Fall 2025 Member Meeting

HPN’s 63rd Member Meeting brought together nearly 270 attendees from more than 80 organizations in sunny San Diego. Local hosts Wakeland Housing President & CEO Rebecca Louie and Community HousingWorks President & CEO Sean Spear welcomed attendees to the city and shared recorded remarks from Mayor Todd Gloria, who emphasized that “real progress only happens through partnership.”

With that focus on partnership, Board Chair and CommonBond President & CEO Deidre Schmidt welcomed six new member organizations — Homeword, Catholic Homes New York, Catholic Charities Housing Services, Intend Indiana, Land Bank Twin Cities, and Manna Homes.

Members also had the chance to celebrate the work of Joe Neri, Clark Zeigler, Helen Dunlap, and Dee Walsh, four retiring industry leaders.

HPN’s Meaghan McCarthy moderated an opening discussion with Rebecca Louie, Julianna Stuart-Lomax (POAH), and Clark Zeigler (Massachusetts Housing Partnership). The group shared how putting people at the center of their work is fundamentally good for business, ranging from unique staffing structures for permanent supportive housing, trauma informed practices at all organizational levels, to rethinking risk in mortgage lending.

The plenary set the tone for a day of sessions, with member voices at the center, leading with their experiences, challenges, and reflections on ways forward.

Learn about the meeting’s many sessions below.

During community of practice sessions, colleagues in similar roles came together to share experiences and strategies and identify ways to collaborate. CEOs and CFOs came together to focus on strategies for effective collaboration, while COOs and HR leaders, Multifamily Developers, Property Operations and Resident Services leaders, and Lenders and CDFI leaders all connected in person after coming together online during the year.

One member highlighted: “The dialogue between CEOs and CFOs was a good peek behind the curtain.”

Cross-cutting sessions covered a range of topics, including managing risk in an uncertain environment, policy priorities for 2026, the role of artificial intelligence in affordable housing, and more. Researchers from the Terner Center and the San Francisco Fed also engaged members in a lively discussion on key stressors and emerging strategies in multifamily development.

Members enjoyed the range of sessions, from policy: “We try to stay up with policy and policy changes - but being part of HPN give us a wider and deeper perspective and another way to act.”

All the way to AI: “AI is an overwhelming topic for most and hearing examples of how are peers are leveraging AI was extremely helpful.”

On Friday morning, Tom Collishaw, Betsy McGovern-Garcia, and Ethan Dutton told the story of how Self-Help Enterprises (SHE) has remained focused on mission while balancing significant growth in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

SHE has adapted to unique regional challenges — focusing on climate resiliency and sustainability, bringing water and housing infrastructure programs to scale, and expanding the reach of their homeownership and rental development year after year. This closing plenary provided inspiration and insight into a member organization’s leadership in a rural part of the state.

Wakeland Housing shared their community development partnership with Price Philanthropies in City Heights as well as their innovative approaches to serving San Diegans who have experienced homelessness with a downtown property. Community HousingWorks highlighted two other projects, an intergenerational community in the Linda Vista neighborhood, and a partnership for resident health in National City.