Sep 21, 2022
KeyBank Takes Proactive Measures to Help Alleviate the Affordable Housing Staffing Crisis
(Columbus, Ohio) -- The Affordable Housing Training Academy (AHTA), a wholly owned entity of Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing, is proud to announce KeyBank Community Development Lending and Investment (CDLI) as the Founding Sponsor of the AHTA platform. AHTA delivers an online and on demand learning platform designed specifically for owners and managers of affordable housing properties.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be partnering with KeyBank CDLI and we thank them for their leadership in helping us address the current staffing crisis in the affordable housing industry,” said Catherine Cawthon, President of Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing (OCCH). “KeyBank is really stepping up as a thought leader and is pushing us to think bigger about the impact AHTA can have on the affordable housing industry.”
KeyBank CDLI will be the sole sponsor of the AHTA platform from September 1, 2022, through August 31, 2023. The proceeds of the sponsorship will enable AHTA to dramatically expand the depth of its course catalogue offerings and acquire additional online content. It will also allow participants to attend the AHTA Training Symposium on September 7th, 2022, in Columbus Ohio at no charge. This one-day symposium will engage Training Managers, HR Professionals or Regional Managers at management companies and explore best practices in training staff while also defining what content AHTA should develop in 2023 and beyond.
AHTA conducted an industry-wide survey from May 15th thru June 15th, 2022, that received 84 respondents from management companies across the country. Survey results quantified a variety of troubling findings, including:
94% of survey respondents reported an increase in staff turnover over the past 12 months (compared to 2019 – pre-COVID)
On average, respondents reported a 60% increase in staff turnover over the past 12 months, when compared to 2019
65% of new hires had less or considerably less experience than the previous employees
61% of the respondents felt like their company was falling behind in being able to effectively manage their workloads
12% of respondents have staff turnover of greater than 50% over the past 12 months
“The recent AHTA-sponsored survey confirmed what we already knew: managers of affordable housing communities are facing unprecedented challenges due to the staffing crisis coupled with steep inflationary cost pressures. Management companies are churning through staff and must find ways to efficiently onboard new staff at a lower cost than ever before” noted Tony DiBlasi, EVP of Operations and Asset Management at Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing, a LIHTC syndicator with a portfolio of over 600 actively reporting properties. “We interface with over 100 management agents, and the majority of these firms are operating in crisis mode as a result of the staffing issues.”
While OCCH has previously hosted the OCCH Training Academy for more than 20 years (available exclusively to OCCH partners), OCCH re-branded and re-launched its training platform in January 2022 under the name of the Affordable Housing Training Academy (AHTA). In doing so, AHTA now delivers high-quality training to affordable housing practitioners across the nation online and on-demand at an affordable price point. AHTA has partnered with best-in-class content providers offering a wide array of content covering key subject matters, including:
Fair Housing Training
Regulatory Compliance Training
Service Technician Training
Basics of Property Management
Safety
With KeyBank CDLI’s involvement as its Founding Sponsor, AHTA will be able to dramatically accelerate the delivery of other critically important content responsive to the needs of the affordable housing industry. Content slated to be delivered in the immediate future includes:
Drug and Gang Awareness Training
Advanced Property Management Trainings (Property Management 101, 201)
Regional Manager Leadership Training
Resident Engagement Trainings (including de-escalation techniques, addressing mental health disorders, etc.)
Self-Care Exercises (helping management staff with stress management, time management and good mental health best practices)
Technology Training
“KeyBank is proud to support AHTA affordable housing industry training to address the issues being faced by management companies as result of the current staffing crisis“ said Kristin Monroe, Vice President at KeyBank Community Development Lending and Investment. “This sponsorship is an opportunity for KeyBank to continue to advance efforts that address the affordable housing crisis through impactful training and builds on KeyBank’s successful Community Benefit Plan.”
About Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing (OCCH) Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing (OCCH) is an independent, non-profit corporation created in 1989. OCCH has raised over $5.9 billion in corporate equity for LIHTC projects involving more than 1,025 transactions and 60,000 units of affordable housing in Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Tennessee. OCCH has an affiliated property management and supportive services organization, Community Properties of Ohio Management Services, a lending subsidiary, Ohio Capital Finance Corporation, a certified Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI) and a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati and a philanthropic affiliate, Ohio Capital Impact Corporation. OCCH is an endorsed business of the Ohio Bankers League and the Kentucky Bankers Association. More information can be found at www.occh.org.
About Affordable Housing Training Academy (AHTA)
Located in Columbus, Ohio, AHTA is a wholly owned affiliate of Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing delivering high quality content on-demand and online to affordable housing practitioners across the nation. AHTA partners with the nation’s leading content providers to deliver best-in-class trainings covering a wide range of topics, including fair housing, regulatory compliance, service technician trainings, property management trainings, leadership training, personal safety, technology training and tactics to successfully engage residents, to name a few. More information can be found at www.ahta.online.
About KeyBank Community Development Lending and Investment
KeyBank Community Development Lending and Investment (CDLI) finances projects that stabilize and revitalize communities across all 50 states. As one of the top affordable housing capital providers in the country, KeyBank’s platform brings together construction, acquisition, bridge-to-re-syndication, and preservation loans, as well as lines of credit, Agency and HUD permanent mortgage executions, and equity investments for low-income housing projects, especially Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) financing. KeyBank has earned 10 consecutive “Outstanding” ratings on the Community Reinvestment Act exam, from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, making it the first U.S. national bank among the 25 largest to do so since the Act’s passage in 1977.