Scott Pinyard • 8 min read
The Better Building Challenge (BBC) has been making strides in fostering and delivering energy efficiency in a wide variety of building types around the country. You’ve likely heard of, or been involved with, projects that take advantage of the program. There are certainly benefits to participating from an owner’s perspective.
Thom Amdur • 3 min read
It will take some time to fully digest the results from this year’s election, but I wanted to share some initial thoughts on what this may mean for our industry.
Bendix Anderson • 11 min read
In 2010, Woodlawn, a neighborhood on Chicago’s lakeshore about eight miles south of the downtown Loop and just south of the much more-expensive Hyde Park neighborhood, was blighted by vacant lots and abandoned buildings. It had been hit especially hard by the housing crash. The foreclosure rate in the neighborhood was well-above the average for the city, or even the South Side.
Joel Swerdlow • 8 min read
A new kind of senior is on campus. As described by Andrew Carle, an assistant professor at George Mason University, in northern Virginia, and founder of the nation’s first Master of Science in Senior Housing Administration (MSHA) Program, this new senior—age 55 all the way up to anything—lives on or near campus; goes to class, theater performances and ballgames; wears school sweatshirts, and engages in activities like mentoring undergraduates. It is, Carle says, “the future of senior living.”
Darryl Hicks • 10 min read
Based in El Paso, Texas, Hunt Companies is one of the oldest and largest real estate companies in America, with over 6,000 employees and $30 billion in assets. Hunt is primarily known for being the largest military housing owner in the country.
Mark Olshaker • 10 min read
NIMBY – “Not In My Back Yard” – has been a real estate rallying cry for generations – whether it replied to integration, ethnicity, unwanted businesses, addiction treatment centers or even architectural diversity. Affordable housing agencies and developers have borne the brunt of citizens’ action committees and organized, often ugly protests.
Mark Olshaker • 8 min read
Like many complex industries, companies in affordable housing development encompass many functions and many moving parts. This suggests a great diversity of career opportunities.
Thom Amdur • 4 min read
Housing is generally considered affordable if total housing costs do not exceed 30 percent of an individual’s gross income. This is really more of a programmatic definition than a practical one; it is a helpful measure for setting subsidized rents and utility allowances for low-income families that are lucky enough to live in LIHTC or Section 8 housing.
Mark Olshaker • 3 min read
Each year since 2004, NH&RA has bestowed its Affordable Housing Vision Award to affordable housing and community development leaders who have made valuable contributions to the field and demonstrated years of leadership, commitment and imagination.
Darryl Hicks • 12 min read
Larry Curtis aspired to be a successful businessman from the time he was 10 years old. Walking through a large shopping mall, Curtis told his parents that “one day, I am going to own this place.”
Bendix Anderson • 7 min read
Developers planned to tear down a historic Chicago affordable housing property to build a new, luxury residential tower.
Mark Olshaker • 8 min read
What Maurice Barry does for a living is complex. It involves interpretation of often arcane laws and regulations, wending his way through dense and sometimes conflicting rules, working with owners and tenants to get them what they are legally entitled to, restructuring FHA loans and monitoring a broad spectrum of compliance issues.