#WashCon25 Day 2! During our morning plenary, we honored our Legislators of the Year (more on that tomorrow), presented NAHRO’s Advocate of the Year to the Virginia Association of Housing and Community Development Officials (VAHCDO), presented 20 Awards of Excellence, and held a discussion on Housing and Community Development in Uncertain Times with NAHRO President George Guy, PHADA_USA President Mark Gillett, CLPHA President Jeffrey Patterson, and MTW Collective Senior VP Maria Razo. Bonus: we got to sing happy birthday to our #WhatHomeMeansToMe grand prize winner Adriana!
Then came two sets of packed sessions on topics such as working with youth, preparing housing agencies for Immigration and Customs Enforcement visits, housing as a human right, a Rental Assistance Demonstration overview, preparing for NAHRO’s Hill Day, a homelessness panel discussion and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's cybersecurity for housing authorities.
We closed out a full day with our afternoon plenary session, where President Guy discussed advocacy strategies and successes with Bobby Collins, Robert Greathree, Marsha Parham-Green, Chonda Tapley and Michael Wong, and heard former NAHRO president Sunny Shaw spoke with presidential candidate Sean Gilbert and Senior VP candidate Ivory Mathews.
Can’t wait for Day 3, when all our advocates head to Capitol Hill and raise their voices for housing and community development!