Former Executive Director of the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency
Date Recorded:
March 24, 2020
Interviewed by:
Michael Cai
Robert Kucab served as Executive Director of the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency from 1987 to 2017. Throughout his career, he managed local and state affordable housing programs in Michigan, Idaho, and North Carolina. Kucab started his career working with residential mortgages as a city planner in Flint, Michigan, before establishing the Flint Neighborhood Improvement and Preservation Project, a nonprofit committed to improving housing conditions through home repair, home maintenance, and community organizing. Kucab then served as the executive director at the Idaho Housing Agency. Afterwards, he moved to the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency in 1987. In his work with state housing finance agencies, Kucab helped establish tax-exempt bonds, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, and the federal HOME Program to finance single family homes for first time buyers and develop affordable apartments for renters in Idaho and North Carolina. During his 30-year tenure with the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, Kucab helped to establish a state housing trust fund, a state housing credit, and a rent subsidy program for persons with disabilities. Kucab holds degrees from Eastern Michigan University and Wayne State University.
In this letter and report to the Joint Legislative Committee on Governmental Operations, Kucab describes the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency’s expenditures on developing the N.C. Foreclosure Prevention Fund– which helps unemployed N.C. workers avoid foreclosures while they search or re-train for employment. The Agency’s report following Kucab’s letter goes into further detail about the NCHFA’s commitment and actions to help homeowners and mortgage market consumers.
In this profile by the Wake County branch of Habitat for Humanity, Kucab’s career and extensive experience in affordable housing and foreclosure prevention in North Carolina is celebrated preceding his retirement in 2017.
In this article by WUNC, Kucab is quoted regarding the reasons why affordable housing in North Carolina has grown more and more scarce. He argues that housing costs have risen faster than incomes over the previous decades.