service. It is just over 40 minutes. He 33rd this year being hosted just outside washington, d. C. In Montgomery County, maryland. Ladies and gentlemen, i do hope you enjoyed that new rendition. That was our unofficial state song for maryland. Why is it unofficial . Because, it was written by our very own congressman jamie raskin. Lets hear it, come on. That was maryland, my maryland. You can find it on youtube. After you listen to it, listen to the words, you are to pick up the phones, and while you are emailing them, your delegates and your senators in the legislature, and tell them you want the current official song to change and go right over to jamie raskin, steve jones, and that was sung by london may va, and that you want those words which are more appropriate and reflect maryland today. , and reflect maryland today, to be the official state song. Lets hear it for our new official maryland song. Ok. For those of you that were not here this morning, barbara goldman, and on behalf of our entire board, if you would stand up really quick and sit down so everyone can see you, and my cochair Ralph Bennett and eva lewis, our incredible executive director, three cheers for you. You deserve all of the accolades you can get. We hope some realistic and tangible solutions to the Affordable Housing crisis were identified and suggested and we hope that you gained a lot out of the panels and that you engaged with all of the panelists and came up with really good ideas. We all heard we all hold firm to the belief it is not a public expense to provide Affordable Housing. On the contrary, its a Public Investment in our communitys future. This is our mission. To ensure Affordable Housing is valued by all as an investment in our communities and not an obligation. We are a nonprofit organization. We are committed to creating, fostering, and maintaining awareness of all issues about Affordable Housing. We have forums, advocacy work, and special events. We encourage and create venues for discussing, debating, identifying solutions to, and encouraging advocacy for Affordable Housing in our community and throughout maryland. As we mentioned this morning, just when we think we have finally gotten a semblance of control of the crisis, we realize we have so much more to do. I alluded to it this morning. We climb a mountain. We get there. We think we are at the summit, like today, then another summit appears before us and we have to climb that. The afternoon speakers and awardees will inspire and encourage us to attain our goal of ensuring decent, safe, and Affordable Housing is a right, not a privilege. Its a privilege and an honor to host our leaders who adhere to that belief and mission. Lets get started. I am calling up to the stage, our own maryland secretary of housing who will introduce to you today our keynote speaker, no stranger to the Affordable Housing conference, and a very close friend of all of us. We are ecstatic that she is here today. [applause] good afternoon. I hope everybody enjoyed lunch. I am so proud to share a room and a table with many of you and with all of you and with many leaders in this room. Some of whom we have got to hear from over the last few hours. We are joined now, and i am really grateful to have the opportunity to note that we have been joined by somebody who has demonstrated courage, not just addressing housing affordability, but, courage in the face of many of our nations greatest challenges. Of course i am referring to congressman jamie raskin. Thank you for being here today. It will undoubtedly take all levels of government working on this crisis. It takes, yes, our local partners, our state partners, and our federal partners. We are lucky to have bold leaders in positions to do something about the challenges we are facing. Like Montgomery County. The Maryland Department of housing and Human Development is a recipient of federal resources, particularly those provided by our friends at the u. S. Department of housing and urban development. Our Agency Awards huds Community Development block grants, funding them met the maryland nonentitlement jurisdiction supporting critical projects and services for thousands of marylanderss. We manage the Housing Voucher Program for 12 counties in maryland. We are working together to transform and modernize the states Public Housing stock. How did always been a valued partner and as President Bidens ambitious plan to build 200 million homes shows hud has a shared commitment to making housing more affordable, accessible, and equitable. It is my privilege to introduce the leader charged with meeting this challenge. She was recently appointed as the acting secretary of the u. S. Department of housing and urban development. After serving as a deputy secretary of hud since june, 2021, she has executed both policy and operational priority including providing guidance on departmentwide initiatives to increase housing supply, improving Disaster Response and recovery efforts, steering climate and resiliency endeavors, improving Agency Hiring and Workforce Engagement and enhancing customer access to huds incredible programs. Prior to joining hud she served as the ceo of National Housing and redevelopment officials and before leaving there she was executive director of our neighbors, the district of columbia housing authority. There, she implemented a national, awardwinning model to house veterans experiencing homelessness, an issue near and dear to my heart. She increased homeownership opportunities by 50 percent for low and moderate income families served by the authority. She increased the number of affordable Units Available in neighborhoods experiencing rapid growth, something d. C. Has experienced unlike any other part of our country. She oversaw a multitude of redevelopment efforts. She prioritized repairs to housing units, services for youth, workforce development. And, she commissioned the first d. C. Wide Needs Assessment of Public Housing residents. She is us she is still a proud resident of the district. She is a graduate of smith college. Her career in Public Service began working for former congressman rhonda lugo, a long serving member representing the u. S. Virgin islands where she was born and raised. She has had a lifetime of service that shaped her belief we have a responsibility to confront housing and security, to increase and preserve americas housing supply, to eliminate housing discrimination, and to support community resiliency, particularly, following national disasters. She has an incredible partner to the state of maryland. She is a tireless advocate and leader on Affordable Housing. Please, join me in welcoming acting home hud secretary adrianne todman. [applause] sec. Todman well, well, well. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. Thank you for that warm and long introduction. I am always one to say, we have to cut it that bio down. But, thank you so much for acknowledging my previous experience. This room and you are not a stranger to me i have been here multiple times before. When the invitation came to be able to address you as your acting secretary, of course i had to say yes. This is a room filled with the people that i know are doing the heavy lifting to make sure we are providing housing for folks all across this county. And, across the state. Barbara, its good to see you again. I know you keep the faith on these issues. If we could match your energy with the needs we have for Affordable Housing, i know we would get the job done. It does take a village. It is a great to see both congressman here. Both of you are such a champion just to the hud mission and to the people. It is an honor to be with you and share the stage. Thank you. [applause] i want to acknowledge all of todays awards winners. I may not be able to stay to see each of you across the stage. But, know that your work and excellence are things hud relies on and i want to lift up my colleague and friend Marvin Turner who i know is smiling down on us today and would be so pleased to know he remains associated with excellence in our housing industry. To his memory. [applause] on monday, i started my week in a similar room of housing practitioners in las vegas, nevada. It is great to have a week book ended with me ending at the same way. As somebody that has been in your shoes, who understands what it takes to build a very complex thing called Affordable Housing, i know hud is only as good as the work you all execute. I honor you for that work. It is important for me to be in the room, not just to share the things that hud and the administration is doing, but to genuinely thank you for getting up every single day and making something so complex and difficult, taking it across the line. Housing is at the forefront of the National Conversation like it has never been before. I dont have to say that in this room. It is driven by Little Things very good like a recent graduate trying to find their first apartment. A couple looking to buy their first home. A homeless veteran trying to navigate their life. Economists that might be bemoaning the fact housing is still a driver of inflation and a mere congressperson trying to respond to the needs of their constituents. This administration has been centered around the needs of the American People as it relates to housing from day one. But, day one looked very different from where we are now. Back then, we were really focused on making sure that people could stay in their homes. Remember that . People would say, i cant pay rent. I dont know if i can afford my mortgage anymore. This administration deployed 50 billion worth of rental assistance, thanks to the support of gentlemen like right here. 50 billion worth of rental assistance to make sure that people could stay in their apartments. Hud alone helped to million homeowners, 2 million homeowners be able to stay in their homes. That is something that they worked so long for and probably felt slipping through their fingers. They won for us looks very different than what it is today. Along the way, we knew we had to do more. So, the administration worked very, very closely with our friends on the hill, who has a Historic Housing investment to the tune of 150 billion to do all the things we knew we needed to do, help the homeless, helped firsttime homebuyers. We did not get that across the line. But, it didnt stop this administration. Our president , our Vice President , from continuing to think about ways that we can act and delete the moment with the urgency it deserves. So, President Bidens past three budgets have put historic levels of funding towards the things i know you all need and the tools you need to address the needs of the county and the American People across the country. Things that will spur construction of homes so the cost will go down to end homelessness and a homeownership. The president has made it abundantly clear he is willing to use the full might of the federal government to improve the states of housing in the country. That is not just a vision. It is in action. Not too long ago, actually, two years ago, all the federal agencies came together and created a housing supply action plan. For those of you that are practitioners i hope you have had a chance to look at it. It is filled with different ways we are working collaboratively across the government to braid programs together to make it stronger. Part of that is deployed in some of the American Rescue plan funds, the home program. In Montgomery County you received a 7. 3 Million Dollars from the president s American Rescue plan. Some of that includes the fact we provided the state 37 million to help with Community Development funding to build Affordable Housing, to help our own house to papers, and again, help firsttime homebuyers. Also, the way our programs work. I will use my privilege here to speak a little bit in hud geek. I know the audience. I do everywhere. I dont use the acronym. For instance, sha has been busy providing new options for financing Innovative Housing choices like abus and modular homes providing clarity on how h you d programs can assist with commercial and residential conversions and we are working to improve processing for our 221 d4s. Anybody . We have extended indefinitely our partnership with treasury to continue our federal Financing Bank in hfa risk sharing initiatives. You may recall this began in the Obama Administration and another administration that shall not be named pulled it down. Because, that made lots of sense. We bought it back. Not only did we bring it back, when we saw we were headed towards the due date of the program we took a bold step and said, no, we will do this indefinitely until we are able to help all the folks we needed to help. Thank you all for using that program. [ applause]] if one of the reasons why i am excited to share today that another beloved program of hud, the largest federal Grant Program for Affordable Housing across the country, and i will say to our two members here, can always use additional funds to make sure that we are building for the American People. We know sometimes it is a difficult program to use. So, we will very soon be providing new rules to modernize the program, proposed rules to modernize that program and i really welcome your input as we do that. We know it is a Critical Program to make sure that as we are building housing, which we are. We have brought built 1. 3 Million Units over the past two years. We know we are building out there. But we arent always building for the needy. The home Program Makes sure we are building for lowend and moderate income families that need Affordable Housing more than most. We have insisted 45,000 households in the past two years by supporting Affordable Housing with the home program over the past couple years. We have consistently heard we need to do a better job with the program. These rules, because i know my audience, these rules will do things like stream lies that streamline and modernize requirements around property standards at homebuying acquisition projects, small kale smallscale rental Housing Project and Community Land trusts. This is an opportunity for you to collaborate with hud and it tell us ways we can improve this very critical tool even more. We know we are making an impact. For instance, hfa our first time home buyer right under this administration is the highest it has been in 20 years. The firsttime homebuyer rate in the Biden Harris Administration is the highest it has been in over 20 years. [applause] over 2. 5 Million People have become firsttime homebuyers thanks to hud products. We issued more vouchers thanks to funding from the partners that believe in housing. We have been able to get that new vouchers, the most that we have received in 20 years. We have been able to help almost 200,000 americans pay rent. During very difficult times. These are tremendous achievements. But i know, and i know you know that there is more to do. That is one of the reasons why the president s 2020 five budget proposed a multibilliondollar fund that would give communities tools that they needed to build more housing including startup homes for the middle class, which we all know we need. And, rental assistance that will end veteran homelessness and help the youth aging out of foster care find some place they can feel secure. And adults. We need a blueprint to provide folks for the first in their family the opportunity to buy a home and give families up to 400 a month to help with their mortgage. We are focused on making sure we are reducing the gap between demand and supply by building 2 Million Units of Affordable Housing to lower costs for homebuyers and renters. This is the president s vision on how to make the country not just equitable, but stronger. We have all seen the impact of not having enough housing on Affordable Housing, what that does to our economy when people cannot live close to where they work. When young homeowners cannot find a home they can afford. When they feel trapped in renting. When it renters cannot afford it the increase in rent. We know what the tools are. You know what the tools are. Here is the same. I have so much the thing. I have so much hope. I times like these it seems like, how will we ever get ahead . How will we make sure we are helping the American People . I have hope because i know this room. Are no other rooms like it in states it i know other rooms like it in states across the country and i know that every day, every day, you wake up to the next deal, figuring out where the Gap Financing is coming from, how do we make sure we get the money we need . You wake up every single day and pull really complex pieces of the Affordable Housing puzzle together. You are doing the work. So its an honor for me to be here in rooms like this. Because i continue to learn. Let me say something. I love washington, d. C. It is a great town. I live there. My daughter was born in washington, d. C. We are not known, at the national level, for our renovation. It comes from the local level. It comes from you all. You are trying to make it work. To create wonderful ideas. So i want to thank you. I want to let you know that you give me and all of the hud team here the hope to all of us that we need so that we can wake up every day and fight for resources we know that Montgomery County, maryland, this great country, that will help people when they need our help. You uplift our communities and provide fundamental support. So, i want to thank everybody in this county for the work that you are doing to bring Affordable Housing to the residence here. Know that as we travel the country we share your ideas with others to make sure that all of the innovations we have, we can bring them to scale. So, we can one day, one day, meet the needs of every single american that wants a safe home to live in for themselves and their children. Thank you for the work you are doing. Thank you for being strong partners of hud. Stay well. Barbara ok. Let me get through my page. I have an opportunity to introduce a lyricist, a constitutional law expert, somebody that has made his mark within the first two years of entering the u. S. Conduits the United States congress. He likes magic. He likes to do some magic trick sometimes. He has really become not just a strong figure for the eighth Congressional District in Montgomery County, maryland, but also, nationwide. If you put on cnn, there is jamie raskin again. Put on msnbc and there is jamie raskin again. Fox news . What is jamie raskin doing on fox news . But the truth of the matter is that our congressmen here in the eighth Congressional District in which this hotel is located is a National Figure now. And we are very very proud that he is with us. I dont know if you are aware that he helped found the acclaimed Marshall Brennan constitutional Library Project at American University law school. It is now in 20 different law schools. A colleague of his that is here today, that was looking over my remarks, said, that is the most important thing you will say about him. This project has sent many thousands of law students nationwide into public high schools to Teach High School students at a a semester long about the constitution as the bill of rights. Thats a pretty big deal. Right . [applause] and if that was not enough, it he created the democracy summer project. For all of the people that dont know what that is, i will give you one sentence of it. But if you do have High School Students in your family, let them know about this. Its pretty amazing. Democracy summer trains and it deploys the next generation of organizers and leaders to win elections all over america Engaging High School and college aged young people in stateoftheart tactics in voter registration, canvassing, digital political organizing, and through online seminars with leading historians, law professors, political organizers, and a union of elected leaders it provides intensive education in the historical struggle for democratic freedom and essential lessons for effective Political Leadership today. We know jamie was in our legislature. Then he goes into congress. A freshman congressman. Here is this guy i was going to say kid, but i guess not. A guy from Montgomery County maryland. He is all right. Well, let me tell you. I think within the first three months and realized what she had and who she could go to. Jamie is the go to person for constitutional and he is a bestselling author. Overruling democracy the Supreme Court versus the American People i think many of us know what that is about. And we the students Supreme Court cases for and about students not i could go on and on. Jamie raskin, please come up here. [applause] rep. Raskin hello, everybody. Thank you for that excruciatingly protracted introduction, barbara. Thank you for your extraordinary work. When i was in sunday school, i learned about this category of prophets called exemplary prophets and the normal profits were people that had a gift of precognition or clairvoyants but exemplary prophets were, throughout their life, able to have influence on how other people live and think about their lives. I would say that through your commitment to housing for everybody, and a community for everybody, you are that kind of exemplary prophet to us all. Thank you for your work. This is a great experience for me, and i dare say, glenn. Because, in the house of representatives it seems that far too often housing is a partisan issue. We dont really know why it is a partisan issue. It should be a pretty partisan issue, a prepolitical issue, something that is a foundational commitment, that is constituent to who we are, might say it should be something constitutional to who we are. But too often it gets caught up in partisan conflicts and conflicts that are unfortunately are destiny for a while here. It is good to be with people that dont see it in party terms and understand what it means to everybody, all of us, regardless of what our particular political philosophy is. So, i thought that i would start on a bipartisan or, multipartisan note by invoking our last great republican president , abraham lincoln, who spoke of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. In order to have government of the people, by the people, and for the people we need housing of the people, by the people, and for the people, for everybody. [applause] so, madam secretary, the cause that you speak of with such eloquence and passion, and all of you activists and builders and developers and civic volunteers, the cause that unifies you is one that really poses the question of, what is government for . Because, government is not everything in this field, as all of you know. But, government is necessary. It is not sufficient, but definitely necessary to do the things that you all do. The question posed is, what is government for . I feel like all over the earth today, people are debating that question. It is really the question that our founders confronted when america was created. It is government of the common good, the general welfare for everybody, or, should government be the instrument for private self enrichment and selfaggrandizement of the people who get in the office . For the glorification and of the wealth maximization of their families and their friends and their companies . All over the world you can find examples of that model. Look no further than russia with vladimir putin. Maybe, the richest man on earth. Through his splendor of the russian people. I dont know if you saw the article in through his plunder of the russian people. I dont know if you thought the article in yesterdays Washington Post about what is going on in russia now. It is basically a totalitarian fascist society where if you are a political opponent like Alexei Navalny you end up in prison or you end up dead. And if you have any liberal points of view at all at a university you are fired. If you are a college kid with antiwar views that does not think russia should be marching over the people in ukraine, you are kicked out of school. You might find yourself in jail. So, government is the plaything of the people that get into power. They use that power in order to marginalize and eliminate any opposition so they can keep a good thing going for themselves. But america started with a very different idea. Right . Before america it was all kings and queens and emperors and czars and monarchs. And they got their power directly from god. How did you know that . Because they told you so. Then they wouldve lorded over everybody else, the rabble, at the very bottom. Our framers, as flawed as they were, as imperfect as their vision was, and they clearly did not deal with the problem of slavery at the beginning, but even through all that, they understood government had to be an instrument for the people and they turned it upside down and wrote the constitution that began with these three beautiful words, we the people. They turned the entire paradigm upside down, capsized monarchy, and sent that all power and said all power flows from the people. They dont teach kids much of the constitution anymore, and they certainly dont teach the preamble. But i love the preamble. A lot of people dont waste time with it because it is not enforceable or actionable in court. But read the preamble. We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and preserve to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of ligament of liberty. There are about four or five of those agenda items that go right to the question of housing for the people. Right in the preamble of the constitution. So, the question you pose with your work is a question being posed all over america today, all over the world. What is government for . Who will it work for in this century . Is it autocrats and plutocrats . Or will it work for the people, everywhere, as difficult as that is. That is the question. Well, here in america we know Montgomery County cannot do it alone. The counties cannot do it alone. The states cannot do it alone. The federal government cant do it by itself. That is not how it works either. There are some countries where it works like that. The National Housing policy in france is nationwide. It is all done that way. That is not the way it is done here because of federalism and the dialectics of local and county and state and federal. I daresay, those people who live here in Montgomery County have been doing their fair share for a lot of years here. I have been coming to this conference for a long time and i know how hard it is. I know how hard people are working here. I know how you are trying to maximize every dollar. You are trying to extract the most out of every program. We need to have a National Consensus and federal laws that get behind a National Program to house every body as the secretary was saying. [applause] so, that is the business we are involved in. We are trying to say that there will be help on the way. Montgomery county, you have been an absolute model throughout the state and the country about how to take the resources and programs available to you and make the most out of it. But the truth is, we know, ultimately, housing requires a serious national investment. It has to be a project for the whole country. That is why i have to leave soon. Because, im going up to New Hampshire to speak at a state cardi a state Party Convention up there because there is an election going on and i dont want to compromise anybodys 501 c 3 status. I wont say more than that. But there is an election going on about all of these issues. I will leave you only with the words of two great democracy patriots. I have kept these close to my heart throughout this tough time. One of them is our fellow marylander the great frederick the frederick deb is born about an hour from here into slavery and escaped from slavery to become a great Freedom Fighter and a champion of the common good for all of us through the civil war, through reconstruction. Frederick douglass said if there is no struggle, there is no progress. The struggle may be moral and physical together but there is struggle. Power is nothing without demand. It never has been and never will be. A message to you from the great Frederick Douglass a great maryland or from the 19th century. I leave you with the words of the great tom paine paine who my son tommy was named after. Tom paine came to america in 1774, two years before the american revolution. He fell in love with the promise of america. He saw it immediately. An entire government based on the idea of a democratic self ruled and the rights and freedoms of the people. He said, if this land it up to its potential, it will become an asylum to humanity. Not an insane asylum, mind you. Ed asylum to humanity, a place of refuge for peoples leading people fleeing religious, political, and economic oppression from all over the world. In 1776 he wrote common sense, the pamphlet that ignited the american revolution. He said common sense was the sense people have, even if they did not get to go to the princeton theological seminary. The sense we have in common, if we are willing to reason together to speak and listen and not be spellbound by conspiracy theories and mania and nonsense. Common sense. Anyway, the revolution began. George washington was having the troops read common sense at valley forge. That is what President Biden was talking about a couple months ago. About what happened in valley forge. There was a lot of despair. A lot of hopelessness. People were tired. People were exhausted. People were saying, can you really beat the kings and queens and the czars and emperors . Can you really change the logic for how government is organized . Everybody was running around saying, what is the message . Who is the messenger . All that stuff. Thomas paine wanted to give them a sense of hope and encourage them to keep going. He wrote a pamphlet called the american crisis. And i will quote one passage. Nancy pelosi, with whom i was visiting with this morning always insists i update the language so it does not offend modern sensibilities. Tom paine was a feminist. Anyway. These are the times that try mens and womens souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will shrink at this moment from the service of their cause and country. But everybody that stands with us now will win the love, the favor, and affection of every man and woman for all time. Tyranny is not easily conquered, but we have the saving consolation that the more difficult the struggle, the more glorious in the end will be our victory. Lets make that victory hours in this century. Thank you for everything you do. I am very grateful for you here. Joining other federal officials to discuss cyberspace and digital policy strategy, hosted by the atlantic council. Watch live at 1 00 eastern on cspan, video app, or online at cspan. Org. Book notes plus and q a. Listen at bookshelf podcast today. You can find it in all of our podcasts on the free cspan now mobile video app or wherever you get your podcasts and on our website cspan podcasts. Nonfiction book lovers, a a podcast for you. Wideranging conversations with the nonfiction authors and others who are making things happen. Weekly hourlong conversations that regularly feature fascinating authors of nonfiction books on a wide variety of topics. And the about books podcast takes you behindthescenes of the nonfiction book. Find all of our podcasts by downloading the free cspan now app or wherever you get your podcasts and on our website cspan. Org podcasts. Cspan has your unfiltered view of government including mediacom. We believe here or right here or way out in the middle of anywhere, you should have access to cspan is reliable internet. Mediacom supports cspan as a Public Service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. Coming up next,