Members say a lot about an organization, as well as its leadership. Since the West Tennessee Homebuilders Association was chartered in 1945, it has served this region and the surrounding areas by providing affordable housing, an established network of builders and subcontractors, and notable, numerous charitable contributions. The organization is currently celebrating its 75th anniversary, but decisions by recent and current leadership in the last 20 years provide a blueprint for how the organization will be successful for at least another 75.
WTNHBA at the Turn of the 21st Century
Mark Billingsley
From the start, the WTNHBA had been intentional with its philanthropic efforts — no surprise for an organization that counts Holiday Inns founder Kemmons Wilson among its charter members. However, the organization doubled down on its service-oriented goals around the turn of the twenty-first century. Mark Billingsley, who in the late 1990s worked with United Cerebral Palsy, approached the association about teaming up for a charitable cause. A few years later, in 2001, several past presidents approached him with an offer: become the association’s new executive director.
“I told them, ‘Gentlemen, I don’t know much about real estate and development, but I do know how to run a nonprofit,’ says Billingsley. “And they told me that’s why they wanted me. So I met with Kemmons Wilson, we had a great conversation about housing, and he gave me some great advice.”
“If you look at the leadership, all the way back to the 1940s, there are people that have shaped our community in so many ways.” — Mark Billingsley.
Billingsley, who is now chairman of the Shelby County Commission and vice president for advancement at Christian Brothers University, might have been an unorthodox choice at the time. However, it was an early indicator that the association was prepared to make outside-the-box decisions for a world that would rapidly change both socially and technologically.
The choice paid immediate dividends. “I went to Nashville and Washington a lot to advocate for the dream of home ownership,” he says. “With my background in fundraising and special events, we were generating over $700,000 a year from special events and other things like that. We were building more than a thousand homes a year in Shelby County, which is amazing. We even branched out and created a chapter in Fayette County [Tennessee].”
The association’s scope expanded even farther statewide, all with the goal of improving the quality of homes. According to Billingsley, many counties in Tennessee didn’t require builders to be licensed, so the WTNHBA partnered with several other Tennessee associations to fix that. “If people are going to make the most important investment that they’re going to have in their lives, then builders in every county need to be licensed,” he says. “This was a way to boost professionalism and accountability; we really hold our members to a high standard.”
All the while, Billingsley continued to home in on the charitable side of the WTNHBA. Looking back on his tenure as executive director, he sees giving back as the association’s responsibility, but also something each member is actively willing to support.
“If you look at the leadership, all the way back to the 1940s, there are people that have shaped our community in so many ways,” says Billingsley. “Our members put a lot in, but there’s also something in their spirit about giving back. They appreciate what they do, and they realize that every time someone needs them to build a home, that project provides jobs for many different people.”
Kanette Keogh
WTNHBA’s Role in 2020
While Billingsley saw the possibilities when it came to charitable giving, current executive director Kanette Keough, who is approaching a year on the job, and president John Catmur have made serving West Tennessee a central tenet of the organization. “I would say one of our main focuses now is to keep housing affordable in Tennessee,” Keogh says. “Only about 20 percent of the people who live in Tennessee today can afford the median price of a new home.”
Currently, the cost of a home is higher than it could be due to various codes, which have little to do with the safety of a home and are related mostly to aesthetics. “The National Association of Home Builders says that regulations imposed by all levels of government account for, on average, 32.1 percent of developmental costs,” says Catmur. “The cost of building new homes has driven the median price across Tennessee to $257,000. The annual percentile for Tennessee household income is $93,200, which puts the median house price out of reach for many. That means we’ve been pressed into a marketplace serving only 20 percent of Tennesseans, and that’s something we’re looking to change.”
“Owning a home is the best way for families to accumulate wealth.” — Kanette Keogh
“Some municipalities use [the codes] to control the cost of homes in their own areas, so they can keep property taxes higher,” elaborates Keough. “So we spend a big chunk of our time and resources on advocating for affordable housing.” To help keep costs lower for potential homeowners, the WTNHBA has a strong government affairs committee that works to keep the issue in the minds of government officials and community leaders.
“We help local leaders understand that not all these regulations are bad,” says Catmur, “but when you put a new code on builders, it knocks out people nationwide by every thousand dollars of increase in price.”
John Catmur
Homeownership, in Keough’s mind, is the key to creating a more prosperous Memphis. “If you look at crime rates and success rates, owning a home is the best way for families to accumulate wealth,” she explains. “Families who never have an opportunity to do that are not able to pass that down and let their children inherit anything they’ve earned, and it’s something that really holds communities back.”
Keough remains committed to boosting the Memphis community, but she and the WTNHBA are equally committed to their membership base. “Another good way we can help Memphis is to make sure our members have the resources and benefits to be the best at what they do,” she says. “We keep them up to date with what the newest building trends are, what the latest technology might be.”
Builders, developers, and remodelers make up a third of the membership roster, but the association encompasses so much more. The rest are businesses that support the homebuilding industry, and Keough believes it’s important for them to have a seat at the table. “Anybody that participates in the industry in any way is welcome to join. That might be someone who operates a lighting fixture company, to somebody that owns a mortgage company, or a realtor, an architect, or an interior decorator.”
Eyes on the Future
Don Glays
Affordable housing can provide a major boon to families in Memphis, but first, the right professionals must be in place to build them. And one way to bolster both the home building industry now and in the future iss to train a new generation of builders. The WTNHBA works closely with one such organization to help high school students become job-ready right after graduation. The Tennessee Builders Education Foundation (TBEF), run by former WTNHBA executive director Don Glays, conducts programs throughout the Shelby County and Collierville school systems using a curriculum created by the Home Builders Institute of Tennessee.
“The foundation started in 2018, but we started enacting the curriculum in August 2019,” says Glays. “And we were going strong in that first year. We budgeted for 60 students enrolling in the program, but we ended up with 249 students in Shelby County. We were just overwhelmed by the enthusiasm shown by the schools, students, parents, and guidance counselors.”
“For the youth of Memphis, our program and the job openings mean that they can graduate from high school with a certificate that says they can do a particular skill in a residential environment anywhere in America.” — Don Glays
The TBEF curriculum requires students to display both academic achievement and the necessary knowledge of home building practices. To test the students’ knowledge, Shelby County and Collierville schools decided to have a tiny house competition.
“The students got a chance to experience all the basic skills that they might need if they were on an actual job site,” says Glays. Participants were tasked with building 8x12-foot homes complete with modest electrical and plumbing systems. Before the covid-19 pandemic halted in-person instruction, the plan had been to bring in a panel of professional judges to decide a winner. However, the students still gleaned valuable hands-on experience.
In Glays’ mind, the 249 students are critical to the future of the homebuilding industry. “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 8,000 construction jobs available today,” he says. “The residential industry needs top-notch skilled labor, like framers, plumbers, electricians, finishers, and carpenters. But for the most part, these folks are baby boomers, and they’re aging out. So the average age of a plumber is approaching 60, and in five years, those people might be retired. We’re trying to get a jump on that and create a pipeline of well-trained, dedicated people that can come in and replace that group.”
Glays predicts that there could be as many as 5.2 million construction jobs between now and 2026. In Tennessee today, he says that they could place 1,700 skilled workers on jobs.
“For the youth of Memphis, our program and the job openings mean that they can graduate from high school with a certificate that says they can do a particular skill in a residential environment anywhere in America,” says Glays. “Plus, they can graduate with no debt and jump into a job that could pay up to $45,000 in some cases.”
With the organization’s unwavering focus on affordable housing and efforts to create a new generation of talented workers, the WTNHBA is poised to be successful for another 75 years. “I think that our founders did such a great job of laying the groundwork for this organization,” says Keough. “We’ve really enjoyed the reputation that has built up over the years, and I think ours is a trusted name. I think we really need to continue on this path, staying focused on what our mission is, what our code of ethics is. We live by that. And I think that’s going to be an important part of our success in the future.”
But the future is always changing, something Keough, Catmur, and the association keep in mind. Technology has advanced rapidly in recent years, and the WTNHBA doesn’t want to be caught napping.
“We’ve brought on a lot of new staff members, and we’re in the process of rebranding our presence on social media,” says Catmur. “Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms are a way that we’ll need to connect with Tennesseans.” The organization also recently hired a full-time videographer to create dynamic visual content online. That includes providing basic tutorial videos on activities like painting or window repair. Meanwhile, the annual VESTA Home Show continues to be a showcase of the best work the WTNHBA has to offer.
And as a hectic 2020 edges to a close, the WTNHBA’s sense of unity is stronger than ever. “It’s amazing to me that everyone is so giving with their information,” says Keough. “If you think about it, everyone here is in competition with each other, but everyone is so welcoming to new members. I was president of the [Collierville] Chamber before I came here, and you had a lot of different people representing a lot of different industries. When thinking of advocacy, sometimes they may be on different sides of the fence on an issue. But here at the WTNHBA, everyone’s focused on the same thing.
“At the end of the day,” she continues, “they want our industry to be strong, continue to grow, and continue to provide affordable housing for Memphis and the West Tennessee area. When you have that kind of focus, it’s amazing what can be accomplished.”
