Industry News

By Shelterforce

Organizations

Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDCo), a Bronx, NY-based non-profit organization, has won the 15th Annual Charles L. Edson Tax Credit Excellence Award in Green Housing for WHEDCo’s new Intervale Green, the largest affordable multi-family ENERGY STAR-certified building in the country. WHEDCo was nominated for the award by the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC), which along with its sister agency, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), provided financial support to the building. The Edson Award, presented by the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition goes to low-income housing tax credit properties in six categories: Metropolitan; Rural; Special Needs; Senior; Green; and Public Housing Revitalization. A panel of five judges selected six first place and seven honorable mentions from 40 applications submitted from 19 states.

People

The Urban Land Institute announced in August that Patrick L. Phillips, the President and Chief Executive Officer of ERA AECOM (formerly Economics Research Associates), has been selected as the land use organization’s new Chief Executive Officer. Phillips is taking over the position being vacated by current ULI CEO Richard M. Rosan, who held the post for over 17 years. Phillips, 52, is a ULI trustee with a career in the economic analysis of real estate and land use. Phillips has participated on ULI advisory service panels, including the post-Katrina panel in New Orleans and the post-9/11 panel in lower Manhattan. He served as a juror on the ULI Hines Student Urban Design Competition, and as a member of the Urban Development/Mixed-Use Council, the Program Committee, and the ULI J.C. Nichols Prize Management Committee.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation announced in October that President and Chief Executive Officer Douglas W. Nelson will step down in April 2010 after two decades of leading the philanthropy. A search process will begin immediately, according to a statement.

Jane Duong has joined National CAPACD as the organization’s National AAPI Housing Program Manager. Duong is a NeighborWorks Certified Housing Counselor, and a Foreclosure Intervention & Default Counselor. She also is a trainer for the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) in pre-purchase counseling and education.

Jasmine Thomas joined the Surdna Foundation in August as a Program Officer. Thomas was previously at the New York Community Trust where she served as a Program Officer in Community Development and the Environment. Thomas has a background in communities, sustainability/environment, and social justice.

Brad Lander, the former director of the Pratt Center for Community Development, who has also written several articles in Shelterforce, won his bid for New York City’s 39th District Council seat, covering the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Lander’s most recent contributions to Shelterforce include “A Very High Stakes Deal” (Winter 2006) on the sale of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in New York City, and “Radical Liberals” (Spring 2008), an essay that examines books by Robert Reich and Robert Kuttner.

Terry Edwards was appointed to serve as Fannie Mae’s new Executive Vice President for Credit Portfolio Management. Edwards, the former President and CEO of PHH Corporation, will be responsible for Fannie Mae’s single-family foreclosure prevention and loss mitigation activities. Edwards will lead the company’s National Servicing Organization, its National Property Disposition Center, and its National Underwriting Center and will execute the Making Home Affordable program, managing real-estate owned and loss mitigation activities.

NHI/Shelterforce remembers Senator Edward Kennedy as a true progressive voice in the United States Senate and a champion for everyone struggling for a better life. He was a friend of working people and the poor, and a tireless fighter for civil rights, health care reform, affordable and fair housing, and worker rights.

Senator Kennedy’s hands were on scores of legislative initiatives, even if his name wasn’t. His successes included his strong support of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the creation of the National Housing Trust Fund in 2008, his support for the Americans with Disabilities Act that prohibits discrimination towards tenants and homeowners with disabilities, and leading the effort to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that strengthens the right of workers to fight pay discrimination.

Published by the National Housing Institute