“Be aspirational:” Housing vet Joe Ventrone on fixing supply

Joe Ventrone has worked in housing policy since 1974. That is almost as long as the Department of Housing and Urban Development has existed.

One of his first jobs was as an elevator operator in the U.S.Senate from 1971 to 1973. 

Since elevators were already automatically run at the time, Ventrone’s job was mainly “organizational and traffic control,” he said.

Reminiscing Ventrone recalls frequently running into the current president.

“I got to know this new senator from Delaware who lost his wife, named Senator Joe Biden,” said Ventrone. “So what’s really interesting in my life now is I’m sitting here seeing President Biden going through everything he’s going through. And I looked back and I said, ‘Gee, I knew him when he was first elected to the U.S. Senate and I talked to him.'” 

Afterwards, Ventrone went on to work two separate stints at HUD, also serving for 17 years as the deputy staff director at the House Financial Services Committee. He also spent 22 years at the National Association of Realtors. 

Currently, the housing policy veteran is a consultant for NAR and is also writing a book rehashing his adventures working on Capitol Hill.

Ventrone says the main issue facing housing is the lack of supply. And only once that is addressed, affordability will increase in tandem. He thinks manufactured housing and rezoning are answers to how supply can be increased in the short-term.

Speaking of HUD, where in total Ventrone worked for almost a decade, the agency has outlived its usefulness, the housing vet said. “HUD was created in the 60’s and since then things have changed,” he said. “It has to be significantly transformed because right now it’s still operating the same way as it was when it was first created.”

Vetrone sat down with National Mortgage News to discuss the most impactful housing legislation in the past five decades, why he might be a good choice for a housing czar and the future of affordable housing.