Kevin Klingbeil engaged with the nation's premier affordable housing providers and funding sources on subjects ranging from the promotion of tribal homeownership to the recent designation of Opportunity Zones to promote investment in low-income communities, including many tribal areas.

Big Water crossed the border to meet with housing staff and distinguished regional chiefs of the Assembly of First Nations to learn more about the unique issues, programs, challenges and opportunities addressed by First Nations leaders and housing providers as well as emerging legislative advancements, financing mechanisms and training and technical assistance programs providing new avenues for community and economic development for Native communities in Canada. 

Big Water staff attended the largest gathering of affordable housing organizations in Washington State, participated in a tour of historic buildings redeveloped into affordable urban housing facilities and learned about the widening gap between the demand for additional affordable housing supply and the development of new affordable rental units, legislation allowing for more efficient use of surplus government land, and other creative mechanisms to promote affordable housing development. 

Kevin Klingbeil delivered the lunchtime keynote speech "Bridging the Gap between Native and Non-Native Communities" on the first full day of the conference, served as a member of a panel entitled "Federal Indian Law: Power to Plan, How They Differ from Local and State Governments," and described a layered data-driven planning perspective in a presentation entitled "Switching Brushes: Integrating Varied Data Sources to Paint a Richer Tribal Planning Picture."