NCRC Just Economy Conference 2024 — Recorded April 4, 2024
Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, Houston’s District F City Councilwoman Tiffany Thomas, and Asahi Pompey, Global Head of Corporate Engagement and President of the Goldman Sachs Foundation will share how local policy and elected officials partner with financial and other anchor institutions such as hospitals, higher ed, and corporations to invest in affordable housing, scaling minority business enterprises through procurement and technical assistance, workforce development initiatives, and other programs that support equitable creation of wealth.
Speakers:
Asahi Pompey, Global Head of Corporate Engagement and President of the Goldman Sachs Foundation, Goldman Sachs
Nan Whaley, Director of Membership, US Conference of Mayors
Tiffany Thomas, Councilmember, Houston
Transcript:
NCRC video transcripts are produced by a third-party transcription service and may contain errors. They are lightly edited for style and clarity.
Whaley 00:10
Well, good afternoon NCRC. It’s great to be here on behalf of mayors from across the country who I hope many of you are in partnership and making your communities more just, more equitable, more fair and more opportunities to all the citizens that live in this great nation. Most of them are the ones living in cities. It’s a pleasure to be here to have, I think, a lively discussion with some great elected officials and private sector leaders. This conversation we hope is something that you’re experiencing at your table and at the conference this past week. Please join me in welcoming our panelists. First, also from the great state of Ohio, you can tell that Katy Crosby had something to do with this panel, Mayor Aftab Pureval from the city of Cincinnati, please welcome him to DC.
Next, I’d like to…
See everywhere Aftab goes, he’s got fans. That’s what I noticed.
Next, Councilwoman Tiffany Thomas from the city of Houston down in Texas.
And last but not least, certainly someone that I’ve really enjoyed working with met her while I was the mayor of Dayton. Five years ago, she came to my city and the work that they’ve been doing across the country is inspiring, and I’m excited to have this conversation with her as well. Asahi Pompey, Global Head of corporate engagement and president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation.
Kind of sit in the middle here. Yeah.
Well, it’s a real pleasure to have you all here and to discuss this real this work that we’re talking about on public-private partnerships. And Asahi, I know this is something that is near and dear to your heart, as have you made it to all 50 states now?
Pompey 02:07
I’m on my way.
Whaley 02:09
On your way. So I think it’s key the first question I really want to ask in this is, you know, you’re with elected officials and a former elected official and when you’re going to different communities, what role does a local elected official play in your decision around the foundation getting involved and engaging? Does it matter? Or is there are there other things that play into it?
Pompey 02:33
100% it matters. So I want to say HECK NO to 780 years. I just, I was listening backstage and just had to say hell no to that. So in terms of, you know, as we go from state to state, rolling out our initiatives, 10,000 small businesses, 1 million Black women, unequivocally man, it matters. And here’s why I say it matters, it matters for three key reasons. One is trust, you are going to be working with this individual, with this administration, with that city for a long period of time. When we roll out an initiative, we know that systemic challenges take sustained focus. And so we’re not going there for something episodic. So trust is critical. So very, very important. The other thing that really matters a lot is you need a local champion, you need to know that your partners in trying to build that affordable housing, open that community center, open that daycare center, so in order to do that, that champion is is critical. And so I say trust is why it matters. I say the champion is why it matters. And here’s the other thing. Ultimately, when you do this work, you want to know that you’re having an impact in communities. And what Goldman Sachs knows is that those closest to the problem are closest to the solution. And so for us to be effective, we’ve got to make sure that we’re partnering with each of you.
Whaley 04:01
Well, I am glad to hear and I can witness it. I can say you know when you came into Dayton five years ago, actually coming to City Hall, your team deciding, you know, normally Mayor Pureval, they’re easy to come, private sector partners to big cities like Cincinnati and Houston, right? But getting to smaller cities can be a little more difficult. And so y’all’s decision for a company like Goldman Sachs to invest in Dayton with 10,000 small businesses was something I saw you do in action. And now you’re even doing that more in rural communities to, right?
Pompey 04:31
Yes. So we’ve launched an initiative called Goldman Sachs Investment in Rural Communities. It’s $100 million investment. We’re going to 20 states in the next five years, working with CDFIs effectively to do three things. We want to create more jobs in rural communities. We want to grow revenue of those businesses, and we want to have deep roots in those communities. And so that’s that’s the charge so I’d been going state to state to state. We’ll be coming likely to one of your states in the next in the next few months and years.
Whaley 05:03
That’s terrific. Yeah, Councilwoman and Mayor, I want to get your guys’s perspective both fourth largest city in the country, right? Cincinnati much bigger than Dayton. Right?
Pureval 05:16
That’s right. That’s right. I think we’re like 56th largest city in the country, something like that.
Whaley 05:21
You know your numbers too. I’m impressed.
Pureval 05:23
I don’t. I made that up. So please don’t fact check.
Whaley 05:28
I’m sure like as a local official, private sector comes to you every day, every hour, sometimes wanting to partner, wanting to invest in the community. How do you decide who you partner with? Councilman Thomas, I’ll let you go first.
Thomas 05:44
So one, let me say thank you for the invitation to be here to represent the fourth-largest American city. And I want to start off by letting you know that I don’t just come to this place as an elected official, but also as a faculty member of an historically Black college that has the only community development program in the state of Texas, which informs public policy. So the question about the importance of a local elected officials is because it matters who we elect, and that they come to the table understanding that there’s a particular lens, population and a set of priorities that we must advocate for and represent. In my role, it’s important for me to have an appetite when Goldman Sachs comes to Houston, for their small business initiatives. To understand that in District F, on the west side, the best out of Houston, the best side of Houston, that we are the most diverse district in the city. I call us the cultural currency. So when we’re looking at affordable housing, small businesses, jobs, entrepreneurship, I’m also representing a large immigrant population, the second largest Palestinian community in the United States. That’s right, the largest West African population in the United States is right there in District F. So making sure that we look at policies that were restricted to these immigrant, low-income, Black and Brown communities. And then when private partners come to the table, we can co-create together what benefits for private industry, but also what benefits for our communities.
Whaley 07:15
Excellent. And that creating together is something that’s important, right?
Thomas 07:19
Absolutely.
Whaley 07:20
Let’s talk a little bit more about that because so many times, there’s these programs from private sector, that they have an idea of what to do in the community. And it’s really your job council member to say, you know, I speak on behalf of the citizens of this area to really listen in and get that, that that community engagement going. So what are some of the strategies you do to make that happen?
Thomas 07:42
Sure. So one of the things that we are doing in Houston are Community Benefit Agreements. And I know that is not unknown to the folks in this room. And looking at when corporations come into our communities, we’re also asking for some particular benefits, right? Long gone are the days where corporations can come in and extract. We’re looking for them to invest in the long term. When we look at federal policies that has legislated poverty, state policies that has legislated housing instability, we have an obligation to those that want to do business in our city because Houston is open for business. We want to make sure that the integrity of our community and our residents are intact. And to the stability point you made, in the long term, I often say, and I’ll defer to the mayor, there’s a reason why my parents moved out of our neighborhood, and there’s a reason why my classmates don’t. Theres’s a reason why they moved out, right? So the resources have left, the values in the homes have diminished, the amenities have not been invested, the community centers, so if we don’t, if we’re not at the table, pressing corporations and community partners for those assets, we will miss opportunities and generation of investment.
Whaley 08:57
Absolutely. Mayor Thomas!
So, Mayor Pureval, what about in Cincinnati? How do you in these past, what you’re in your third year as mayor? What is the decision-making process for you to decide how to accept private sector investment?
Pureval 09:11
Yeah. In opening up this topic, you mentioned a lot of times the private sector is calling elected officials municipal elected officials every day, every hour, and partnership is doing a lot of work. And most of the time, when they’re calling, they’re looking for tax breaks, right, looking for tax abatements or Tax Incremental Financing. And the decision whether or not to provide a tax break, to provide gap financing, in order to pave the way to invest in the community is really a multifaceted analysis. But what is critically important, important to me and also to this council, is that it is community-supported. That it has very ambitious goals, not just for minority and women-owned businesses but also in Ohio, we take organized labor very, very seriously. So also very aggressive goals as it relates to project labor agreements and and other kinds of values and priorities that organized labor cares very deeply about. And oftentimes, this is maybe an issue for a different panel, often times trying to hit those DEI numbers and also those organized labor numbers is really, really challenging because the barrier to entry for a minority contractor into the trades is really challenging. We try to we try to address those disparities, as the Councilwoman said through community benefits agreements that have been extraordinarily effective in our city. But if we could back out a little bit beyond just development and construction, cities don’t have enough resources to do all the things that we need to do right. On top of that cities don’t have the subject matter expertise to do all of the things that we need to do particularly in the current crossroads that the world is experiencing. And the in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, in the aftermath of the pandemic, with climate change continuing to rage. In fact, just this weekend, my city of Cincinnati experienced several flash floods because of tornadoes and and hurricane-like conditions in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. When we when we think about this crossroads that we’re all experiencing, we need as many talented people as we can get. And in Cincinnati, we are really fortunate to have some very large corporations helping us not just with resources, but also subject matter expertise. Procter and Gamble, the largest consumer products company in the world is headquartered in Cincinnati. In fact, I came into politics from P&G. I was the global brand attorney for Oil of Olay which made me a beauty attorney which is ridiculous. Kroger Kroger, the largest grocer in the country is based in Cincinnati. GE Aerospace, one of the most important defense contractors in the country, is based in Cincinnati. And so these corporations have been extraordinarily generous and intentional, and making sure that we’re achieving not just economic development, but specifically equitable economic development. And they do that in a number of ways. We partnered with our big corporations, maybe five or six years ago, to pass Cincinnati’s preschool promise, which guarantees universal preschool access to four and five year olds in Cincinnati, across the city. We partnered, we partnered with our big COEs in order to completely transform our public transportation, we are finally getting bus rapid transit in Cincinnati, which is going to have an extraordinary impact, particularly in our Black disinvested neighborhoods, because those BRT stops, will, will naturally incentivize more economic investment in those communities, because of the density of traffic that it will ultimately encourage. So in big ways, and in small ways, cities, almost have to engage with their corporate partners. But you don’t always have to agree with your corporate partners, because after all, you are the one that is elected. And so oftentimes, corporate partners will come to us with ideas that are not necessarily consistent with our goals. And you have to be able to say no. But as all mayor’s know, you have to be able to say no in a way that doesn’t destroy the relationship, because there is not a single, extreme partisan mayor in the country. In order to be successful in your role, you have to keep your entire city together, both your activist and your big COEs and in that, in that Venn diagram, figure out what issues that they both believe in, and then invest in that. And what we have really moved the needle on in Cincinnati is the issue of racial equity. And my view, racial equity means ownership. Black ownership of neighborhoods, Black ownership of businesses and Black ownership of homes. And because of that, thank you. Thank you. The council, the councilmember gets thunderous applause I get one guy. Thank you, man. I appreciate that. And so and so in in pursuing that rubric, and I promise this will be my last my last point we partnered with with Bloomberg Philanthropies to do a financial freedom blueprints. And we really found that in addition to businesses, homes and neighborhoods, ownership of just assets, whether it’s a 529, whether it’s a a savings account, just that that unbanked Black population in Cincinnati is one of the systemic challenges that we have. And so in order to address that, we have passed a million-dollar investment to wipe out medical debt for 30,000 Cincinnati residents. We passed baby bonds. So every single child going through our universal preschool program, we’ll have a savings account created in their name and endowed by the city. Because we see that 60% of kids with access to a savings count ultimately go to go to college. And finally, we have not finalized it, but we have seated a pilot for a universal basic income program in Cincinnati. And all of these programs, all of these programs, are supported and in part funded by our big coasts.
Whaley 15:17
Even some Bengals fans in here, Mayor. So, I think it’s very exciting to hear some of the amazing work that our local leaders are doing in partnership with public with private sector. Where are the challenges and the gaps for you then? Like, it’s all great in Cincinnati, it’s perfect. You’re good to go?
Pureval 15:36
No, absolutely not. I mean, the challenges are, are manifold. I mean, you know, one of the biggest challenges we have in Cincinnati is, is access to affordable housing, good quality, affordable housing. It is a challenge across the country, I was so excited that President Biden noted and put affordable housing on the table in a State of the Union because we need federal, state and local action to address this epidemic. But on the flip side of that, oftentimes you have these corporations that are “institutional investors,” they’re predatory landlords that buy up huge swaths of single-family properties in cities like mine. Cincinnati is incredibly affordable in the national context. But because our housing supply has not kept up with our population increase, we are actually pushing lower-income and unfortunately, disproportionately Black neighbors, out of our communities destroying generations of tradition and family and culture that we need to preserve in Cincinnati. And so what we’ve done to combat these corporations is be very aggressive from a litigation perspective. I want to be very clear, if you are an institutional investor, and you’re thinking of coming to Cincinnati, we do not want you, you are not welcome. We will sue you into Kentucky.
But but but on this affordable housing kick. You know, if you’re serious about affordable housing, I think you need to do two things. I think you need to partner with your private sector funders, whether they’re big NGOs or not, and create a trust fund, an affordable housing trust fund public-private, matching dollars to provide gap financing to folks who want to build more housing in your community. And the second thing you have to do if you’re serious about this, and it’s the hardest thing, is you have to get serious about land use and zoning reform. In Cincinnati, a majority of the city, a majority of the city is zoned single-family exclusive. And a majority of Cincinnati, we prohibits row houses, row homes, duplexes, triplexes. And so what we’re saying is, in order to live in a majority of my neighborhoods, you have to afford the single most expensive type of housing that exists which is single-family. And so of course, over time, what we see in Cincinnati is that we are incredibly segregated. And that our poverty is incredibly concentrated. I don’t think some neighborhoods are for affordable housing. I think, no matter your income, you should have options, housing options in my entire city. There are not poor neighborhoods and rich neighborhoods in Cincinnati, there are Cincinnati neighborhoods. And in order to make that happen, to pair a trust fund with zoning reform, you have to have the dollars from the private sector to juice that development and start getting density and start getting more vibrancy in your communities.
Whaley 18:33
So Asahi, to the mayor’s point about the Trust Fund, which is something that the private sector can really engage with, the zoning we can put completely on the public sector, really, and that to those decisions that have kind of gotten behind, I would argue, right? And Cincinnati is not unique to that. What what is the opportunity for you all to really consider these kinds of trust funds and that kind of work? Sure.
Pompey 18:53
I’m really happy that the mayor brought up this topic, because I want to tell you a story. And this story will be very familiar to you. As we were listening to communities across the country, here’s what they were telling us. Yes, we need more affordable housing. But we’re also concerned about who’s building the housing in our community. And they’re telling us that minority developers are effectively being locked out of being able to build the housing that they know is needed in these communities. So the minority developers say, I know where the housings needed. I’ve got the skills to create that housing. I’ve got the know how. What I don’t have is a stockpile of millions of dollars that is required in order for me to be able to contribute to my community in this way. And what we effectively decided to do is we partnered with the mayor of New York, and last week we announced a facility which is a guarantee facility that will unlock $500 million of financing specifically for minority developers. What they were being forced to do…
Yes. What they were being forced to do, as very many of you know, is partner with majority firms who would take a lot of the profit in order to create these developments. So that’s the kind of partnership where you have the mayor in New York City coming together with Goldman Sachs. We’ve listened to the concern we understand and we say, okay, now I have to tell you this. I’m a truth speaker, it took us two years to be able to come to that solution. So, Nan, as you mentioned, sort of what the challenges are, it can take time.. And I’m sure the Councilwoman sees I’m sure the Mayor sees that as well. It takes time. But I’m proud of the result that we were able to achieve.
Whaley 20:44
Well, this is exciting to say what you’re doing in New York City, because New York City has scale, right? Number one largest city in the country for keeping track. And so that scale, do you see is the hope of with your leadership, and Goldman’s leadership if this works, well, is this like a pilot model that could go across the country, you guys normally do that? So I hoping that that’s kind of what..?
Pompey 21:05
You nailed that. What we like to do is this three part, we want to move these developers from being an anomaly to being a proof point that this works to being a standard bearer, that we can then scale and replicate this in other communities. That’s because that’s the money shot, right?
Whaley 21:22
That’s exciting. And as I’ve seen with Goldman, you all are really good at doing a pilot and then watching it go across the country. So that’s exciting to see for sure that it’ll be beneficial to New York, but also the rest of the country. Councilwoman, I want to talk a little bit to, you know, the mayor brought this up and Asahi about affordable housing, the challenge of affordable housing all across the country. This is an epidemic, but it is different in every community. And so give us a snapshot of what your districts like and what are you really advocating for and Houston to make those changes?
Thomas 21:55
Sure. Perfect question. I chair the housing and affordability committee for the city.
No, no pressure, no pressure.
And I’m also under the previous administration with former mayor Sylvester Turner, I was chair of Housing and Community Affairs, shout out to Mayor Turner. He’s the best he’s the best shout out to him. So I bring him up because during his term, we experienced seven federally declared disasters. So when we when we look at the climate change, we can also point to the impact of housing, the number of units we lost offline, the fight between the General Land Office and HUD making sure that Houston had a local program that we could control. But also the Black tax of being in Houston and experiencing seven federally declared disasters and your home wiping away. Many of the residents, Black Houstonians, Hispanic Houstonians, that were impacted the most lived in zip codes where they were in floodplains. They did not have investment in infrastructure. So when we talk about where we get it right, let’s talk about where we get it wrong. And the historical wrongs in terms of, you know, some of the mappings, the surveys, how the federal government at one point, we’re designating neighborhoods as risky, right, and so local, why it matters to have local elected officials that understand what that means because local policies have often mirrored federal legislation, which means local cities have not invested in those same neighborhoods. So when the hurricane Ike, Rita Irma, Harvey comes, right when the Texas winter freeze comes and blows your entire house because the pipes burst in your neighborhood, and you don’t have a clear title. And when you don’t have a clear title, and many of our people of color, they’re living in grandma’s house. They’re living in mom’s house. And MLK weekend 2020, Mr. Brown came to City Hall, and I was newly sworn in and he said, Mr. Mayor, I have been working with your housing department and I’m not getting any help. I’ve been impacted from Hurricane Harvey and it’s by this time, it’s three years post Harvey. And as we were looking through, and I immediately believed that he wasn’t getting help, because clearly the department was inefficient, right? I’m leading with that until I started reading the backup information. And he didn’t have the clear title because the home belonged to his uncle. And he said, Mr. Mayor, everybody knows my uncle gave me that house. I’ve had that house for 25 years, I pay the taxes on it. I’ve managed to, you know, the landscaping, and now when it’s my turn to receive support, I can’t get it. For it is the only federal HUD is the only federal agency that has not acknowledged errs properties as a cultural practice of land transfer or land wealth. So when you couple that with the fact that another storm will come, a lot of folks are not choosing to purchase in the city of Houston because you may lose your home. So I think it’s a perfect opportunity for philanthropy in the role of philanthropy. After Hurricane Harvey, there was a report that came out, Houston is a very wealthy city, but however we were looking at philanthropy that we’re not investing financially in community development corporations that can assist cities in turning over a multifamily units and single-family developments. And so they were supporting other areas, we have a wonderful medical center, the arts, we have all of that. When we look at our housing inventory, we have lost units off the line. We have a we were able to replace close to 7,200 units. But the reality is, my fear is, is that the New York Times will want will write a story that says Houston was once affordable 30 years ago, where do we go wrong? And I think we’re gonna go wrong if we do not infuse our city with housing options to the mayor’s point. And then here’s a fun fact: Houston has no zoning. Yes, we have no zoning. So you literally could put it up anywhere. Wow, that is true. There’s no zoning about, we have much wisdom we have we have mindful planning practice. Mindful planning, mindful planning practices. So when you look at a city that has no zoning, voters refuse to approve of zoning, zoning guidelines so we have to become intentional with housing to the point of not just who’s developing but where are you developing, and then also correcting some wrongs at the local level and at the federal level. So our intention at the city of Houston is to create multiple housing options, not just single-family, not just multifamily. But let’s look at courtyard-style, duplexes. And then also something transformative transformational of those that are on a housing voucher, making sure that HUD fully funds the program where they can take that voucher to a pathway of homeownership. And if we can fully fund that that’s the true economic system that local city should be able to inform.
Whaley 26:50
Well, Councilman, you brought so many questions of so I’m really going to try to focus in so apologies was such a great, great points. Number one, I want to ask you, since I have a Houston elected official here is that you’re known as the place of no zoning, it’s very Texan of you.
Thomas 27: 07
Very. It’s the wild wild west, literally.
Whaley 27:10
But also a lot of folks have cited that Houston’s lack of zoning has been helpful in you all being one of the leaders in really going after chronic homelessness and actually being like, if any if anybody asked me because homelessness is such an issue in our country in different ways, when they ask asked me “what city has it figured out?” Most people will say Houston, and then they will say it’s because you have no zoning. And I know, as a former mayor, there’s some value. Yes. So So I just wanted to get your perspective about you know, is it? Is it true? Like it’s the one with the hype about Houston and homelessness true? Do you feel that as a council person? And then secondly, how do you really feel about mindful planning purposes.
Thomas 27:56
So, the hype, the hype is real. Let me say that we have done a remarkable job with our own house population. We also during the pandemic, we were able to house a significant number, a number more than any major city during the global pandemic. And a couple of the reasons why is because we had a partnership with our Houston Housing Authority. Those special population vouchers have been significant because we have a housing-first model. So I can’t come to you with case management, I can’t come to you with the job program until I get you stable, right. And so we’ve been able to do that successfully. But however, in the state of Texas, landlords don’t have to accept those vouchers. And when we passed an item several years ago, under the previous administration for a navigation center, because we had an aggressive encampment strategy citywide, you would be surprised the number of folks that lined up at City Hall that said we don’t want them here. Surprise, this navigation center was on the north side of town and historically Black neighborhood. The numbers in terms of our unhoused from the program we were using were 77% Black men that we were getting back into housing. And so I had offered them another alternative when they were resistant to the idea of this navigation coming in. And they had valid points; they said Mr. Mayor and council y’all always given us this stuff. You always put this stuff in our neighborhood. But I share with them a story about my uncle who’s a veteran who passed away. And I remembered when the later part of his years he would stay at home or at another family’s home and I said if there was a Navigation Center, I wonder what the last two years of his life would have been? Because he would have had services. He would have something my parents and my family wouldn’t was unable and untrained to give him and he would have been stabilized would have had a different sunset in his life. And so I think we have to do a better job of putting a face on who’s unhoused. Because it could be us. We’re talking about medical debt. Some of us are two paychecks away. We are a medical storm away from being in some type of line or asking for some support. And I think the pandemic highlighted that this is where we’re at, although we do have successes, because the market has changed significantly, many landlords were willing to play ball because they wanted the occupancy, they needed people in those units. So we were able to get folks their two-year contracts for their lease agreements. But now the market has changed, they no longer want the $750 voucher, they can charge that unit for $1250, $1800 on the market. And so now we’re seeing if we don’t get if we don’t have additional funding from HUD, our nonprofit partners, philanthropy because cities can’t do it alone, we’re going to reach a peak where those individuals will return back to the streets. And so what we’re trying to do is take those successes, continue to run down the line. But we have to become intentional with some of our low-income tax credit developers that are coming to the table. One of the priorities that we’ve added at council was to make sure that we incentivize developers that are leading with permanent supportive housing. If we don’t have PSH at the table, if we’re not incentivizing developers to offer this housing model, we’re not going to continue to meet our goal. And yet again, there’s going to be another story. Houston once had it right, now they got it wrong, right. And so I think in terms of the incentives, it’s not just our corporations, philanthropy, but also those small business developers, making sure that they have what it takes. And they’re banked, and they have the funding to develop. And that’s why I want encourage all of you to talk to your senator about the Bipartisan Tax Reform Bill, because within that tax reform bill, they are going to lower the bonding capacity for developers for low-light tech deals, which is very important, which creates a pathway for Black and Brown developers so the boundary threshold is lower. So we can have more of them at the table, and more of them are willing to invest in their neighborhood, if they just had the support and the tools and the financing available,
Pompey 31:52
Nan, I want to pick up, I want to pick up on the Councilwomen Thomas’s point around the role of philanthropy, certainly from the role of a grantor. And so when I so I’ve worked at Goldman Sachs for 18 years, I grew up in public housing. And it’s been interesting to have been the recipient and now be on the other side of being responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in grants. And so what I decided to do when I came into this seat is I wanted to survey our nonprofit partners. I know many of you are here today, to say what do you really need from philanthropy? Because we may be feeding you soup and you’re saying, you know, I want some steak, I want something else. And so here are the four things that they told us. And I’m curious to see whether it resonates with you here. One is: I want unrestricted grants.
Thomas 32:46
That’s right. That’s right.
Whaley 32:48
I think it’s resonating.
Pompey 32:50
Two is: I want multi-year commitments. Three is: I don’t want to have to hire someone to do all your grant documentation so make it streamline, reduce the bureaucracy. And the last thing I heard is, you should look at the leadership of our organizations to see who’s at the helm of some of the organizations that are doing this work. And so that we’ve used as our guiding principles as to how we’re doing our grant-making. And I say that loud and clear wherever I speak, because I want more corporations, more entities, as you mentioned, the role of philanthropy, because it’s how you’re doing it, in addition to what you’re doing.
Whaley 33:35
Yeah, that’s beautiful. Well, applaud that. I think we have time for one more question. And then I want to pivot back to Councilwoman’s great points, and just, you know, a lot of this discussion around housing, and we can talk about workforce, which is a big piece of, you know, the minority development work that you’re doing and how it fits into housing and climate, with the natural disasters in every place, not just the coasts, affecting our communities and how they’re built. But I cannot leave being at the Conference of Mayors without talking about the role the federal government has to play or not play around housing and affordability. And a couple of things you mentioned was the the way that HUD needs to get into 2024, right?
Thomas 34:26
25, 26, 27.
Whaley 34:29
So that advocacy of some of the rules that can be so difficult for cities and communities, and they lost their way feels like you know when to talk about a bureaucracy, Asahi, it’s the master of it. And then secondly, can we talk a little bit about and I’m gonna ask Mayor Pureval, because you brought this up Councilwoman about housing first and the importance of housing first, and so permanent supportive housing, I think you brought it up three or four times. And I don’t know if we’ve seen there’s a real discussion right now going on, about an attack on Housing First. And I wanted to know if you’ve seen that in your community, and what is your position? And what are you doing to really address that
Pureval 35:06
It hasn’t been too much of an issue in Cincinnati. Thankfully, we have an extraordinary network of philanthropies, hospitals, and even some, you know, government agencies that are providing, you know, permanent supportive housing throughout our community. In fact, we just cut the ribbon on Slater Hall, which is a development in our West End. a historically Black community, specifically for permanent supportive housing for senior citizens. That is a community of folks that is particularly impacted by access to housing, particularly as, as we age. You know, across the board, though, with respect to housing, in order to really move the needle, as I mentioned, zoning is a piece of it, but having the resources to provide that gap financing, whatever the housing model is. Of course, we want to be focused on who’s actually building the housing where the housing is going, but there has to be a real commitment on behalf of your local elected officials to put up public dollars, tax revenue, even consider increasing your taxes in order to provide access to resources to build more housing, because people’s relationship with housing, I think has significantly evolved. When people think about basic services for cities, in Ohio, they think about plowing the snow picking up the trash fixing the potholes. Now, people are also expecting the city to provide housing. We don’t have the resources. We don’t have our own HUD in Cincinnati. And so in addition to cosigning, everything that Councilmember is saying, we need more flexibility in our CDBG dollars. We need more direct funding, like the Biden administration has already done with AARP, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, chips, IRA, we need direct funding from the federal government into municipalities specifically for housing outside of the current avenues, because this is not going to get settled on the federal level. You have to have local leaders understanding what needs to be built where, something else the councilmember, said in order to really address these systemic issues.
Whaley 37:15
Well, thank you, Mayor, Pureval for particularly bring up ARPA and the direct funding if we remember we got ARPA through, which is local communities favorite kind of money because it was direct funding to cities. But they did cut out the housing piece. And so that was the one piece in the ARPA funding we weren’t weren’t able to get through.
Pureval 37:33
The one thing, and Mayor Whaley was incredibly important in getting ARP done. She was the president of the West Conference at the time. So thank you so much for doing that. The one thing the one piece of yes, we didn’t give it up. Given that roundup that was a big deal. The big deal. AARP saved the city. Yes. That is not an overstatement. Yes. But the one piece that they didn’t cut out, which was incredibly successful, was emergency rental relief checks being cut directly to landlords, that’s a program that we’re trying to continue on the local level. Sorry,
Whaley 38:03
No, thank you, Mayor. Thank you for your leadership in it. Sorry, I’m gonna give you the last word. I felt like you know, I get most excited when I’m with local officials. And so I’m really excited about the four things you brought together to really pay attention to localness. And so the final question, I’ll ask you, is your international company, Goldman Sachs? How does the company really work to make sure that we partner in local control and make sure that all of our communities are diverse and vibrant? And how do you how do you do that in a way that scalable?
Pompey 38:37
We take a partnership model. Goldman Sachs is 40,000 individuals, we operate in over 200 countries around the world. And we know in order to be successful, and really to be impactful in communities, we’ve got to partner with the people in this room. And so whether it’s in ANHD, NCRC, all the other organizations that we work with, it’s a partnership model. That’s how we’re able to scale. Well, we so we thank you for your partnership.
Whaley 39:02
We appreciate your partnership. And please give a round of applause to these great leaders.
Thank you all for the work you do in our communities across the country, the advocacy you do the work to make sure that we have a just economy and work towards a Just economy. We got a lot of work to do on that front right but appreciate we could not do it without your leadership and support to. Thank you so much.
