NEWS HEADLINES

Exciting and Inspiring Times

By Christine Serlin

This is an exciting time of year for us at AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE. We're in the process of judging the Readers' Choice entries to determine the nation's best affordable housing developments of 2007-2008. Times are challenging, but developers nationwide are finding ways to create affordable housing that is helping to revitalize neighborhoods and to serve such diverse populations. These are really impressive stories, and we can't wait to share the finalists with you in the August issue.

We have also recently named our 2008 Affordable Housing Hall of Fame inductees. These five individuals have worked tirelessly over the years for the affordable housing industry and are well-deserving of this honor. These inductees will be honored at a luncheon at the conclusion of AHF Live: The 2008 Tax Credit Developers’ Summit Nov. 5-7 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. We will feature profiles of the inductees over the coming issues.

• June: Conrad Egan, president and CEO of the National Housing Conference
• July: The late Clara Fox, founder of the Settlement Housing Fund
• September: U.S. Rep. Barney Frank
• October: Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies
• November: Carla Hills, former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE created its Affordable Housing Hall of Fame in 2006 to recognize outstanding achievement in the industry. But we also thought it was time to start recognizing the hard work of the next generation of the affordable housing industry. We solicited nominations at the end of 2007 and early 2008 for individuals under the age of 40 who are making contributions to the affordable housing industry. We received a positive response and nominations for extremely talented and dedicated individuals who care about the industry during work hours and after hours.

We selected 15 of these individuals as Affordable Housing Finance’s 2008 Young Leaders. You’ll see their stories in the coming issues of AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE. We hope these individuals will be as inspiring to you as they were to us.

2008 Young Leaders:

Jennifer Daughtrey
Development Project Manager
Foundation Communities
Austin, Texas

Diep Do
Director of Housing Development
Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp.
San Francisco, Calif.

Greg Gossard
Principal
Hampstead Development Group, Inc.
San Diego, Calif.

Nicholas M. Gesue
Senior Vice President
Lancaster Pollard Mortgage Co.
Columbus, Ohio

Lisa Graphenteen
Community Development Director
Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership
Slayton, Minn.

Matthew S. Greer
CEO
Carlisle Development Group
Coconut Grove, Fla.

Chris Hite
Acquisitions Director and Legal Counsel
Sugar Creek Realty, LLC
St. Louis, Mo.

Warren F. Horvath
Chief Investment Officer
The Community Development Trust
New York, N.Y.

Jeff Jallo
Principal
Hampstead Development Group, Inc.
San Diego, Calif.

Monique S. Johnson
Community Housing Officer
Virginia Housing Development Authority
Richmond, Va.

Jeremy Chi-Ming Liu
Executive Director
Asian Community Development Corp.
Boston, Mass.

Ben Metcalf
Project Manager
BRIDGE Housing
San Francisco, Calif.

Ron Orgel
Co-Founder and Managing Director
Phoen ix Realty Group, LLC
New York, N.Y.

Michael A. Torreyson
Supervisory Project Manager
Department of Housing and Urban Development Charleston Field Office
Charleston, W.Va.

Thomas Yu
Director of Housing Development
Downtown Manhattan Community Development Corp.
(Affiliate of Asian Americans For Equality)
New York, N.Y.

The nomination process for the 2009 Young Leaders will open at the end of the 2008. Please check back to www.housingfinance.com later in the year for more information. Or e-mail me at cserlin@hanleywood.com if you have any questions or suggestions.