About Us

The National Center for Housing Management, Inc. (NCHM) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization created in 1972 by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) pursuant to an Executive Order of the President of the United States. NCHM was established to “provide objective and independent leadership at the national level in helping meet the Nation’s housing management and training needs…”.

NCHM has grown to become the leading provider of training and certification to the affordable housing industry and has expanded its reach and impact to the conventional apartment market. Annually, nearly 10,000 housing professionals attend NCHM in-classroom and online training and thousands pursue one of our several certifications. In fact, since our inception, we have certified more than 125,000 housing professionals.

In addition to training and certification we offer several tools and services designed to assist property management companies to recruit, hire, and maintain a highly skilled workforce and improve operational performance.

The idea for a national center for housing management first emerged from the deliberations of the President’s Task Force on Low-Income Housing established in 1969 and chaired by Mr. Carter Burgess, the then Chairman of the National Corporation for Housing Partnerships (NCHP). NCHP was, at the time, one of the largest private owners of affordable housing in America. Recognizing that quality housing management was central to the future success of rental housing in America, Mr. Burgess established the Task Force for Housing Management and recruited Mr. Irving Kringsfield to serve as its Staff Director. Soon after, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded NCHP a contract to analyze housing management practices and to develop plans for training programs for those working in the field.

In August 1971 the Task Force for Housing Management issues its report entitled “Needed: A Strategy for Housing Management Training”. Among other actions the report recommended the establishment of a center for housing management and training institute. On September 11, 1971 then HUD Secretary George Romney formally requested the establishment of the center by Executive Order. Over the course of the next several months the Task Force and HUD collaborated with the White House to work out the details of the Executive Order and secure the many concurrences that were needed.

Several well-know (and some infamous) federal officials of the time played roles of various significance in the negotiations that that led to the creation of the center, including John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs; John Mitchell, who was Nixon’s Attorney General; William Rehnquist, the Assistant Attorney General, who was later appointed to the US Supreme Court and became the Chief Justice of SCOTUS; Paul O’Neill, then head of the Office of Management and Budget, who went on to become CEO of Alcoa, chairman of the RAND Corporation, and Secretary of the Treasury under George W. Bush; and David Gergen, who was Nixon’s chief speechwriter and went on to serve three other Presidents. (Mr. Gergen in fact was tasked with editing and fine-tuning the Executive Order that ultimately established NCHM).

On April 21, 1972, President Nixon signed Executive Order #11668 that directed the Secretary of HUD to “…call upon public-spirited citizens, dedicated and experienced in the appropriate disciplines, to create, in accordance with existing laws, a new, non-governmental, not-for-profit institution to serve as a National Center for Housing Management.” NCHM was incorporated in the District of Columbia soon thereafter, and the Center was in business.

Mission

Nearly 50 years since it was created, NCHM today is staying true to the mission given in Executive Order #11668. We continue to “…provide objective and independent leadership at the national level in helping meet the Nation’s housing management and training needs…”.

We are the only organization mandated by the President of the United States to professionalize the housing management industry. As the ultimate resource for knowledge, status, and credibility, owners and managers count on us to keep them ahead of the curve on complex regulations and industry best practices. We professionalize people and organizations, making them more valuable and effective.