LENDING A HAND

ANCHORAGE - As Federal bureaucracies go, HUD's one of the smaller kids on the block. With just under 8,000 employees it ranks 25th in size of the 26 agencies in the President's Cabinet, its workforce 1/15th of the Department of Homeland Security's, 1/19th the Department of Veterans Affairs'.

Which does not mean Congress and the President have given HUD an equivalently-small to-do list. To the contrary. By law, for example HUD is charged with providing rental assistance to some 4.2 million households. With managing an active portfolio of more than eight million FHA-insured single and multi-family mortgages. With enforcing the Fair Housing Act. With helping 1,300 communities big and small revitalize distressed neighborhoods. With helping shelter on a typical night hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans who have no home. With putting thousands low-income families every year on the path to self-sufficiency and economic independence. And that's just for starters.

So, how does HUD get it all done? Partners, partners, partners. More than 3,000 public housing authorities. Almost 600 Federally-recognized Tribes and villages. 1,300 state, county and city governments. 300 Continuums of Care sheltering thousands of people who have no place to call home. Hundreds of nonprofit faith-based organizations. Thousands of real estate agents, developers, owners of multi-family, lenders, and volunteers. If they succeed, HUD succeeds.

And then there's the philanthropic community, thousands of private, nonprofit organizations that don't receive HUD funds, but are committed to and put their resources forward to serve the very same people and communities HUD serves. Organizations like The Rasmussen Foundation of Anchorage, Alaska.

In July 2018 HUD Secretary Ben Carson and the Council of Foundations named Rasmuson among 11philanthropies across the country to win a 2018 HUD Secretary's Award for Public Philanthropic Partnerships and even odder that it thereby the first philanthropy to be a two-time winner of the Award.

The Rasmuson Foundation was established in 1955 driven by the fact that "helping others is an Alaskan tradition." It would always, wrote E.A. Rasmuson (https://www.rasmuson.org/about/history/) be "glad to lend a hand." Nationally, iIt's probably best known for its generous support for the arts, especially Alaskan artists and Alaskan culture. But it hasn't stopped there.

On the eve of the Great Recession and concerned about an onrushing crisis in affordable housing, in 2008 Rasmuson partnered (https://www.rasmuson.org/news/a-partnership-for-housing-alaskans/) launched a partnership with the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation to address the onslaught of foreclosures and evictions and homelessness that beset every Alaska and virtually every other state in the country.

As the recovery began to take hold, in 2015 Alaska experienced another shock, a precipitous drop in the price of oil - Alaska's 800-pound economic gorilla. Overnight, state revenues collapsed and the Alaska Legislature did what most state legislatures do in such circumstances, moving aggressively to cut or eliminate state-funded programs. High on the Legislature's to-cut list was an AHFC program that built homes for teachers, health professionals and law enforcement officers as incentives for them to live and serve the state's many very small, very isolated and mostly Native villages. Rasmuson issued a challenge to the Legislature. It would provide $1.95 million to AHFC's program, but only if the Legislature matched it. It was a deal too good to refuse. Since then, the Legislature has provided an additional $6 million for the program.

The following year the Legislature threatened to eliminate AHFC's support for senior housing. Rasmuson stepped forward again, pledging $1.75 million of its resources to the program, but only on the condition that the Legislature provide a $2.75 million match every two years. Again, Rasmuson's was a deal too good to refuse.

Again and again Rasmuson's put its money where it mission. Its partnership with AHFC since 2008 has created some 1,300 affordable housing units in more than 20 communities. The very week it won the 2018 Secretary's Award, their partnership unveiled plans for two more much-needed affordable housing complexes on Kodiak Island (http://kmxt.org/2018/07/affordable-housing-developments-works-kodiak/).

Awards come, and awards go. Often overlooked when first presented, they're soon forgotten after they are. So be it. Because acts, not accolades, are what build legacies. A legacy like lending a hand in support of affordable housing, a legacy in which, we'd expect E.A. Rasmuson would take great pride.

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