Agenda and Papers

Barbara DeGraaf

Ms. DeGraaf holds a bachelor degree in Sociology and Spanish from the University of Rhode Island and Masters Degree in Social work from Rutgers University. Ms. DeGraaf has worked for over twenty years for the New Jersey Department of Human Services, and is currently Assistant Director for County Operations in the Division of Family Development. Ms. DeGraaf began her career as a planner for the NJ Developmental Disabilities council. She has worked in a variety of program areas including housing and homelessness, mental health, budget and planning, child welfare, and Medicaid. As Assistant Director, Ms. DeGraaf oversees the operations of the County Welfare Agencies concerning the implementation of the Work First New Jersey (WFNJ) Program; transitional services for current and former recipients of welfare; Emergency Assistance and Home Energy Assistance; child care programs; and the Kinship Navigator Program.

Joseph Errigo

Joseph Errigo is President and CEO of CommonBond Communities, Minnesota's largest nonprofit provider of affordable housing. CommonBond has pioneered a "more-than-housing" model called Advantage Centers that helps residents move toward economic self-sufficiency and live independently. Currently, CommonBond operates 3,300 housing units that are home to nearly 4,700 people at 44 housing communities in 29 Minnesota cities. More than 1,300 children live in CommonBond housing, which serves families, seniors, and people with special needs. The average household income among CommonBond residents is about $11,500 a year. Mr. Errigo has served on numerous boards of directors for private and public sector organizations and currently serves on the board of the National Housing Conference, Homes for America, Western Initiatives for Neighborhood Development, the TCF Bank Community Advisory Committee and the Heritage Preservation Commission for the city of Saint Paul.

Feather Houstoun

Feather O. Houstoun was re-appointed to a second term as Secretary of Public Welfare by Gov. Tom ridge in April 1999. Secretary Houstoun oversees one of the largest state human services agencies in the nation, with a budget of $13.6 billion and a workforce of more than 23,000. The Department of Public Welfare's programs include welfare; medical assistance; mental health and substance abuse services; children, youth and families; mental retardation; and numerous smaller programs addressing pressing issues such as domestic violence and home- and community-based services. Under Secretary Houstoun's leadership, the Department has undertaken innovative program changes on many fronts, including reform of the welfare system; significant expansion of services and supports for persons with disabilities; major enhancements in the delivery of behavioral health services; and system reform for services to children and their families.

Bruce J. Katz

Bruce Katz is currently a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, the Adeline M. and Alfred I. Johnson Chair, and founding Director of the Brookings Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy. Mr. Katz brings to Brookings ten years of policymaking experience, intimate knowledge of the federal legislative and budget process, and a strong understanding of the issues facing urban and metropolitan America. Prior to his appointment at Brookings, Mr. Katz was Chief of Staff to Henry G. Cisneros, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. From 1993-1996, Mr. Katz served as the Secretary's principal advisor on policy, budget, and program priorities and the Department's chief liaison with the White House, Office of Management and Budget, and other federal agencies. Prior to his appointment at HUD, Mr. Katz was staff director of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs, chaired by Senator Alan Cranston of California.

Mark H. Greenberg

Mark H. Greenberg is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) in Washington, D.C. CLASP is a national nonprofit organization addressing issues of family poverty through research, policy analysis, technical assistance, and advocacy. Since coming to CLASP in 1988, Mr. Greenberg has focused on issues relating to federal and state welfare reform efforts and workforce issues affecting low income families, with particular attention to employment, education and training, child care and early education policy, and other supports for low-income families. He has written or coauthored articles about reauthorization of the 1996 welfare law for the American Prospect Magazine, the Brookings Review and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation's Future of Children Journal, and testified before the House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee in 2001 concerning research findings about the effects of the 1996 law and in 2002 concerning work requirements and time limits in reauthorization. Prior to coming to CLASP, Mr. Greenberg worked at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid in Florida and the Western Center on Law and Poverty in Los Angeles, California.

Robert Greenstein

Robert Greenstein is executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, an independent, nonprofit organization established in 1981 to analyze federal and state budget and policy issues affecting low and moderate income Americans. In February 1994, President Clinton appointed Mr. Greenstein to serve as a member of the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement Reform. In 1996, Greenstein was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called "genius award." The MacArthur Foundation cited Greenstein for making "the Center a model for a non-partisan research and policy organization." The Foundation called the Center "an institution that combines rigorous analysis of public programs with a commitment to poor families. The Center's research is widely respected for its honesty and objectivity." In 1979 and 1980, Mr. Greenstein served as Administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he had primary responsibility for the nation's food assistance programs, including the food stamp and school lunch programs and WIC, the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children. Before his appointment as Administrator, Mr. Greenstein served as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture, where he helped develop legislative and regulatory policy in the food assistance area.

Ron Haskins

Ron Haskins is a guest scholar in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, a senior consultant at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, and a senior advisor for welfare policy at the Domestic Policy Council of the White House. Prior to joining Brookings and Casey, he spent 14 years on the staff of the House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee, first as welfare counsel to the Republican staff, then as the subcommittee's staff director. In 1997, Haskins was selected by the National Journal as one of the 100 most influential people in the federal government. At Brookings and Casey, his areas of expertise include welfare reform, child care, child support enforcement, and child protection.

Carla I. Javits

Appointed President and CEO of the Corporation for Supportive Housing in December 2000, Carla Javits founded CSH's California program in 1992. As President of CSH, Ms. Javits leads CSH's systems change and public policy efforts, technical assistance and training, lending and grant making activities, and the work of CSH's eight state offices. CSH has assisted with more than 12,000 units of supportive housing for homeless people in eight states. Prior to joining CSH, Ms. Javits served as the Planning and Policy Director of the San Francisco Department of Social Services (1988-1991) where she helped to craft the City's policies and programs related to homelessness, supportive housing, and entitlement programs; and as a Program Analyst in California's State Office of the Legislative Analyst (1985-1988) responsible for analyzing the State's SSI and In Home Supportive Services budgets, among others.

Clinton C. Jones

Clinton Jones currently serves as Senior Counsel for the 107th U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, chaired by Rep. Mike Oxley of Ohio, and the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, chaired by Rep. Marge Roukema of New Jersey. Mr. Jones assumed the role as staff leader for the entire housing portfolio under the Committee's jurisdiction. This portfolio includes, but not limited to, urban and rural development policy, mortgage finance and housing related issues; regulatory functions such as Fair Housing and the Civil Rights Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedure Act and Truth In Lending Act; the Community Reinvestment Act; community and economic development grants; homelessness; Government Sponsored Enterprises (FannieMae and FreddieMac); flood and natural disaster insurance programs; all aspects of rural housing, public and assisted housing, appropriations and budget. Prior to working with the Financial Services Committee and its predecessorCCommittee on Banking and Financial Services since 1993, Mr. Jones served as an Attorney-Advisor with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development with a concentration on FHA mortgage finance-related issues.

Jeffrey M. Lubell

Jeffrey M. Lubell is the Director of the Policy Development Division in the Office of Policy Development & Research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Prior to joining PD&R, Lubell worked as a housing policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington D.C., served as an associate at the law firm of Proskauer Rose and clerked for Justice Meir Shamgar, President of the Supreme Court of Israel. Lubell holds a law degree from Harvard Law School.

Jens Ludwig

Jens Ludwig is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University and for the 2001-2 academic year the Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. Dr. Ludwig is also a Research Affiliate of the Northwestern University / University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research, an Affiliated Expert of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, and a Member of the National Consortium on Violence Research. His research on social policy focuses on questions related to poverty, education, and crime, and has been supported by grants from the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Justice, as well as by the William T. Grant, Smith Richardson, Spencer, Annie E. Casey and Joyce foundations. He has published more than 20 articles in leading scholarly journals, including a series of recent studies that examine the relationship between neighborhood poverty and the life chances of low-income families. His recent publications also include Gun Violence: The Real Costs with Philip J. Cook (Fall 2000, Oxford University Press). His paper on race, social norms and education (also co-authored with Philip Cook) was awarded the Vernon Prize for best article by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino

Tom Menino was first elected Mayor of Boston on November 2, 1993, winning sixty-four percent of the vote and 18 of the city's 22 wards. He was re-elected to a second term without opposition in November 1997. Prior to the first election, Menino served four months as Acting Mayor, after Mayor Raymond L. Flynn left his post to serve as the United States Ambassador to the Vatican in July of 1993, after nine years as a District City Councilor from Boston's Hyde Park neighborhood. He was repeatedly re-elected to the Council with the largest majorities in City District Council elections. He founded and chaired the City Council Ways and Means Committee and was Vice-Chair of the Committee on Housing. Mayor Menino has made education, jobs, economic development and public safety his top priorities. Under his leadership, Boston launched a community policing effort that has brought crime to its lowest point in 30 years and a juvenile crime prevention strategy that has been hailed as a model for the nation.

Jonathan Miller

Jonathan is a Professional Staff Member of the Senate Banking and Urban Affairs Committee where he has worked since April of 1997. He deals primarily with housing and mortgage issues for Senator Sarbanes and the Committee Democrats. He has worked on a number of new laws, including the public housing reform act, the "mark-to-market" legislation dealing with the section 8 portfolio, the reform of the manufactured housing program, and digital signatures. Currently, he is working on issues related to predatory mortgage lending, section 8, and other housing matters. Prior to joining the Senate Committee, Jonathan worked in the House of Representatives for about 10 years, for members of the Banking and Ways and Means Committees.

Jennifer Lee O'Neil., CPM

Ms. O'Neil, Deputy Director, has been with CHAC, Inc. since December 1995, when CHAC began administering the Chicago Housing Choice Voucher Program. Currently she oversees intake and eligibility for the 30,000 unit program, as well as new construction administration, the Moderate Rehabilitation program, and Special Programs including Family Self Sufficiency, Family Unification, Mobility Counseling, and MetroLinks, the Welfare to Work Voucher Program. From 1992 until her move to Chicago, Ms. O'Neil was the Director of Rental Assistance for the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership (MBHP), where she was responsible for a 30 million dollar rental assistance program in 33 cities and town in the metropolitan Boston area. MBHP provided a continuum of housing options and services from shelter to homeownership. Prior to this she spent 22 years in real estate development and management. Ms. O'Neil has a special interest in housing choice and mobility programs, and in self-sufficiency and welfare-to-work programs. She has directed the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration in 2 of the 5 participating cities, four mobility programs (2 voluntary and 2 as a result of litigation), and Family Self-Sufficiency Programs for more than 1500 families. Ms. O'Neil also provides oversight for CHAC's Homeownership Program.

Senator Jack Reed

Jack Reed is the 47th United States Senator from Rhode Island. Elected to the Senate in 1996, Reed, who succeeded Senator Claiborne Pell (D-RI), previously served three terms as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island's 2nd Congressional District. Reed has been a leader in the House and the Senate on education, health care and campaign finance reform, promoting and strengthening Rhode Island's economy and on defense, international affairs, child care and gun control issues. Reed is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. He is the senior Democratic member of the Joint Economic Committee.

James A. Riccio

James A. Riccio is a Senior Fellow at the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) and specializes in the study of work-related programs and policies for welfare recipients, public housing residents, and other disadvantaged groups. He is currently co-project director and director of research for MDRC's Jobs-Plus demonstration, an employment initiative for public housing residents in five cities, which is funded by HUD, The Rockefeller Foundation, and other public and private partners. In addition, he is leading a team of American and British consultants who are advising the British government on the design of research demonstration project to test ways to improve employment retention and advancement among low-wage workers in the UK. Mr. Riccio holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University.

William M. Rohe, Ph.D.

Dr. William M. Rohe is Professor of City and Regional Planning and the Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his Ph.D. and M.R.P from Penn State University. Rohe is co-author of several books including Planning with Neighborhoods, Sustainable Nonprofit Housing Developments and over 40 journal articles on the topics of housing and community development policy and practice. He has received best article awards from both the Journal of Planning Education and Research and the Journal of the American Planning Association. Rohe has conducted sponsored research on housing and community development issues for a variety of government agencies and foundations including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Ford Foundation, the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation and the Fannie Mae Foundation. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Planning Education and Research and the Journal of Planning Literature and is an Associate Editor of Housing Policy Debate.

Barbara Sard

Barbara Sard is the Director of Housing Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C., where she has worked since 1997. Barbara is a leading expert on tenant-based rental assistance and issues concerning admissions to subsidized housing programs and the intersection of housing and welfare policy, and is a board member of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. She was a member of HUD's 1999 negotiated rulemaking panel on the renewal of tenant-based Section 8 contracts, was a key player in the enactment of changes to the project-based voucher program, and has been actively involved in the development of the policies and rules to implement the merger of the tenant-based certificate and voucher programs and the Section 8 homeownership program. Together with staff of the Fannie Mae Foundation, she organized the June 1998 Research Roundtable on Managing Affordable Housing Under Welfare Reform: Reconciling Competing Demands, and will co-edit the upcoming volume of conference papers.

John Sidor

John Sidor is a consultant in public policy, organization, and leadership and Principal, with the Helix Group in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Sidor is the former Executive Director of the Council of State Community Development Agencies (COSCDA) in Washington, DC. The Council is a membership organization composed of 48 state executive agencies with responsibilities in the fields of community development, housing, homelessness, and local economic development, and represents members' interests in Congress (primarily the housing and community development authorizing subcommittees and the HUD appropriations subcommittees) and federal agencies, primarily the US Department of Housing and Urban Development but also with such agencies as Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Economic Development Administration, and the Office of Management and Budget.

Doug Steiger

Doug Steiger was raised in California, attending Stanford (B.A., 1988) and UC-Berkeley (M.P.P., 1991). He was at the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from 1991 until 1997, beginning as a Presidential Management Intern. He held a variety of positions there, including budget examiner and special assistant to a Program Associate Director. While at OMB, he was involved in several policy areas and issues, particularly welfare and Indian health. Since January 1997, he has been with the Democratic staff of the Senate Finance Committee, working for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) for four years and now for Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), with responsibility for welfare and unemployment insurance programs. He participated in developing the welfare-related sections of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 as well as the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998, and the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999.

Ed Williams

Ed Williams has thirty-two years experience as a political action/labor leader and organizing advocate in various organizations. Mr. Williams is a public housing resident who lives in one of New York City's public housing developments. He is presently the President of ENPHRONT (Everywhere and NOW Public Housing Residents Organizing Nationally Together), a membership-based, resident-led organization and is also the Presiident of the Far Rockaway NAACP Branch in New York City. Mr. Williams is presently employed as a Community Liaison representing U.S. Congressman Gregory W. Meeks in the 6th Congressional District in New York City.

Sheila R. Zedlewski

Sheila R. Zedlewski is the director of the Income and Benefits Policy Center (IBP) at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution. Ms. Zedlewski's own research deals with welfare reform, safety net program participation, and poverty. She is also an expert on the development and use of microsimulation models to address the effects of taxes and spending programs on the distribution of income. Her recently published articles examine the relationship between welfare reform and declines in food stamp program participation for families with children, and the changing characteristics of families in cash assistance programs, including levels of disadvantage among those who have remained on welfare or left without work. She also works on TANF financing issues and has examined the change in poverty among low-income families since welfare reform using a broad measure of poverty that takes into account taxes and out-of-pocket child care expenses.