For the first time in its 75-year history, the National Association of Home Builders has a Connecticut-based member running the show, and his focus on affordable housing has garnered attention from President Donald Trump.

Attorney Gregory Ugalde, president and chief legal officer at Torrington-based T&M Building Co., has worked in the housing industry for the past 25 years, including nearly 20 as a member of the NAHB board. On assuming the role of chairman in February, he announced the theme of his term would be housing affordability, a subject that has taken him to communities in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, including three recent trips to the White House.

An active Democrat, Ugalde said his mission to improve affordable housing in Connecticut and across the country transcends party affiliation and has received strong support from the White House, including an executive order signed by Trump on June 25 directing federal agencies to ease housing regulations. Ugalde was among those in attendance for the signing in the Oval Office.

“This is a president who is really opening his doors to us,” Ugalde said in an interview Wednesday. “The administration really believes in getting housing for Americans under control.”

In addition to meetings at the White House, Ugalde meets regularly with U.S. legislators and calls Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, a close friend. He also was in attendance during the recent Democratic presidential debates in Detroit. “We are really picking up our message, because part of what’s going to keep this country moving and improving economically is to make sure our workforce is housed properly and affordably. People’s well-being starts with the American dream of home ownership and living properly.”

Synchronous with the mission to improve affordable housing is a workforce development initiative that Ugalde says is crucial the NAHB’s success. “President Trump started a workforce training program a year ago and already has pledges from 330 companies to train 12 million young people” in housing-related trades, Ugalde said. “The NAHB has pledged to train 50,000 people.”

Keeping up with housing issues across the country involves maintaining a network of real estate and development lawyers, Ugalde noted, along with regular attendance at closings for new homes. This week he reviewed three amicus briefs headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and he emcees an annual land use conference for the NAHB. “A huge part of the role is communicating what we have going on for our industry,” he said.

A graduate of Catholic University Law School in Washington, D.C., Ugalde began his career as an associate at the old Hartford firm Schatz & Schatz, Ribicoff & Kotkin, working with residential and commercial land-use clients. Over the years, he has served on the HOMEConnecticut Steering Committee, the National Land Use Attorneys Network and the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Affordable Housing. His work at T&M Building has included building houses and closing deals on more than 4,000 homes across the state for trade-up and first-time home buyers.

“I always talk about the importance of doing the closings, because it sets up such a nice experience for our buyers,” Ugalde said. “I do land use work and bonding, contracts and public offering statements. There is some crossover into corporate law, and family and business planning. With everything you touch upon, you have to keep your skills sharp across the board.” That includes maintaining memberships in the Connecticut and Massachusetts bars.

In his home town of Burlington, Ugalde serves on the Inland Wetlands and Parks and Recreation commissions, along with the board of the Avon-Canton-Farmington Youth Hockey Association. He and his wife Mary-Jane, who is Burlington’s town clerk, have four children, two of whom are also attorneys.

If and when the NAHB is successful in its mission to improve affordable housing across the country, Ugalde said, he believes Connecticut will see direct benefits. “I really do see a rebound in our future,” he said. “It’s become tough to predict when exactly we’re going to see that, but without a doubt we will be able to turn around not only our economy, but the fate of small businesses and our housing market. I’m very confident of that. Connecticut has far too many positive features and strengths to think that we’re not going to succeed in the long term.”