The 2025 WGA Chair initiative of New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Building Resilient and Affordable New Developments in the West (BRAND West), will focus on expanding access to housing in western states. The initiative will examine strategies to address housing availability and affordability and promote smart and sustainable development in communities throughout the West.
The BRAND West initiative, led by New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, convened experts across industry sectors and all levels of government to identify strategies for expanding access to housing in the West.
The second workshop of the Western Governors’ Association’s Building Resilient and Affordable New Developments in the West (BRAND West) initiative was hosted by Governor Tina Kotek in Bend, Oregon.
This workshop highlighted strategies to advance rural, middle-income, and affordable housing development and recommendations to ensure that federal programs function effectively for western states. Key topics include regulatory reforms, attainable homeownership, and resilient housing.
The need for rental housing reform is urgent. A staggering 22.6 million renters in the U.S. spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities and with a housing shortage of at least 4 million units, affordable options are slipping out of reach for many more.
As part of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s WGA Chair initiative, Building Resilient and Affordable New Developments in the West (BRAND West), WGA convened national housing experts to discuss strategies for addressing these growing challenges.
For this webinar, WGA was joined by Benjamin Preis, the Director of the National Housing Crisis Task Force and a Senior Research Fellow at the Nowak Metro Finance Lab within Drexel University's Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation; Cheryl Cohen, the Housing Division Administrator at the Montana Department of Commerce and the Executive Director of the Montana Board of Housing; Megan Yonke, the Senior Housing Policy Advisor for the Office of Colorado Governor Jared Polis; and Robert Henson, a Senior Housing Policy Specialist at the National Council of State Housing Agencies.
The BRAND West initiative, led by New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, convened experts across industry sectors and all levels of government to identify strategies for expanding access to housing in the West.
This survey is intended to assist WGA in executing the initiative by identifying: (1) the current state of the housing market in the West; (2) priority issues for gubernatorial leadership to consider in supporting increased access to housing; (3) best practices for planning and developing housing; (4) federal policy issues for potential WGA advocacy; and (5) individuals or organizations interested in participating in the initiative.
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