At its 24th annual meeting and awards ceremony, held on May 28, at Boston's Omni Parker House, Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation (MHIC) presented its annual Excellence Awards. MHIC president Joe Flatley and chairman Rusty Aertsen presented the awards at the meeting, attended by more than 250 people.
"It is a pleasure to use this forum to put the spotlight on those who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and who have achieved extraordinary results," said Flatley. "We hold up the work of these individuals and their organizations as models, and to publicly recognize what they have done."
MHIC's "Excellence in Community Development Awards" were presented to:
* The Resource, Inc. (TRI) and its executive director Theresa Malone, "for their work in bringing new capacity to the neighborhoods of New Bedford and Brockton." TRI, a nonprofit community development corporation based in southeastern Massachusetts, worked closely with MHIC with financing under MHIC's Neighborhood Revitalization Loan Fund program - a program established to help mitigate the foreclosure crisis − to redevelop rental and homeownership properties. TRI's focused strategy and collaborative efforts helped to revitalize distressed neighborhoods and to attract families back to those neighborhoods.
* Nurtury Learning Lab and President and CEO of Nurtury, Wayne Ysaguirre, "for their vision, innovative approach to nurturing children, promoting healthy development, and strengthening families." The Nurtury Learning Lab is the newest of six early care and learning centers operated by Nurtury, a nonprofit founded in 1878 as New England's first childcare and early education center in the greater Boston area. Under Ysaguirre's leadership, and with MHIC financing, Nurtury built the new facility at the Boston Housing Authority's Bromley-Heath Housing project in Jamaica Plain. The facility opened in May 2014 and since that time it has become not only a dynamic educational facility for young children, but also a focal point for community education and involvement in the Jackson Square neighborhood.
MHIC's "Excellence in Affordable Housing Award" was presented to:
* Amy Anthony, president and CEO of Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), "for her extraordinary leadership and vision, for taking on the toughest challenges, and for her tireless advocacy for affordable housing and solutions that meet community needs." Recognized as one of the nation's foremost experts in affordable housing finance and policy, Anthony has been active in the industry for over 30 years.
In presenting the award, Flatley said, "Amy has always been seen as ahead of her time." Early in her career in the 1970s, she led the Housing Allowance Project in Springfield, an organization set up to test what was then a new idea - housing vouchers. Also, early in her early career she served as secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Communities and Development, where she pioneered ideas such as mixed-income housing, local housing partnerships, and public-private collaboration. At POAH, she has built a track record of taking on some of the most troubled affordable housing projects in the country. POAH owns and operates nearly 8,500 affordable homes at more than 70 properties in nine states and the District of Columbia. In 2011, Anthony was inducted into the Affordable Housing Finance magazine's Affordable Housing Hall of Fame.