You choose the winners for our Readers’ Choice Awards
By Andre Shashaty
|
. The voting link is on each of the project pages. For a list of the projects, go here. |
(Affordable Housing Finance, August 2005) — There are numerous awards programs for affordable housing projects, but most of them rely on panels of judges to choose the winners. You never really know why a particular project was chosen or how many projects were entered.
At Affordable Housing Finance magazine, we think the best authorities on what makes for a winning project are you – the people who finance them and build them. That’s why we’re asking AHF readers to choose the winners of our competition.
In this issue, Affordable Housing Finance is proud to present the finalists in the competition for our 2005 “Readers’ Choice Awards for the Nation’s Best Affordable Housing Developments.”
Check out our finalists (listed here). The articles include much of the application material the finalists submitted, and we've added some more financial information that didn't fit into the print article. We also have included a link on each article to a PDF of the actual nomination form.
Then tell us which property you think should be selected as the best in each category and the best overall. We can accept votes only over this Web site, and not by phone, mail or fax. Feel free to use the link on the voting page to send us any comments about the projects you're voting for -- why they should win, what is interesting about them to you, or any other thoughts you have on them. We'll include some voter comments in our upcoming coverage. Online voting ends Monday, Sept. 12.
Winners will be announced at AHF Live: The 2005 Tax Credit Developers’ Summit, which takes place Oct. 24 to 26 at the Hilton Chicago. We will also report on the winners in our November issue.
There are 35 finalists in the following eight categories.
- Family Projects
- Homeownership Projects
- Master-Planned Communities
- Rehab Projects
- Rural/Farmworker Projects
- Seniors Projects
- Special Needs/SRO Projects
- Urban Projects
We received more than 150 entries and narrowed the field down to these 35 finalists based on several factors. Projects had to have been completed in 2004 or scheduled for completion by the end of 2005, and the housing was required to have income restrictions for residents or buyers.
We then selected properties that appeared to have one or more of the following characteristics or effects:
- Have a major impact in the community by adding substantially to the affordable housing stock or improving the immediate social or economic fabric;
- Is a catalyst for community revitalization or social change;
- Addresses a major unmet need;
- Sets a new standard or pioneers a new method (taps new funding sources; demonstrates new efficiency in capital costs and/or maintenance/operating costs, etc.);
- Employs superior or unusual design and/or construction, including energy efficiency and sustainable development;
- Offers outstanding social services for tenants;
- Got broad community support, including collaboration by business and civic institutions in development and operation (in addition to government support);
- Received special recognition by the community and residents;
- Demonstrates creative problem-solving.
We did not assess how difficult it was for a project to get community approval (such as overcoming NIMBYism) because we see this as a normal obstacle confronting almost every affordable housing project.
We also did not consider development and construction costs and the efficiency of subsidy use because this would have required more in-depth analysis than we could undertake.
Affordable Housing Finance is always looking for interesting affordable housing projects.
Let us know if you’re working on a noteworthy project, or know someone who is, by contacting our managing editor, Christine Serlin, at christine@housingfinance.com.
|
