With a multifamily career spanning decades, Julie Smith is leveraging her experience to tackle the nation’s housing supply challenges and advance industrywide innovation as she starts her two-year term as chair of the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) chair.
“As I begin my term as chair, the focus of my energy will be defined by innovation, transparency, and conviction. We are building upon decades of a steadfast and unwavering commitment to quality rental housing by our members, resulting in a record of sustained residential excellence,” she says. “And we are doing so at a time when housing has never been more important. For our industry and for our country, this is a pivotal moment. We will do our best to ensure the public understands and values the essential role multifamily housing plays in meeting the nation’s need for high-quality, environmentally efficient, and affordable homes.”
Smith, who is the chief administrative officer and operating partner at Bozzuto, started at the firm a year after it was founded and is bringing that expertise to her new role.
“Like most startups, you learn to do absolutely everything. I have a good foundational understanding of how development works and how properties get built. I certainly understand operations because of my building experience and leading our management company. And in my current role, I oversee strategy, technology, marketing, and communications,” she says. “I understand the challenges and feel that I have come into this role with a solid understanding of our industry.”
NMHC president Sharon Wilson Géno says Smith’s hands-on experience as a rental housing provider makes her effective when talking with policymakers about housing solutions that work for both housers and renters.
“Now is the time to capitalize on the attention being paid to housing by driving home effective policy proposals and working to evolve the perception of rental housing providers among the general public, renters, and voters,” adds Wilson Géno.
As chair, Smith will continue to further NMHC’s work on housing policy and addressing the affordability crisis. She notes this is a pivotal moment for the industry with housing being front and center.
“I had the privilege of testifying before Congress in December on behalf of NMHC and NAA [National Apartment Association]. A key takeaway was that members of Congress agree that housing supply is the problem. We don’t have enough of it, and it takes too long and is too expensive to build. This has become a bipartisan sentiment,” she says. “This presents an incredible opportunity for our industry to work with lawmakers and policymakers to advance housing supply, particularly affordable housing. I believe this is an important moment for our industry.”
Innovation also is a priority for Smith.
“Innovation is critical because we are a consumer-facing industry and our customers’ needs and wants change over time. Our residents expect their housing experience to mirror their preferred retail or travel experience,” she shares. “We have to double down on innovation and ensure that the technologies that we are implementing are not only going to benefit the consumer but exceed their expectations.”
She says technology advancements are moving at break-neck speed, with more pressure on multifamily stakeholders to determine their right journey. NMHC saw this happening and launched the Real Estate Technology & Transformation Center at the end of 2024 to tackle the technical issues the industry is facing, such as data privacy, cybersecurity, fee transparency, and artificial intelligence.
“It was timely to create RETTC, and I believe it is going to help us rapidly advance innovation in the overall multifamily housing industry,” she adds.
Smith says another change she is seeing in the industry is the transition of leadership to the next generation, and NMHC is reinforcing efforts to prepare members for future roles.
“My personal experience as a NMHC member helped to prepare me for all of the roles I have held, and I think that is an important benefit to members,” she says. “We are putting an emphasis on programming that allows our next-gen members to continue to build their leadership skills as well as their professional networks within NMHC. We believe, as a membership organization that we can provide a platform for future leaders to continue to grow and prepare for future leadership positions.”
She shares that she loves how much longevity is in the multifamily housing business, seeing members who have spent decades building companies, careers and contributing to NMHC and the industry as a whole, thus creating a continuum of leadership and expertise.
“Anything NMHC can do to support our members’ leadership transitions and overall succession plans benefits both the organization and the long-term health of the industry,” Smith adds.