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In April NPA paid a visit to John MacEvoy, director of the National Council of State Housing Finance Agencies. MacEvoy, who has to have been the most good-natured target ever hit, said "I'm not one of those people who disagree with your tactics--I love your tactics" agreed to meet in July about a bill that NPA introduced in the Senate to fund tenant buyouts.

Last year MacEvoy opposed the Senate bill to provide money for tenant buyouts, and as a result the bill did not move in the Senate (although it passed in the House).

"NCSHFA was the only thing standing in our way," said Mary Lou Symmes, of the Anti-Displacement Project, "we had to change their position if anything was ever going to happen with our tenant buyout bill."

On July 23rd, NPA leaders from five organizations (Anti-Displacement Project, Organization of the North East, Iowa CCI, East Side Organizing Project, and the Seattle Tenant's Union) met with MacEvoy as well as with NCSHFA lobbyist Barbara Thomas. At the meeting they quickly reached agreement on the bill for tenant buyouts and went on to discuss predatory lending, and the National Housing Trust Fund.

In each case MacEvoy agreed to support the group's issues, and since then he's made good on every commitment. The result is that the tenant buyout bill moved forward with Republican sponsorship in August, and will be voted on as part of the larger housing bill in September.

"We're inching forward," one of the leaders at the meeting. "It's been a long haul, but we're getting closer to victory on saving affordable housing."