world of Washington. You see this dynamic in the event’s two hosts: the Washington-based National Apartment Association, which represents owners of multifamily housing, and the New York City-based Creative Coalition, which serves as the social advocacy arm for our county’s motion picture elite like Spike Lee and Susan Sarandon.

Like other events in this convention-mad city, the town hall meeting gives delegates and ordinary citizens a chance to talk one-on-one with lawmakers like Sen. Casey and celebrities like Sarandon with no barriers between them, creating opportunities for exchanges that are far less possible in Washington and, for that matter, any other place outside this convention setting.

“It’s like the wall comes down here,” says NAR Past President Pat V. Combs, who I talked with later at a housing-issues reception hosted by NAR, the National Association of Home Builders, and the Independent Community Bankers of America. “In Washington when we meet with members of Congress there’s often a separation. They’re busy, their time is limited, and they’re on one side of their desk and we’re on another. But here there are no barriers and it really gives us a chance to let them know what’s happening in our communities, and they remember that when they go back to Washington.”

There definitely were no walls between Sarandon and Sen. Casey. At Osterio Marco, Sarandon grilled Casey about the housing bill Congress passed about a month ago. Why is there so little in there for rental housing? How will it ensure we won’t face another mortgage meltdown in the future? What accountability measures were put into place to hold short-sighted actors in the mortgage market accountable for their actions? Why was the mortgage crisis allowed to get to the point it did?

“We have no one to blame but ourselves,” says Casey.

Then Cisneros steps in with a comment. “The point of having discussions like these is to get affordable housing on the agenda,” he says, so that next year when Congress meets and there’s a new administration in office, rental housing will be on top of lawmakers’ minds.

He might have added that that’s why its good REALTORS have such a strong presence at this convention: it gives them the opportunity to make the case for housing one-on-one with lawmakers, with no walls between them.