Exploring Systemic Reform: Summary of HPN’s 2025 Reimagining the Affordable Housing System Symposium
In July 2025, the Housing Partnership Network hosted a symposium on the topic of Reimagining the Affordable Housing System in the United States. Sponsored by JPMorganChase and hosted in Washington DC, the event brought together more than 120 participants, including nonprofit and for-profit housing executives, academics, funders, policymakers, and media. Attendees addressed the shifting policy, economic conditions, and public narratives around housing and housing affordability. The symposium was livestreamed, and portions were picked up by national media.
HPN CEO Robin Hughes opened the day by making the case for rethinking our nation’s affordable housing system with a practical, practitioner lens. She announced the launch of HPN’s project on Reimagining the Affordable Housing System and highlighted the publication of a framing document that lays the foundation for this work.
Dr. Adriana Kugler, former Governor of the Federal Reserve Board, provided remarks on the housing market and housing affordability and her outlook for the economy.
Governor Kugler’s speech provided critical economic context for the day’s discussion and was followed by two plenary conversations. In the first, HPN Executive Vice President Noel Poyo engaged with Executive Director of the National Council of State Housing Finance Agencies, Stockton Williams, in a discussion on the roles of federal, state and local government in the affordable housing system. In the second, HPN Vice President of Policy, Shannon Ross, led a panel on housing policy innovations for supply and demand with Kevin Nowak, President and CEO at CHN Housing Partners, Brian McCabe, Professor at Georgetown University and author of a forthcoming book, “The Housing Lottery: Navigating Scarcity on America’s Rental Market” and Alexis Laing, President and CEO of Laing Companies.
In the afternoon, attendees participated in more intimate, peer exchange-style breakout sessions that covered a range of pressing topics including:
- The housing cost crisis outside of major urban areas;
- Emergency rental assistance and local eviction policies;
- Regulatory relief for affordable housing developers; and,
- Higher insurance and operating costs.
The day ended with a panel discussion on popular narratives about housing affordability with insights shared by Washington Post housing beat reporter, Rachel Siegel, University of Florida’s Atlas Lab Director, Nate Carpenter, and DreamKey Partners’ Chief Strategy Officer, Erin Barbee.
The symposium was an opportunity to dig deeper into the systems underlying affordable housing in the US and explore new ideas that can transform these systems to better serve the needs of people, families, and communities.
Going forward, HPN will publish a series of briefs that build on the themes of the symposium with the goal of planting seeds for innovation and policy change.
View the full recording of the symposium here.