In Episode 6 of Around the Block, Leah sits down with Jessie Handforth Kome, Director at CohnReznick and former Director of HUD’s Office of Block Grant Assistance, to trace the origin and evolution of CDBG Disaster Recovery. It all started with a single phone call in 1989, when San Francisco asked HUD after the Loma Prieta earthquake whether CDBG could be used for recovery. Drawing on more than 36 years at HUD, Jessie walks through how the program took shape one disaster at a time, from Hurricane Andrew and the Northridge earthquake to 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

Along the way, Jessie shares lessons that still shape recovery work today, including how Kinston and Lenoir County, NC, and Grand Forks, ND, used local relationships to make buyouts work, and what a head-to-head study of Katrina housing programs revealed about serving low- and moderate-income households. It’s a thoughtful, often personal conversation about leading through chaos, the human side of recovery, and her advice for anyone just starting a career in community development.

Mark Shelburne didn't set out to become one of the country's leading experts on Qualified Allocation Plans. He stumbled into affordable housing the same way a lot of people do — through a chance connection and a job that turned out to be a lot more interesting than the strip mall law work he'd left behind.

In this episode, Leah and Marty sit down with Mark, housing policy consultant at Novogradac, for a wide-ranging conversation about the documents that quietly control billions of dollars in affordable housing resources every year. Mark breaks down what QAPs actually are, how states use them to allocate Low Income Housing Tax Credits, and why understanding them matters for anyone working in affordable housing development — whether you're a developer, an allocating agency, or somewhere in between.

He also gets into the role of technology in affordable housing, why residential construction is overdue for a major leap forward, and what gives him the most hope for the future of the industry.

If you've ever wanted to understand how affordable housing actually gets funded and built in America, this is a good place to start.

Joe Riddle didn't set out to spend 35 years in community development. He was mailing out resumes and looking for any job that would have him when a hiring manager in Columbus, Georgia asked if he'd be interested in becoming a CDBG specialist. He said yes, asked what CDBG was, and never left.

In this episode, Leah and Marty sit down with Joe, Grants Program Manager for Pinellas County Housing and Community Development and Vice President of NACCED, to talk about what a career spanning city, state, and county government actually teaches you. Joe covers the role relationships play in doing this work well, what CDBG and HOME funding look like on the ground when they're working the way they're supposed to, and why the affordable housing crisis needs both funding and regulatory reform to solve.

He also shares the story of a third grade girl scout who summed up community development better than any definition he'd ever read, and why after 35 years, the thank yous still mean more than anything.