Pittston Mayor Lombardo participates in housing advisory group in Washington, D.C.

PITTSTON — City Mayor Michael Lombardo was invited to participate as an advisory group member in the National League of Cities’ America’s Housing Comeback leadership table in Washington, D.C.

America’s Housing Comeback Advisory Group is for housing policy leaders and innovators in the public and private sectors to meet the moment for housing together.

As a member of the Advisory Group, Lombardo is asked to participate in up to four convening meetings of the America’s Housing Comeback Advisory, participate in working group meetings of the America’s Housing Comeback Advisory, and co-develop and adopt the America’s Housing Comeback Advisory Group principles for federal-local partnerships and public-private partnerships, as well as a federal housing supply agenda.

Over 3,000 mayors across the U.S., along with other municipality officials, attended the conference in Washington.

NLC President Mayor Steve Patterson of Athens, Ohio, has appointed Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C., and Mayor Mark Shepherd of Clearfield, Utah, to co-chair the new initiative.

Joining Lombardo on the Advisory Group board were: Bowser; Shepherd; Mayor Alyia Gaskins, Alexandria, Va.; Tiffany Thomas, council member, Houston, Texas; Mayor Paul Young, Memphis, Tenn.; Mayor Corey Woods, Tempe, Ariz.; and Mayor Angela Birney, Redmond, Wash.

“What the Comeback Advisory Group is to come up with strategies now so that you can get results, Lombardo said. “So we’re going to meet a couple of times this year and our opening conversations at this conference were really good. We did it like a round table.”

Lombardo enjoyed his experience on the big stage, even chairing one of the sessions, being able to showcase the City of Pittston to large and small towns and cities all over the country.

“There’s mayors from all over the country that are doing really cool stuff and the cool thing is that I guess they think we are too (in Pittston),” Lombardo said. “I had a chance to talk a bit housing and about the revenue share we did and everybody was impressed with that.”

“You know, it was interesting because the more opportunities we have, and when I say we, I mean I represent the city, and I have the chance to get it out there,” Lombardo added. “Being invited to a big stage like NCL just puts the northeast on the map. It gives us credibility to us and it puts the City of Pittston on the map.”

Mayor Lombardo walked away from the series of meetings with a new perspective.

“One takeaway from the conference is we need to look at some new forms of funding for some of our programs,” Lombardo added. “My other big takeaway was that the whole country is sort of in the same position we are in terms of housing. There is a demand across the board. But it’s interesting to be in a place where there are a lot of cities that have old housing stock like us.”

While in Washington, D.C., Mayor Lombardo had a chance to visit with childhood friend, Congressman and House majority leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana’s 1st congressional district.

In Lombardo’s early years, his father, Dr. Joseph Lombardo, was drafted into the military. He was stationed in New Orleans, where the Lombardo family lived across the street from the Scalise family. It was there that the Mayor and Scalise became friends.

In addition to meeting with Congressman Scalise, Mayor Lombardo had meetings with State Sen. John Fetterman’s office and State Sen. Dave McCormick.