Home Builders Honors Bobby Rayburn

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CONTACT: Ann Marie Moriarty
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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOME BUILDERS HONORS BOBBY RAYBURN FOR COMMITMENT TO AFFORDABLE AND WORKFORCE HOUSING


Washington, May 11-Former president of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Bobby Rayburn, a Mississippi home and apartment builder, was named the 2006 recipient of the Dan Grady Memorial Award yesterday for his dedication to the cause of affordable housing.

The annual award, which is named after long-time NAHB member and housing activist Dan Grady, is presented to a member who best embodies the spirit and dedication of its namesake to quality affordable housing, and whose advocacy work with the association has made a difference to the housing industry. Rayburn, who served as president of NAHB in 2004, received the award yesterday during the association's spring meeting of its Executive Board.

"Bobby Rayburn's term as president of our organization was defined, above all else, by his commitment to finding solutions to the shortage of affordably priced housing for America's working families," said last year's award recipient, Andrew Chaban, former NAHB Multifamily chairman and chief executive officer of Princeton Properties in Lowell, Mass. "He was particularly concerned that millions of teachers, police officers, firefighters and other moderate-income workers were finding it increasingly difficult to buy or rent a decent home in, or close to, the communities where they work."

As NAHB president, Rayburn kicked off a major initiative on workforce housing that brought together housing industry leaders, community advocates, employers and top government officials to seek creative ways to expand affordable rental and homeownership opportunities. Under Rayburn's leadership, NAHB also worked in both the legislative and regulatory spheres to advance federal programs to support affordable housing and to eliminate regulatory barriers that drive up housing costs.

At the local level, NAHB provided its local home builders associations with materials to help them focus on removing regulatory barriers to affordable and workforce housing, to combat the Not-in-My-Back-Yard objections, or NIMBYism, that often fuels such regulations, and to get the word out that a Smart Growth approach to development would give their communities' essential workers a way to live near the neighborhoods they serve.

Dan Grady contributed nearly 50 years to the housing industry before his death in 1995. During his long career, Grady founded two companies that developed and managed subsidized housing. Additionally, Grady served as a consultant to other developers, non-profit organizations and government agencies on how best to use programs administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to create quality housing for lower-income families. He also served on numerous NAHB committees, and lobbied the association to advocate on behalf of affordable housing, particularly rental housing. Grady was inducted into NAHB's Housing Hall of Fame in 1992.