Lawyer Paul Compton continues to work on affordable housing
Although he has lived in Mountain Brook for several years, J. Paul Compton knows what it is like to grow up in a far less affluent community.
Compton is from Georgiana, a small town in southern Alabama. The 2019 census estimates that there are just over 1,600 residents living with an average household income of $ 29,432 – an increase from previous years. The sight of its neighbors in shoddy housing has put Compton on a lifelong path to correcting such inequalities.
“Growing up in Butler County has a lot of substandard housing and a lot of needs,” said Compton. “I have a poster that a friend gave me a few years ago that says, ‘Life is not worth living without a home. ‘And I think that at the heart of quality of life is really good, decent, safe and affordable housing. “
Perhaps the best-known move Compton took to ensure affordable housing was when he was appointed former General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2018 to 2020. But it was neither his first nor his last step in that direction.
Even now, having resumed private law practice in Birmingham, Compton recently became a member of the Washington, DC-based Housing Advisory Council of the Bipartisan Policy Center and also serves as the external general counsel of the Alabama Affordable Housing Association (AHA). Compton, former state chairman of the American Bar Association’s Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development, heads the Compton Jones Dresher law firm, which also gives him the opportunity to work with banks to improve housing conditions.
“I was fortunate in my early career to see where this could be a win-win-win solution for financial institutions that could invest in affordable housing, for the developers who need to run their business, and for most of the others all for families who had a far better place to live than usual, ”he said.
A very Brady start
Compton wanted to become an architect from an early age – inspired by his father’s career at The Brady Bunch. “And then I realized I couldn’t draw,” he said. Then he turned to the law.
After graduating from the University of Alabama and then from the University of Virginia School of Law, Compton worked for one of the best-known law firms in Birmingham, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, in 1989. Eventually Compton became a partner in the law firm where he worked on housing issues, advising financial institutions on investments in affordable housing and community development projects.
Then he was tapped to join the Trump administration, where he stayed for almost three years.
Compton said he enjoyed his time at HUD – under a Trump official whose public image has suffered. “It was great. I got in touch with Ben Carson directly,” Compton said. “Secretary Carson, he’s a great guy. He’s one of the few people I met in Washington who played a public role [and] his public persona and who he is are really the same. Someone who is thoughtful but has beliefs about what they believe and was really trying to do the right thing. “
Compton’s tenure as General Counsel spanned 2020, when the nation was hit by the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to working with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through the Federal Housing Administration to set moratoriums on eviction and foreclosure as the economy went under, HUD has also led a period of extraordinary growth in the number of home loans in processing, Compton said.
“HUD makes more than $ 1 billion in multi-family loans every month,” said Compton. “And HUD is the largest minority lender in the United States through FHA single-family mortgages. …
“When the pandemic hit we went from a clumsy, old-fashioned model of government where most people had to show up in a conference room and sign a few papers, to – within two or three weeks – we pushed it all out, to get it from everyone Place where the lawyers lived. “
The result was: “At a time when things were in a good mess, this process not only continued at the previous pace, but also more quickly,” he said.
The need for affordable housing is not just limited to Alabama or the traditionally poorer states, he said. “This is really a problem across the country, and I really saw that when I was at the HUD,” he said.
In Alabama, Compton, working with AHA, can make a positive impact on the state of housing by “letting banks know that investing in and lending affordable housing is both good business and good for their community. And that’s one side. On the flip side, developers, especially in the nonprofit sector, are taught that the way to get a project out there is not to say, “Hey, give me $ 2 million and I’ll build something.” Rather, it’s about coming up with a business plan and approach that combines and leverages resources to achieve more. “
“AHA is a strong advocate of how affordable housing is for economic development,” said Compton.
He said, “To be honest, building the houses is an economic development in itself. It brings probably more than $ 100 million to the Alabama economy every year just on the job site. “
Since leaving the government, Compton has continued to work with the Housing Advisory Council at the federal level to develop measures that “address the urgent housing needs of COVID-19 Americans, improve housing opportunities, and maintain and build affordable homes.” a March press release of his appointment.
The housing crisis and pandemic are having an impact on the future of work that could potentially affect Birmingham and its bedroom communities, Compton said.
“I think there is going to be a pretty big rethink about where people have to live to work,” he said. “When we think about it, cities like Birmingham can be real winners. Whether it’s JP Morgan Chase, Google, or PriceWaterhouseCoopers, they all have figured out that they don’t need Manhattan office space to get their jobs done. I would see a lot more opportunities for someone working for Google to live in Homewood. “
Return home
When he left HUD, Compton was happy to return to Mountain Brook, the house he and his wife Dana had moved to on Montevallo Road in 1990.
“My wife and I – we’re old-fashioned. We moved into our house on Montevallo Road on New Years Day 1990 and the house is now 86 years old and it’s the Compton house because we lived there longer than anyone, ”he said. It was there that the Comptons raised their three children, all of whom were Mountain Brook Schools graduates. Their eldest daughter is a nursing director at a hospital in Ft. Worth, Texas, her son is “an aspiring real estate developer,” and their youngest daughter recently joined the University of Alabama law school.
After “living a city life” in DC, he said he was “pleased to be back. I’m really glad I did, but I’m really glad to be back. It’s the old story: until you’ve been home, you don’t necessarily appreciate all good things, ”he said.
When he returned to Birmingham, he set up his new smaller law firm near Pepper Place.
“I spent 29 years at Bradley Arant and I have fond memories and good friends there,” he said. However, the smaller company has distinct advantages. “It’s really the opportunity to do the things I love to do … I can work on the projects I love to do, and that’s really that interface between community banks and affordable housing.”
One project to watch out for: He’s working on an Alabama tax credit that would “really spur a lot of affordable housing for little money on the big scale,” he said. “If I were in a big company, I’d have to ask people if I could spend 100 hours on it. I don’t have to negotiate with anyone about that. “
He also said his company was working on other real estate and community development work, including “projects backed by historical tax credits.” There are a few upcoming projects – the caliber of the Lyric Theater and the redevelopment of Pizitz – that people will look forward to and that “will be good for the community,” he said.
Compton said projects like this were just some of the opportunities he got by returning home. “I am blessed,” he said. “That’s why I did what I did: to do things that are so fun.”
