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OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

Daily Real Estate News  |  July 14, 2009  |   Congressional Interns See Housing Importance
The hypothesis was relatively straightforward: What would happen if the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORSŪ funded three fellows to go to work on national housing issues with members of the U.S. Congress?

For the three recent graduates who were the lucky recipients of the new real estate policy fellowships, the answer is a life-changing opportunity to work on Capitol Hill during a historic time when housing issues are at the forefront of the nation’s economic woes. For NAR, it’s an opportunity to encourage more young people to pursue careers in housing policy and provide future leaders with an opportunity to break into the public policy arena.

The first year of the NAR-funded real estate policy fellowships, which ran from September 2008 to May 2009, was a runaway success, according to the fellows themselves and others involved with the program. NAR provided $50,000 grants to each of the Tri-Caucus organizations — the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS), the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) — which administered and supervised the fellows. NAR plans to continue to fund the program through the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 years.

The fellowships’ goal is to encourage young professionals to consider careers in public service policy with a focus on housing and community economic development. For the first three fellows, the program has accomplished just that.

Tonantzin I. Mitre, 28, the CHCI fellow, was placed to work in the office of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who serves on the U.S. Senate committees on Banking; Finance; and Housing and Urban Affairs. Mitre, who graduated with a master’s in urban policy and management from Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy in New York in May 2008, was hired by the senator in February, prior to the end of her fellowship, to join his staff as a legislative correspondent, responsible for being the main liaison between the senator and his constituents.

Gregg Orton, 23, the APAICS fellow, was placed to work in the office of U.S. Rep. Al Green (D-TX), who sits on the U.S. House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee and the subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. At the end of his fellowship in mid-June, Orton was offered a full-time position and has stayed on as a legislative assistant and the main point person on housing issues for the congressman.

Major E. Clemens III, 27, the CBCF fellow, was placed to work in the office of U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who is chair of the House Financial Services Committee’s subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. The CBCF has extended Clemens’ fellowship from the original nine months to one year, which runs through the end of August, with the option to stay on for a second year. Clemens says he has made valuable connections that he hopes will allow him to stay in Washington, D.C., in some capacity but he doesn’t want to take the second year of the fellowship so that it could benefit another person.

Alexander Chaparro, 2009 Vice Chair of NAR’s Diversity Committee, who helped NAR develop the fellowship program, says that the program has already proven to be a major success that has benefited the fellows as well as NAR’s mission of promoting important housing issues on Capitol Hill.

“These fellows are the housing advocates of the future,” says Chaparro, a broker-associate with @properties in Chicago. “REALTORSŪ gave the opportunity to young minorities that was not available in the past. I think it’s a great investment of the REALTORŪ dollars to be able to participate in a program where we can change the lives of young, talented people.”

In addition to providing the funding for the fellowships, NAR also served as a resource for the fellows as they researched and put together policy briefs for their members of Congress on housing-related issues. The fellows also attended a number of NAR’s conferences and meetings to learn about the organization and the issues affecting its members and the real estate industry as a whole.

From the Garlic Capital to the Nation’s Capital

For Mitre, the road to the nation’s capital started in the “Garlic Capital of the World”—the small town of Gilroy, Calif., which has a population of just over 40,000 in Santa Clara County. The Mexican American is the only child of divorced parents and was mostly raised by her mother, a preschool teacher. Her mother purchased their home through a government-funded program called Self-Help Housing, a “sweat equity” program that provides a reduced purchase price and favorable mortgage terms in exchange for the buyers’ labor to help build the homes.

Going through that experience taught Mitre about the importance of housing and “why people should have every opportunity to afford a home,” she says.

Mitre says she came across the fellowship opportunity while she was randomly searching the Internet. After getting her bachelor’s in political science from Mills College in 2001, Mitre worked in a variety of social welfare positions that included housing and education issues.

“But I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do, so that’s why the fellowship appealed to me,” Mitre says. “I wanted to work on the Hill but didn’t have experience on the Hill.”

The CHCI gave her a choice of either working in a committee or working in Sen. Menendez’s office, Mitre says. “I felt I would get more exposure and have more substantive work to do [with Sen. Menendez], so I chose to work with his office.”

“It’s been really an eye opening experience,” Mitre says. “I really felt like I was a part of the team. I really enjoy the collaborative effort of the legislative team.”

During her fellowship, Mitre and two other CHCI fellows wrote a white paper called “Latinos in 2030: Securing Our Financial Future,” which outlines the need for future generations of Latino Americans to use mainstream banking services in order to build wealth and long-term financial stability. In addition to the white paper, Mitre researched and wrote policy briefings on a number of different housing issues, including foreclosure and disbursement of funds.

Mitre says that NAR has been a tremendous support system for her during her fellowship, providing her a staff liaison she can call with questions about any housing issues and a library that she can access for background information. “It’s been amazing for me that there’s someone off the Hill that I can go to for advice [Fred Underwood, NAR’s Director of Diversity and Community Outreach Programs] and if he doesn’t have the information, he can direct me to someone in D.C. or elsewhere to find the information I’m looking for.”

Mitre says the fellowship has helped her to map out her future. “Other fellowships don’t give direct contact with a legislator,” Mitre says. “This fellowship threw me right into the staff and said, ‘OK, you’re a part of the team and now go!’ I had a greater experience of what goes on everyday in the world of politics.

“D.C. has become the place where I want to settle, and I don’t plan to leave anytime soon,” Mitre says.

Finding Asian Roots Through Housing Advocacy

Orton grew up in Arcadia, Calif., a city of with about 53,000 people, located approximately 20 miles east of Los Angeles. Adopted from South Korea by Caucasian parents when he was 2 months old and growing in a city where 45 percent of the city’s population is of Asian descent provided Orton with a “dual perspective on things,” he says.

Orton developed a stronger interest in his cultural roots and Asian American issues while he attended Vassar College. He graduated in 2008 with a degree in political science. He said that he found out about the real estate policy fellowship through John Wong, chair of the Equal Opportunity and Cultural Diversity Program at NAR and CEO of the Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA).

“On a sort of a whim, I applied, and the rest is history,” Orton says. APAICS placed Orton with Rep. Green because his 9th congressional district in Houston has about 11 percent Asian population and almost half of his constituents speak a language other than English in the home, according to the latest U.S. Census data.

Ruby G. Moy, interim executive director with APAICS, says Orton has done an excellent job during his fellowship with Green’s office. “Gregg started at a difficult time when the housing crisis hit, the economy was faltering, and a new President was going to be elected. Yet, he stepped up to the plate and I think impressed not only his Congressional office, but also NAR, in the legislative issues that he was assigned to do for the Congressman.”

Orton says that there has been no better time to be thrust into the thick of housing issues in Washington, D.C.

“Realizing that there was a major housing crisis going on at the time, I assumed that I would be placed in a fast-paced environment,” Orton says. “However, I underestimated just how involved I would become in the issues.”

Orton’s responsibilities during his fellowship included researching and putting together briefings on the foreclosure crisis, affordable housing, and government-sponsored insurance programs. In his new position as a legislative assistant, Orton has become the congressman’s point person on all housing issues.

“I’m thrilled to be directly involved in the legislative process and seeing how things work on the Hill,” Orton says. “You hear about how things are done, but you don’t completely understand until you experience it firsthand.”

Orton says he looks forward to helping Rep. Green’s work as housing task force chair for the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Orton says Green wants to raise awareness of the need for housing that is culturally sensitive to the immigrant communities and help these communities avoid housing scams and foreclosure.

Orton says that NAR will continue to be a “tremendous resource” that will provide substantive background information on various housing issues. He says that NAR has done a “great job of being a resource, while allowing him to work independently.”

“The congressman is passionate about housing issues, so we want to keep an open line of communication with [NAR]”, Orton says.

The Global Road to Washington, D.C.

Clemens started out on his road to Washington, D.C., in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he was born. He then went to the African country of Liberia, his parents’ native country, before being forced to return to Queens, N.Y., after civil war broke out in that country in 1990.

Clemens’ parents both came to the United States to get a college education. After they finished school, they returned to Liberia to raise their young family in their native country. The plan was to live in Liberia and then send the five sons back to the United States for either high school or college. Four years after returning to Liberia, the civil war changed his parents’ plans, and his family returned to the United States.

Clemens says that his family was considered “well to do” in Liberia but when they returned to the United States in 1990, his parents came here with just $200 in their pockets. At first, Clemens’ family lived in a cramped apartment in Queens with his aunt, but the family moved to the more affordable city of Gaithersburg, Md., when Clemens was in middle school. When Clemens was entering high school, his parents were able to buy their first home, a townhouse where they still live today.

“That was one of the main reasons that I was able to go onto school and go onto law school — because that home was a start for us to build wealth,” says Clemens, who earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Maryland-College Park in 2004 and his law degree from North Carolina Central University in 2008.

“That was one of the main reasons that I got involved in the issue of housing,” Clemens says. “Your house is pretty much the defining factor sometimes about whether your kids are able to go to college.”

Working in Rep. Water’s office, Clemens has helped the congresswoman to try to get the housing market back on track. His job is to work closely with the congresswoman’s staff on the subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. He is particularly interested in trying to develop legislation to correct what is not working with loan modification programs.

“It’s an exciting time right now to be working on the Hill and especially in this issue area,” Clemens says. “Everyone is facing some sort of a housing problem. It’s a great time to learn and experience and try to contribute the best that I can.”

Although his parents achieved the American Dream of home ownership, Clemens says he saw many of his neighbors become victims of the subprime market and lose their homes. Clemens says that his parents continue to inspire him and help him put things in perspective about how important the issue of home ownership is in this country.

“When my family moved me back to Liberia when I was a kid, I actually got to see my dad build a home there from scratch,” Clemens says. “Coming back to America, owning a home in America is the American Dream. Watching them own a home and to see everything they had to go through to own a home, I find that completely amazing.”

Clemens says the opportunity to work with Waters has been invaluable and the experiences of the fellowship are “irreplaceable.” He wants to continue his work on the Hill by finding the right opportunity with a committee that deals with housing or criminal issues, which would be a great fit with his education. He wants to stay in D.C. for as long as President Barack Obama is in office.

“This is just a historic time to be involved in politics,” Clemens says. “A point like this comes across once a generation. Because of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and NAR, I’ve been able to be a part of this historic time.”

Mitre agreed. “It’s just an amazing experience,” Mitre says. “If you’re at all interested in D.C. and politics, then this is the fellowship for you. You’ll have that experience and pass it on to other people.”

Chaparro says that the fact that all three of the fellows plan to stay on and work in housing policy in D.C. validates the NAR’s fellowship program and proves its success in accomplishing its intent — to provide an opportunity for future housing policy leaders to get their feet into doors of Capitol Hill.

“The fact that we gave them the opportunity to go to the Hill and they ended that process as equals is amazing,” Chaparro says. “They were hired not because they were minorities but because they were the best of the best. That’s what we do in Cultural Diversity — give a minority student an equal playing field. The fact that these fellows were hired shows that we’re on the right track. It says everything to why the program is valid and needs to continue for the long-term.”

Source: REALTORŪ Magazine Online, Haley Hwang

[Editor's note: Haley Hwang is a sales associate and cultural diversity trainer for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Glenview, Ill. Prior to real estate sales, Haley was editor of REALTORŪ Magazine Online.]

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