Focusing on Impact, Finding Opportunity
By Karl Kilduff
I am pleased to announce that we are ready to launch the new strategic plan to guide CHFA though the current challenging times as resources for affordable housing and finance are evolving. CHFA needs a lens to focus our efforts during this time of change to see the opportunities available to us. That lens is our strategic plan.
As public servants, CHFA is looked upon to take greater risk for a return that is seen in the communities we impact. As an organization, we do something truly noble. CHFA exists to alleviate the shortage of low- and moderate-income housing in the state. We fill a unique niche in the financing landscape and our values set us apart from other financing organizations. CHFA stands for acting with integrity, bringing compassion to our customer focus, working as a team, partnering to innovate, and taking care of our resources. As an organization, these values mean that CHFA will strive to be an agile organization.
Agility is not the same as flexibility or bending. To be an agile organization, CHFA needs to have the ability to move with speed but also be an organization grounded with a stable foundation. An agile organization is collaborative, quick to mobilize, responsive and resilient but based in expertise and commitment to the mission. Agility needs to be the rule, not the exception.
The new strategic plan speaks to how CHFA is going to be agile and have a positive impact in the State of Connecticut. It focuses on the impacts and outcomes of CHFA’s activities in our unique marketplace — or how our financing tools improve Connecticut. In some ways this approach makes us work harder, but it reinforces the value CHFA brings to the state.
We are challenged to be a responsive and adaptive lender, responsive to demographic changes, support quality affordable housing, have a positive impact on the community, and act as a good steward of funds.
The tactics in the new strategic plan will guide our efforts to provide for more affordable housing options, be a stronger organization and support a stronger marketplace for our products and services. To address the shortage of affordable housing and the need to preserve existing units, we need to look at unmet needs, be responsive in the marketplace, streamline our processes and insure added value, broaden the base of partners and foster better alignment between products and programs with our mission and values.
We take pride in changing lives through better housing opportunities. The CHFA Board understands this part of our work, and the impacts desired by the Board are for CHFA to be a leader for change, change lives and transform the state for the better.
Karl Kilduff is the Executive Director of the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority.
