Recently, Citi hosted a meeting with members of the Partnership for New York City for a presentation by the McKinsey Global Institute to address the massive and growing global affordable housing shortfall. Invited participants included key academics, New York City government officials, major commercial and residential developers, and local affordable housing advocates. To kick start the discussion, senior McKinsey partners presented a recent study the Institute conducted on the affordability challenge. Of the many telling findings, perhaps the most important was also the most basic: affordable housing is infrastructure, a key component, not unlike power grids or transportation networks, of regional economic development strategies. Indeed, I would go a step further and say that the intelligent integration of infrastructure - including core assets like affordable housing, energy grids, retail services, education and healthcare facilities, and safe public spaces - fundamentally impacts the livability and desirability of modern communities.