Candidate for NAHRO President: Patricia Wells, MPA CME

Campaign Statement

Together…We can and will do the extraordinary.

I am honored to offer my service as candidate for National President of NAHRO for the 2021-2023 term. As President of NAHRO, I will empower us to boldly use our role as the premier Affordable Housing Industry membership organization to:

• Replicate our successful national advocacy efforts at the local and regional levels, using our Advocacy Action Center to increase local collaboration amongst NAHRO members, ignite engagement with decision makers; and ensure that local priorities are considered;
• Ensure accessibility to NAHRO’s stellar professional development resources for all member agencies, with a focus on new and rising professionals and new affordable housing lines of business including MTW, RAD and PBRA agencies;
• Create a tool kit for establishing meaningful partnerships to create programs that support resident skill building and employment, successful student education achievement, and ensure access to services that improve family and community health.

2021 will see us reimagining the way we do business as we rebuild from the challenges we navigated in 2020.  I am dedicated to using the new virtual connections we embraced to continue strengthening the ties that unify us from coast to coast. By respecting our differences and harnessing our strengths, we will celebrate our communities—with their cultural and generational diversity—while using new and evolving technologies to keep every NAHRO member actively engaged in our programs, and in the advocacy work that is the hallmark of all of our passionate commitment to the communities we serve. We have learned through a time of great upheaval the value of resilience—the ability to be nimble and flexible as we collaborate on solutions that overcome the obstacles we face—to provide quality, affordable housing that meets the needs of our communities.  As a national organization, we are served well by decades of learning, growing and sharing, combined with compromise, as well as by embracing our unique approaches.

The leadership of NAHRO has marched through time addressing housing and community challenges borne of war, depressions, recessions, and civil strife, and will continue to be an impactful force during the pandemic crisis. We have relied on our unity for the greater good of families and individuals who need our focus to be on them and their ability to participate fully in the promise of our great nation. My vision is to continue guiding our industry and this amazing association forward in the tradition of those who came before me and blazed trails that benefit us all.  Working together, we can continue to make affordable housing a priority for decision makers, and help realize our shared vision of safe, affordable and vibrant communities.

Today, I seek your support, as Candidate for National NAHRO President for 2021, to lead thousands of dedicated individuals, as we achieve more together.

“Help one another. There’s no time like the present, and no present like the time.” – James Durst

Patricia Wells Campaign Video

• NAHRO 2020 Conference Online

Monthly Questions to the Candidates

• July Question: If there was one top post-COVID-19 opportunity for NAHRO to seize upon, what would that opportunity be? 
• Answer
• June Question: Please share from your viewpoint what makes NAHRO Professional Development (PD) and Certification unique and how will you prioritize it during your term?
• Answer

• May Question: What Responsibility do NAHRO members have in advocating the importance of affordabke housing and HUD programs to their members of Congress?
• Answer