'Nimbility' at the National Council of State Housing Agencies Annual Conference in San Diego

We subscribe to the Down Payment Resource newsletter. We spotted this interesting article today:

Steve Auger of the Florida Housing Finance Corporation was credited as the originator of the term “nimbility.” Bob Kucab, Executive Director of the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, quoted Auger while giving Housing Finance Agencies (HFAs) a bit of a pep talk during a special session at the NCSHA conference called “Innovating Amid Adversity.” To be sure, the HFAs need some optimism during these challenging times and achieving “nimbility”, becoming nimble, creative, innovative and fearless is surely what’s needed in the face of today’s reality.

However, the frequency in which the word “fear” came up at the conference was, well, a little frightening.  Whether as-in, “fear is a great motivator” or “overcome the fear of trying new things,” and “I don’t buy into fear—don’t let fear drive decisions,” fear was definitely on the minds of many speakers and panelists.

And, understandably so, given the uncertainty about the future role of HFAs. During one of the last sessions, “Housing Finance of the Future,” Garth Rieman, Director Housing Advocacy and Strategic Initiatives for NCSHA, outlined various finance reform proposals crafted by House members that could drastically affect or even eliminate the ability of middle class households to finance homeownership in the future.

What are the latest proposals? They range from Jeb Hensarling’s Rep 5^th district Texas (R) proposal to eliminate the GSEs entirely within five years, the Campbell-Peters bill to replace the GSEs with multiple new entities called Housing Finance Guaranty Associations (HFGAs) and the Miller-McCarthy “utility model.”

Notably, Hensarling is one of the members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. His desire to abolish the agencies that financed 90 percent of last year’s home purchases, within an unrealistically short period of time serves as a preview to where he’ll try to push that committee. As for Campbell-Peters, replacing two GSEs with multiple agencies performing the same task strikes us as replacing “too big to fail” with “too small, inefficient and redundant to succeed.” The utility model may be the most sensible solution, but would that just end up being a de facto merger between Fannie and Freddie—at least in personnel—with a heap of tax payer money to reinvent the wheel?

Regardless of which proposal gains momentum on Capitol Hill, the bad news is that each lacks the robust support of affordable housing. We agree that this crossroads is an opportunity to reflect on what was learned during the great housing debacle, but reform doesn’t mean destroy. Our housing finance system worked very well for 50 years. We believe it’s important to prevent the debate and details from being reduced to simple sound bites and campaign slogans.

According to Rieman, there is a silver lining. A political reality is that these proposals are unlikely to be seriously considered before next year’s elections and if not then, not until sometime in 2013.

Back to the idea of “nimbility,” what if HFAs took this time to assess their strengths and reinvent themselves to fill the voids created by this onrushing train called financial reform? This was one of the most compelling opportunities voiced by those who see opportunity amongst the turmoil and an affordable housing movement we would welcome.

To view the original article, visit the Down Payment Resource blog.