HRPBC Community Task Forces
The following community support task forces have been developed as part of HRPBC's strategic plans and goals for 2007. These task forces have been developed with the support of our chapter membership and various community organizations and is being implemented to support the Mission of HRPBC by Serving the Professional and Advancing the Profession.
Affordable Housing Task Force
Housing Leadership Council (HLC) of Palm Beach County
The HLC is an action-oriented coalition of business, civic and community leaders working to identify solutions and funding options to the workforce housing shortage in Palm Beach County. Its primary goal is to increase the availability of attainable housing throughout Palm Beach County for workers at all income levels. Previous updates discussed an incredible study commissioned last year that addressed this issue. Many HRPBC professionals participated in the study which was unique in the fact that local employers were polled to find out how the high cost of housing was impacting their businesses - specifically related to recruitment and retention concerns.
The HLC recently accomplished several new milestones. One was the hiring of a President & CEO, Suzanne Cabrera, who has many years of relevant experience, most recently as CEO of The Lords' Place. Two was the creation of its very own website - www.HLCPBC.org. At the website visitors can find information about past and future events, news and research, and more information about the HLC and its' history/origins.
Third, in partnership with the School District of Palm Beach County, the HLC has co-sponsored several Housing Fairs - a seminar series covering all the important topics related to home ownership. Vendors such as Consumer Credit Counseling, Insurance Agents, Realtors, Lenders and Mortgage Companies etc. are also at these fairs to provide attendees with valuable information to get them started on the path to home ownership.
In addition, the local HLC has joined forces with several "heavy hitters" in the housing policy arena such as the Fannie Mae Foundation and Freddie Mac. Another partner is The National Housing Conference. They have many excellent recently issued research reports on such topics as "Increasing the Availability of Affordable Homes: A Handbook of High-Impact State and Local Solutions" and "A Heavy Load: the combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Families." These and many other reports can be accessed at www.nhc.org/index/chp-research-publications.
The HLC recently held a great event on May 16th at the WPB Marriott which was attended by almost 200 people, among them local employers, lenders, realtors and HRPBC members Janet Hritz, Darron Davis, Sue Patton and Karen Roberts. The event, "The Workforce Housing Solutions Workshop Series," hosted in conjunction with the National Housing Conference and sponsored locally by WaMu, National City, and the Regional Business Alliance, was designed to provide real life examples from around the country of how various employers have made housing more affordable for its' workers. A variety of assisted housing programs were discussed.
Past President Karen Roberts (left) at Workshop
The HLC study done last year found that 90% of households in PBC could not afford to buy a median priced home - the housing affordability gap was between $100,000 and $200,000 - i.e. most homes were priced $100k-$200k more than households can afford to pay. While local home prices are falling, home ownership is still a dream for far too many employed adults working and living in PBC. This is important to HR professionals because many of the companies we work for are losing good employees to North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and other locations with more affordable home prices. Many of our companies are also having difficulty attracting enough qualified applicants due to the high cost of housing in our county.
One of the most popular speakers at the event was Tony Shields, community relations manager for Harley Davidson who told the audience how his company developed and runs its' employer assisted housing program. After a lunch speaker (Carl Guardino, President and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group who spoke about his group's approach to this issue), employers broke out into three concurrent working sessions which allowed them to focus on designing specific solutions for their employment and retention issues exacerbated by the cost of housing in this area. Options discussed included: Setting up a down payment and forgivable loan program; Encouraging several employers to pool limited resources to provide their employees with financial assistance for home purchases; leasing rental units and subletting them to employees at discounted rates or developing or purchasing housing units for employees. Not all of the solutions available are expensive. Many times just providing information and referral assistance to available resources is enough.
For more information about affordable workforce housing, which is of great interest to all HR professionals and C-suite execs in PBC, please check out the websites listed, or feel free to contact Karen Roberts at 561-684-5885.