Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner Julia Gordon will deliver a keynote address to kick off this year’s National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) Annual Meeting and Expo, taking place in Nashville from October 23-25.
Gordon, who delivered a keynote address at the 2022 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, will begin the reverse mortgage conference and discuss what she sees as the biggest priorities of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program in the coming year, according to an announcement from NRMLA. She will also discuss other issues important to the broader marketplace overseen by FHA, the announcement said.
Last year, Gordon reaffirmed the commitment of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the administration of President Joe Biden to the stewardship of the HECM program, sharing prepared remarks regarding the necessity of the public and private sectors to keep issues related to senior housing and aging in place front of mind.
Gordon also encouraged ongoing dialogue with the association and other industry entities to help refine the program where necessary.
“As the population gets older, the federal government and the private sector need to place the same emphasis on housing supply and affordability for seniors that we do for newly-formed households,” she said at the 2022 meeting. “And that’s why I believe that the work that [reverse mortgage professionals] do is so incredibly important. I believe that helping seniors who want to stay in their homes is what FHA’s HECM product is all about.”
The NRMLA Annual Meeting and Expo is returning to Nashville this year after previously serving as host to the 2019 edition of the event. Critical response to that event was positive, according to NRMLA President Steve Irwin who spoke with RMD shortly thereafter.
The 2019 Nashville event proved to be the final in-person meeting the association would hold until 2022 due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, with the industry ultimately re-convening in Irvine, California for the Western Regional Meeting that May.
