PHADA President John T. Mahon.
Now that we have had some time to reflect on PHADA’s 2026 Annual Convention & Exhibition (ACE26) in Chicago, I wanted to take a few minutes to walk through all the conference highlights and where we are headed next. One of the most important days of a PHADA conference is our kickoff with committee discussions. These conversations focus on what your agencies are dealing with right now and how PHADA can best advocate for you and your communities on Capitol Hill and with HUD.
I was excited to see that the committee meetings were so well attended—not only by committee members, but by others who wanted to listen, learn, and contribute. If you found value in those discussions, I encourage you to take the next step and join a committee—reach out to Norma at: nbellew@phada.org. Your voice directly shapes PHADA’s priorities and the direction of our advocacy.
The Small PHA Committee spent a lot of time on funding issues like HCV shortfalls, the pressure on public housing funding, and how we are explaining those realities to Congress. There was also a strong focus on Restore-Rebuild and the concern about losing the tool altogether. This discussion led to a motion directing PHADA staff to take a closer look at how the industry can work together to keep Restore-Rebuild in the toolkit and come back with recommendations. That passed unanimously and was referred to the Housing Committee for consideration and further discussion.
The Housing Committee also supported continued advocacy to keep Restore-Rebuild available and approved a motion opposing both the wind-down of the program and any re-benchmarking of the Faircloth cap. Beyond that specific action item, the Housing Committee discussion also hit on some other key issues: concerns around HOTMA and its financial impacts, challenges with PBV development under current funding constraints, and the ongoing complications with cash management and BABA compliance delaying projects.
On the legislative side, the Legislation Committee spent time looking at where things stand with FY 27 appropriations and reviewing several bills for endorsement. The Committee endorsed four bills: the FAST Housing Act, the Foster Youth Housing Opportunity Act, the RAD Conversion Continuity Act, and the Build Housing Affordably Act.
ACE26 sold out and we loved seeing full ballrooms and strong turnout across sessions. I also want to extend a big thank you to our sponsors and exhibitors, whose support makes this event possible and enhances the experience for all attendees. Thank you Affordable Housing.com, AMA Consulting Group, HAI Group, Quadel, and Yardi!
We also greatly appreciate the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) and the National Public Housing Museum teams. CHA CEO Keith Pettigrew’s welcome to Chicago, and Dr. Lisa Yun Lee’s keynote on “Housing as a Human Right,” set the tone for the event. Many also joined the visit to the Museum on Saturday, which was a great opportunity to see the Museum’s work firsthand and connect it directly back to our mission.
I also want to recognize our closing session, which brought the week back to our theme, “The Power of Story. The Impact of Advocacy.” Hearing directly from residents of CHA was a strong reminder of why this work matters. We appreciated Nakiya’h Longstreet, Melinda Gibson, and Kirsten Williams for sharing their stories and experiences. Their perspectives reinforced the real impact of housing programs and the importance of the work happening across your agencies every day.
I continue to hear a lot of positive feedback since we got back. Through the Whova app and the follow-up outreach, the themes have been pretty consistent. Attendees felt the sessions were extremely useful, they were able to connect with peers, and they are looking for more of the same type of practical content going forward. We are continuing to encourage everyone to complete session surveys so we can use that feedback as we plan future conferences, like the Legislative Forum in Washington, DC, in September.
Looking ahead, we are not slowing down. We will have advocacy webinars in July and August to help you prepare for Hill visits in September, and we will be hosting a town hall later this month on June 30 at 2:00 pm ET so those who were not in Chicago can hear the key takeaways and weigh in.
As always, the direction we take comes from you. The feedback and input we are getting is what drives these decisions, so please keep sharing your ideas, feedback, and the challenges you are seeing—we are listening.