Thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to be with you today and to join you for this important discussion.
I am David Brown. I am the executive vice-president and chief preservation officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. The national trust is a non-profit organization, or charity, chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1949 to protect significant places representing America's diverse cultural experience, by taking direct action and inspiring broad public support.
I'm going to highlight today, from the non-profit point of view, a few key elements of the American preservation experience, which I hope will be helpful to you as you consider roles for the federal government in supporting the conservation of Canada's rich and diverse heritage.
First, I think it's important to note how our concept of historic preservation and heritage conservation in the U.S. has broadened over the past five or six decades, from a handful of iconic architectural masterpieces preserved in amber to vibrant cities and towns, where a wide of range of older and historic buildings are keys to reuse, reinvestment, and revitalization, as we've just heard from our first witness.
In the 1960s, as much of America looked to the future and the frontiers of space and dreamt of a better tomorrow, our national past seemed not a road map for the future but really a burden that had to be overcome. When Jane Jacobs, a visionary important to both Americans and Canadians, wrote in 1961 that communities “need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them”, she was stating a position that was completely at odds with the prevailing belief in urban planning circles at the time. But after many years of hard work, we've reached a different consensus. The virtues of saving and reusing older places are now much more broadly recognized in the U.S. Time and again, preservation has proven an invaluable tool in spurring economic growth, meeting critical social needs, and bringing communities together.
We've seen that change, due to strong collaborations among our federal, state, and local governments, the non-profit sector, and millions of private citizens and business interests. That's my first point for you today. Our work to save the places that matter to our citizens is successful when our government sector collaborates with and supports private sector efforts. Your National Trust for Canada is helping to promote that type of successful collaboration.
A second point I want to make is that our understanding of our diverse American past has been tremendously broadened and enriched over the past five decades, informed by new generations of scholars and continuing struggles for racial and social justice. As one of our pre-eminent historians, David McCullough, put it, “History is no longer a spotlight. We are turning up the stage lights to show the entire cast”. We no longer focus just on places built by one economic class and one segment of our population. We work hard to hear, understand, and honour the full diversity of the ever-evolving American story.
Our understanding of the impact of preservation on American life today is enhanced by the use of increasingly accessible data about cities, where we can explore the connections between the physical character of urban development and a range of economic, social, and environmental outcomes. Our Atlas of ReUrbanism took this data from the 50 largest American cities and found that communities that support dense, socially diverse, architecturally rich, and transit-connected neighbourhoods, with a strong mix of older buildings, are supporting resilient local economies, affordable neighbourhoods that work for everyone, and a distinctiveness that is a real market advantage in today's workforce.
The data reveals that there are more jobs in small businesses and more jobs in new businesses in older mixed-use and commercial areas of communities than you find in areas with a preponderance of new construction. Older, smaller, mixed-aged buildings support more women- and minority-owned businesses than are found in areas with a preponderance of new construction. These areas tend to have more units of affordable housing, as the older stock serves as unsubsidized naturally affordable housing. They're also home to a more diverse population, reflecting the demographic changes that we're seeing in our country and you're also seeing in Canada.
Smart cities and towns across America are looking at how older and historic buildings can provide both a market advantage and the types of vibrant places that are increasingly attractive to millennials and empty-nesting baby boomers.
How are these places supported by our federal government in the U.S.?
First, there's a decades-long grants program called the historic preservation fund, which is used to support preservation activities in all 50 states and within certified local governments. It's authorized at $150 million annually, and it supports both grants and the government programs for preservation.
Second, a review process is designed to ensure that we look at the impacts of government-funded and licenced programs on places of historic significance all across the government.
Third, the United States has had incentives in place through the federal tax code since 1976 to encourage the private sector to rehabilitate and reuse historic properties today and into the future. The federal historic tax credits, often paired with state historic tax credits, have had a remarkable impact in saving historic places.
Each year, Rutgers University looks at the impacts of the historic tax credits, and the analysis really speaks for itself. Since inception, the historic tax credit has been used by the private sector to rehabilitate more than 42,000 historic buildings nation-wide, create 2.4 million jobs, and spur $131 billion of private capital investment. I think, most importantly, the Rutgers' analysis has found that it returns between $1.20 and $1.25 to the federal government for every dollar invested through the tax credit.
The historic tax credit is the key way that our federal government encourages private investment in the rehabilitation of historic buildings. The credit attracts private capital to revitalize often abandoned and underperforming properties that have a financing gap between what banks will lend and the total development cost of the transaction. Incentives such as this can be adapted to provide targeted and timely economic help to areas with special needs. For example, the historic tax credit was temporarily increased to help rebuild New Orleans after hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Finally, these incentives benefit local communities, especially our nation's rural and urban core areas. Over 40% of the projects financed in the last 15 years were in communities with populations of fewer than 25,000 people.
Fifty years ago, when historic places were being lost and destroyed across the U.S. with virtually no consideration of their importance to communities, the drafters of our National Historic Preservation Act envisioned a future where historic places are a living part of community life, and we see that happening now.
As we look to the future here in the U.S., we want to find partners and tools that can help us empower people to tell their stories and engage in saving the places that matter to them. We see preservation as playing an increasingly important role in creating sustainable, resilient, equitable, and livable communities.
Thank you very much.