Create the Village

Both design and production of Create the Village pre-dated the COVID-19 crisis, and the series was scheduled to launch in March 2020. In light of the nation’s current health and economic crisis, however, a new set of shows was produced for the launch. Perry and his guests will examine the impact the current COVID-19 national emergency is having on housing affordability for the workforce, including the “Missing Middle,” as well as how national housing policy leaders are responding, and how some cities are addressing the crisis. The subsequent shows will take on other related topics such as gentrification and economic development.

“Public budgets are a reflection of political priorities. Before the COVID-19 pandemic created a world health crisis and gripped the global economy, American cities were facing a host of problems,” says Perry. “We will get through to the other side of these current health and economic crises. When we do, if local, state, and federal government agencies are only addressing the short-term challenges and ignoring the larger, systemic issues, then looming in the future are deeper, broader and more expensive problems, both economic and social. We must be smarter than that. We know the market, single-handedly, will not solve the problems; we know government cannot answer them alone; and non-profits simply do not have the resources to address them. Each sector has a role to play, but alignment of interests and skills is essential.”

Perry contends the challenges facing most mid-sized and large cities will not be resolved by a hurried reaction to the latest media headline or political protest. Instead, he insists that the answers are found in strategic, sustainable, public-private partnership initiatives. Says Perry, “it’s not a money problem alone and it’s only partly a political problem. Even before COVID-19, we were experiencing social, economic, and political anxieties. As a society we were distracted by the symptoms and we were ignoring the root causes.”

Create the Village provides a platform where leaders from the private, public, and non-profit sectors come together to speak candidly about the issues facing American cities, to voice their ideas and to provide examples of innovative and sustainable initiatives that are working in American cities. Join Perry, his long-time collaborator Rick White, and their guests on a weekly journey into the depths of urban development policies and strategies that will chart the future of our cities for decades to come.

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Upcoming guests on Create the Village

Mark Calabria

Director, Federal Housing Finance Agency

Mark Calabria, nominated by President Trump in January 2019, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn in as Director of FHFA in April 2019.

Prior to joining FHFA, he was Chief Economist for Vice President Mike Pence, handling all economic policy issues with a focus on taxes, trade, manufacturing, financial services, and labor and housing. Immediately prior to his service with Vice President Pence, he spent eight years as Director of Financial Regulation Studies at the Cato Institute, where he helped to establish Cato's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives.

He also previously served as a senior aide on the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs to both Chairman Phil Gramm and Chairman Richard Shelby. He has also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regulatory Affairs at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He has held a variety of positions at Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies, the National Association of Home Builders, and the National Association of Realtors. He has been a Research Associate at the U.S. Census Bureau's Center for Economic Studies. He holds a doctorate in economics from George Mason University.

During his Senate service, Mark drafted significant portions of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which created a new regulatory framework for the housing government sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks. He was the primary drafter of the Shelby‐Dodd Flood Insurance Reform bill, which formed the basis for the Biggert‐Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012.

Deidre Woollard

Editor/writer at Million Acres, a division of Motley Fool

Deidre Woollard is a writer and editor with two decades of experience covering all aspects of real estate from luxury residential real estate to the latest in proptech. She created the Ask A Realtor feature at Realtor.com and has led marketing and communications at top residential real estate brokerages. Real estate investing is a family tradition; she comes from a long line of landlords, renovators, and contractors currently invested from Massachusetts to California. She has an MFA in Writing from Spalding University.

David Dworkin

President, National Housing Conference

David M. Dworkin joined NHC as president and CEO in January 2018. Prior to joining NHC, David worked as a senior policy adviser at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he advised senior Treasury Department officials on matters related to housing and community development. His expertise includes credit availability; housing finance reform, mortgage servicing, affordable housing, access to credit, residential housing vacancy, abandonment and demolition and community stabilization strategies. He also served as a member of the White House’s Detroit interagency team, where his responsibilities included developing and implementing strategies to assist in the City of Detroit’s revitalization.

Previously, he managed the Capital Magnet Fund (CMF) at the Treasury Department’s CDFI Fund, which disbursed $80 million in grants for economic revitalization and community development through investment in and assistance to community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and nonprofit housing organizations.

Prior to joining the Treasury Department, he was CEO and Founder of Affiniti Strategies, a political consulting firm that assisted clients build political relationship capital. David served in a number of leadership positions at Fannie Mae, where he served General Counsels Robert Zoellick and Thomas Donilon.

His service in the administration of President George H.W. Bush included the State Department’s acting deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs. As national security advisor to Rep. Rod Chandler of Washington, he was recognized by Secretary of State James A. Baker III for his key role in the negotiation of the Bipartisan Accord on Central America, which led to the end of Nicaragua’s civil war and inauguration of its first democratically elected government.

Eric Letsinger

Founder and CEO of Quantified Ventures

Eric Letsinger is the Founder and CEO of Quantified Ventures, an outcomes-based capital firm that helps clients finance specific and measurable health, social, and environmental impact. He is a “tri-sector” executive, bringing 25+ years of leadership experience in government, nonprofit, and private sector organizations operating in healthcare, environment, education, and housing. He has led transformative, public-private initiatives to drive social impact in complex, cross-sector business environments including: IBM, Baltimore Public Schools, Baltimore Housing Department, Cyveillance Software, PWC, and Samaritan Inns Homeless Services. Eric speaks regularly at dozens of conferences, events, and universities, including the Aspen Institute, Urban Institute, Yale, Duke, and the University of Virginia.

The Integral Group is a community development and commercial real estate company focused on creating value in cities and rebuilding the fabric of communities. Integral is a premier provider of sustainable real estate and community solutions in emerging and mature markets across the United States and internationally. The company is vertically integrated with subsidiaries in the community development, commercial real estate, investment management, property management, and program & construction management fields. Complementing those disciplines is an affiliate that helps to address the needs of lower income families and individuals in its communities as they transition towards economic independence.