WEBVTT

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Genger, welcome.

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What are the most pressing
challenges in meeting the

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housing needs of diverse
communities?

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And I suppose with that, what
are the opportunities?

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The challenges, unfortunately,
are numerous.

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They are the same kind of
macroeconomic challenges we face

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collectively.

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They are interest rates and the
consequences of folks who have

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purchased homes and now have low
interest rates, locking out

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people who might want to go
purchase homes but who are also

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facing higher interest rates and
therefore higher cost of entry

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if that home is available.

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It is the mismatch between wages
and affordability.

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It is more broadly the
consequences of zoning and what

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is happening in it at the local
level in terms of preventing

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potential new building and the
use of parcels of land in a way

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that is additive to what is
foundationally the issue on our

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housing economy supply.

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Fortunately, while there is
inadequate supply, there is also

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consensus around the fact that
there is inadequate supply.

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There is a common understanding
that we are somewhere between 4

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to 6 million units short of
housing in this country, and

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that we need a collective
motivation to address those

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things.

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Unfortunately that consensus may
stop at identifying the problem

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though you can't fix a problem
that you don't agree exists.

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And so I am heartened to see
that that opportunity has

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presented itself and I'm so
excited to be part of the

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solution of solving it.

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Talk to me if you would about
what Amherst is doing

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specifically to prioritize and
support residents' needs.

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So, Amherst has a long history
of being very focused on

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delivering the service of
housing because we do believe

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that so much of a person's
opportunity and access is caught

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up in the location of their
home, the quality of their home,

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etcetera.

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But we also recognize that as as
a landlord through our operating

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platform Main Street Renewal
that we have an obligation to

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meet consumers where they are
and that comes with the

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responsibility of understanding
that life happens.

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And so going back on our
platform to 2017, we have had a

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resource available to our
residents a, a group of social

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workers and program specialists
are our CARES team that is

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really focused on addressing
individual needs in a very

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bespoke fashion.

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And so if residents contact us
and they explain their situation

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and and we do what we can to
support them in maintaining

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their housing stability,
anything from connecting to

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local resources to, in some
cases, delivering our own

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resources, financial certainly
otherwise.

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And that focus on social
emotional support and financial

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education and empowerment is
really at the heart of what we

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try to deliver at Amherst.

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How are you measuring that
social impact and what do you

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think that other companies can
learn from what you do?

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It's an interesting question
about how you measure social

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impact, right.

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I think you can look at
interactions.

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So in 2023, we served through
our CARES program, something

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north of 3,000 residents in a
multitude of situations.

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So that is a metric. You could
look at particularly going back

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to the pandemic, the amount of
rent we forgave to make sure

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that people had that stable
housing around the the

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implications of the pandemic and
that's tens of millions of

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dollars.

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We could look at the investment
we made in helping residents

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apply for rental assistance and
the rental assistance they

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received through the federal
government $46 billion program

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and that is north of $25 million
in resources that we are able to

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connect residents to to maintain
that housing stability.

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But myself, what really sort of
motivates me on this social

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impact journey is really those
anecdotal stories.

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It is the family who a mother
and daughter who you know both

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are are leasing homes from us
who get to be in close proximity

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and who get to have a home that
is accommodated to meet a

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physical disability.

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It is a family who is facing a
domestic violence situation and

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is able to relocate. It's a
family that has seen financial

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strife and we are able to
support them.

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Those individual stories are
really what matters.

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So of course we have to put
metrics to it, and you know I

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can point to the value
proposition that comes with the

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loss avoidance and credit loss
mitigation that comes with

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investing in service, in
wraparound services.

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I think that there's a deep
history and context around that

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through the foreclosure crisis
that we can apply here.

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But I think we it's important to
not lose sight of what it means

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for that individual consumer and
family.

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Genger, thank you so much.

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Thank you so much.