Rollins Square, a 184-unit mixed-income housing development in Boston’s South End, was one of the communities that delegates and elected officials saw on a bus tour that was part of the festivities at last week’s Democratic National Convention. The project was completed by the Planning Office for Urban Affairs, which is affiliated with the Archdiocese of Boston.

Health care, terrorism and jobs may have been most prominent on the agenda at last week’s Democratic National Convention, but some delegates and lobbyists also had housing on their minds.

Interest in housing issues was displayed at various points throughout the four-day convention, surfacing in diverse forums such as receptions, ad campaigns and a panel discussion featuring housing experts. A highlight was a bus tour hosted by Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and U.S. Rep. Michael E. Capuano that took delegates and elected officials through city neighborhoods to see examples of housing and commercial developments that have helped revitalize communities.

The tour showcased parts of the South End and Roxbury, Dorchester’s Grove Hall, the Blue Hill Avenue corridor and Jamaica Plain’s Egleston Square. Among the developments highlighted was Rollins Square, an award-winning development of 184 housing units that was completed last year by the Planning Office for Urban Affairs, a nonprofit developer affiliated with the Archdiocese of Boston. The $65 million project includes a mix of low-income rental units for formerly homeless people, moderate-income homes designed for first-time buyers, and market-rate condos that sell for up to $750,000.

Some delegates said they were impressed by the mixed-income and mixed-use developments they saw.

“What impressed me is the use of Â… so many different resources to get these projects done,” said Lois J. Frankel, a Florida delegate who is the mayor of West Palm Beach.

Frankel also expressed interest in the developments that included housing for people with different income levels. “We’ve been discussing that and we’re about to actually do a project that also will have some mixed-income. That’s something that we really haven’t tried at all,” she said. “This is very interesting to me. I’ll be able to take all this information and give it to my staff to contact the people here.”

New York Delegate Bea Gonzales was intrigued with the Boston communities she saw. “I’m jealous,” said Gonzales, who is Syracuse’s City Council president and associate dean of University College at Syracuse University. “We’re still struggling with trying to come up with a vision for our community, particularly in neighborhoods that have been neglected for a very long time.”

Gonzales said Syracuse made some mistakes during the past in allocating funding that was provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for commercial development projects and the city is now paying for them.

The bus tour was intended to showcase successful strategies that were used to develop affordable housing and revitalize public housing, as well as spotlight projects completed by the city’s community-based development groups, according to Aaron Gornstein, executive director of the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, one of five sponsors of the tour. It also displayed city and state support of affordable housing and the need for federal funding, he said.

Hours after the tour, Menino, delegates and congressional leaders joined together to work on a Habitat for Humanity project called Blue Hill Place, which will feature 22 single-family homes and retail space along Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester.

Realtors Rally

Housing was also front-and-center at a three-hour reception organized by the National Association of Realtors, the Mortgage Bankers Association, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the National Association of Home Builders. The bash, which took place Tuesday at the Boston Harbor Hotel and reportedly cost $100,000, drew hundreds of professionals in the housing and mortgage lending industries, as well as congressional leaders and delegates. Earlier in the day, members of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and NAR, along with Democratic leaders, participated in a golf tournament and lobster bake in Quincy.

NAR and MAR leaders also squeezed in time to meet with the state’s congressional delegation last week to push their agenda. Realtors have continually pressed for legislation that would prohibit banks from entering real estate brokerage and property management. They support the Community Choice in Real Estate Act, which would keep banks out of real estate, but the measure has not moved forward.

Spurred by a recent federal regulatory ruling by the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that exempts national banks from all state real estate lending rules, Realtors are rallying against what they call “aggressive rulemaking by activist regulators” and asking Congress to promulgate legislation to address that.

They’re also supportive of a homeownership tax cut for developers who build or renovate affordable single-family homes.

Also last week, the National Association of Home Builders launched a series of advertisements to increase their visibility at both the Democratic and Republican national conventions and to elevate housing as a national priority.

Meanwhile, some local housing advocates made it clear that they are backing democratic presidential candidate John Kerry because they believe he has a strong record of supporting housing programs, particularly programs that help people with low incomes.

“We know that John Kerry has been a leader in housing for many years. And so we can be quite confident [that] with John Kerry as president, the federal housing policy will be reinvigorated in a way we haven’t seen for quite some time,” said Joseph Kriesberg, president of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.

The Bush administration boasts about efforts that have boosted homeownership nationwide. Bush also has supported a campaign to end chronic homelessness and has encouraged cities and states to develop 10-year plans to end homelessness. But Bush critics argue that while the current administration has focused on homeownership programs and initiatives that help mostly moderate-income households, it has virtually ignored and slashed programs that help poor people. Some groups have said the administration has done very little for rental housing.

“I can’t imagine that any administration would be worse for housing than the Bush administration,” Evelyn Friedman, executive director of Nuestra Comunidad Development Corp., a community-based development group in Roxbury.

Friedman and other affordable housing advocates – along with Kerry and other politicians – have been critical of the Bush administration’s efforts to cut and change the federal Section 8 housing voucher program, which helps low-income people pay rents at market-rate apartments. Advocates fear that Bush’s budget proposal to cut the program by more than $1.6 billion will mean that 250,000 families that currently receive assistance will be dropped from the program in coming years.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recently reported that changes in federal policy have resulted in funding shortfalls for the Section 8 housing program, forcing pubic housing agencies to reduce the amount of assistance they provide to tenants and the number of people they help. Boston has already felt the sting of such changes. Projects being developed by community-based groups have faced delays, while an affordable housing development designed for families in Dorchester’s Codman Square saw its income generation drop by about $15,000 after the Section 8 assistance to tenants was reduced.

“I think just what they’re doing with HUD [and] Section 8 right now Â… it’s terrible,” said Friedman. “It’s not just terrible for developers like us, and nonprofit developers, but it’s terrible for individual homeowners who have Â… tenants with Section 8 vouchers in their properties, because they’re depending on those incomes, depending on those Section 8 rents.”

Kerry has opposed the administration’s rollback of housing initiatives designed to help low-income people. While in office, he has also helped shape public housing reform legislation and has been a supporter of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. He has also pushed to establish a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund that would provide a lasting source of funding for rental housing development.