An upcoming event, hosted by the J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America’s Families, announced two top industry leaders will join its panelists at an upcoming event.

The foundation announced U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO David Stevens joined its panel of experts. HousingWire is a media sponsor of the event and editorial staff will be attending as well.

Carson and Stevens will join the industry’s Housing America’s Families Forum on November 15, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan where the industry will discuss key issues in the housing industry. Some of the topics the forum will discuss include solving the rental affordability crisis, the future of housing finance, the path to sustainable homeownership and the critical connection between housing and health.

They will join other panelists for the event including Rip Rapson of the Kresge Foundation, Adrianne Todman of NAHRO, Kristin Siglin of Housing Partnership Network, Daryl Carter of Avanath Capital Management and Douglas Jutte of Building Healthy Places Network.

In describing its event, the foundation explained, “America is in the midst of a silent housing crisis. Rising rents are wreaking havoc on families across America: more than 11 million households spend in excess of 50% of their incomes just on rent. At the same time, fewer and fewer Americans are able to access homeownership and the wealth-building opportunities it offers. The homeownership rates for young adults and minority families have plummeted.”

“We are at a crossroads moment,” it continued. “We can either allow today's crisis in housing to grow in scope and intensity or we can seize the opportunity to help transform a sector of our economy that is so critical to our nation's future prosperity.”