Issue #74, March/April 1994

NHI Activities

Long-time activist Carole Norris has rejoined the NHI Board of Directors. Norris spent the past twenty-seven years in the San Francisco bay area of California. "I'm terribly homesick for California," she said, "but most delighted to rejoin NHI as its newest Board member." In December, she began working with the Development Training Institute (DTI) in Baltimore, MD. She will be working on DTI's training program in Community Reinvestment and Community Development Lending for banks, thrifts and regulatory agencies, new program development and training for government staff.

Board member Peter Dreier was recently named chair of the American Sociological Association's Sprivack Program on Applied Social Research and Social Policy. In that capacity, he is organizing a three-day conference on the future of America's cities. He will also be the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Peel Non-Profit Housing Corporation, a large municipal housing organization near Toronto, Canada.

As a member of the RTC Advisory Board, Dreier organized a public hearing in March in San Francisco on how RTC policies contribute to redlining and disinvestment. Dreier invited Tom Schlesinger of the Southern Finance Project, Alan Fisher of the California Reinvestment Committee, Herman Collins, an economic development specialist for the San Diego City Council and Prof. Gary Dymski of UC-Riverside, an expert on redlining, to testify at the hearing. The San Francisco Chronicle, LA Weekly and other publications reported on the hearing, creating sufficient controversy to bring the matter to the RTC's next meeting.

Dreier co-authored three recent Los Angeles Times op-ed articles. The first dealt with Congress' hypocrisy of funding billions in public works following the L.A. earthquake after defeating the Clinton public investment program to create jobs. The second outlined a progressive housing agenda for L.A.'s new administration. (He also discussed this topic on the radio show, "Which Way LA?") The third dealt with the struggle in California over implementation of the federal "motor voter" law.

How's the Clinton Administration Doing? WHY Magazine (World Hunger Year, 505 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018-6582. 212-629-8850) asked five specialists to score the administration on hunger, poverty, healthcare, children, and housing and homelessness in their last issue. NHI President, John Atlas' assessment of Clinton's housing and homelessness efforts? Good for effort, but so far incomplete. Clinton's most visible success is the appointment of qualified and dedicated people to reinvigorate a demoralized HUD pounded by 12 years of the Reagan and Bush administrations.

Copyright 1994

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