HAI Group is a leading sponsor of the Public and Affordable Housing Research Corporation (PAHRC), a nonprofit that researches the impact that affordable homes bring to families and communities. In this guest blog, Kelly McElwain, PAHRC’s industry intelligence and research manager, explains how a recent federal program can be leveraged to address housing needs.

Despite an estimated shortage of 7.3 million rental homes affordable and available to extremely low-income families, public housing authorities (PHAs) nationwide have not received congressional funding to build new deeply affordable housing in their communities in decades. PHAs’ hands became even more tied after Congress passed the Faircloth Amendment, which capped PHA public housing stock at the number of public housing units they operated as of October 1, 1999 (known as their ‘Faircloth Authority’). This created a de facto ban on building new public housing.

We relaunched our company blog in 2022 with the goal of delivering timely insurance, risk management, and professional development tips for the affordable housing industry.

Marianne Krager, an associate trainer with Nan McKay and Associates (NMA), sits at a desk covered in black felt as she dutifully prepares for a long day’s work. It’s early morning, and there’s a sense of calm about Krager, even with a formation of cameras aimed at her. She’s clearly at ease about the task at hand.

The traditional workforce landscape we once knew has seen a complete overhaul over the past few years, thanks in large part to the pandemic, which demonstrated that many jobs can be done well remotely.

Take a moment to think back to all of the jobs you’ve had over the years. What made you quit? If you answered having a lack of opportunities for advancement, you’d agree with 63 percent of workers in a recent survey who contributed to the Great Resignation of 2021. As an employer, one thing that you can do to help combat this situation is to develop an online training onboarding program for new hires. Showing employees right off the bat that professional development is important in your organization is critical to retaining talent. Here are three tips to help create a solid program that delivers the most impact.