Republican Convention: Keeping the Focus on That First Rung of the Housing Ladder
Robert Freedman, Senior Editor
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- As the political excitement at the Republican National Convention entered its third day, much of the attention among politicos and the media was on the upcoming speech of vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. But about a mile from the Xcel Energy Center, where the festivities are taking place, NAR President-elect Charles McMillan paid a visit to Ravoux House, a high-rise public housing project with several hundred elderly and disabled residents that’s everything critics and supporters say public housing should be: safe, decent, and affordable.
“There are still people who cannot afford the American Dream and in the current environment that’s becoming even more difficult,” said McMillan, who went on to praise the work of the St. Paul, Minn., Housing Authority for its success with its Ravoux community. “But we must do more to help not only those struggling to get on the bottom rung of the housing ladder, whether that’s ownership or shelter through rental programs, and we must do more to preserve homeownership for those who are threatened with losing their homes.” (Watch a video of McMillian's remarks.)
Inside the Xcel Center, amidst all the political speeches, some 2,000 delegates and tens of thousands of other convention-goers heard that same call for homeownership preservation.
“Today, Americans are concerned about keeping their jobs, about keeping their homes,” said Carly Fiorina, former chairperson and CEO of global technology giant Hewlett-Packard, who spoke on the convention floor that evening.
The core of any plan to stem the mortgage crisis and ramp up economic growth must start
with the country’s entrepreneurial spirit, she said, in which “innovation and entrepreneurship” are rewarded, and “individuals and companies are empowered” to create wealth and opportunity.
Meg Whitman, former president and CEO of dot-com giant eBay, said government can do the most to help by ensuring households and businesses have plenty of room to grow their income, and she lauded her party’s plans to double the size of the child tax exemption, reduce business taxes, offer tax incentives to buy health insurance, and simplify the tax code.
“Mortgages once thought to be safe are now threatened,” she said. “It would be foolish to deny what we all know to be true. Our economy is struggling and Americans are hurting. We live in a time of economic anxiety and hardships.”
Even so, the country knows how to pull together during tough economic times, she went on. “America is all about the inspired individual—men and women who are free to pursue dreams and ambitions in a society that encourages creativity, industry, advancement, and risk taking.”
McMillan said REALTORS® have been taking their message of finding solutions to today’s two big housing challenges—homeownership preservation and affordable housing—to both parties at their national conventions. And the fact that both parties understand the importance of housing to the country’s strength is a heartening sign that REALTORS® will be heard.
“REALTORS® stand ready to work with all of our partners,” he said. “We carry that message to both the Republicans and the Democrats and regardless of who’s in the White House or who’s in the Congress.”
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