NAHMA Announces 2013 Awards for Outstanding Achievement by Affordable Housing Providers

Alexandria, VA – January 14, 2014 – (RealEstateRama) — The National Affordable Housing Management Association (NAHMA) is pleased to announce the winners of its annual Industry and AHMA Awards. The list includes both individuals and organizations whose professionalism, dedication and accomplishments in assuring quality housing for low-income Americans raises the standards of he multifamily affordable housing industry.

More details on award winners will be published in NAHMA’s bimonthly newsletter, NAHMA News, in the March-April 2014 issue, including photos of the awards ceremony, which is scheduled for Monday, March 10, 2014 starting at 6:30 p.m., at the Washington Court Hotel, Washington, DC. Information on the NAHMA meeting is available at www.nahma.org/meetings/MeetingInfo.html.

NAHMA Industry Statesman Award
This award goes to an outstanding industry leader whose long-term service and dedication to NAHMA, its local affiliated AHMAs and the affordable housing industry have been a constant source of inspiration.

Carl Coan, Jr. (posthumously), Founder, Coan & Lyons; pioneer in establishment of HUD
programs
Carl Coan, Jr. was a tireless advocate for the development and provision of affordable housing for low- to moderate-income Americans during his lengthy and distinguished career. After graduating from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1958, Carl entered public service in September 1958 as an attorney for the Federal Housing Administration of the Housing and Home Finance Agency. In 1961, he became Legislative Opinions Counsel for the Urban Renewal Administration of the Housing and Home Finance Agency. In 1965, he became Deputy to the Director of the Redevelopment Division of the Renewal Assistance Administration, and two years later he returned to a legal position as Assistant General Counsel for Legislative Policy at HUD. In this capacity, he was responsible for supervising HUD’s federal legislation activities, including the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968. In late 1971, Carl became staff Vice President for Governmental Affairs-Legislative Counsel for NAHB, and in April 1977 he entered the private practice of law, specializing in advising and representing organizations and individuals on issues before the Congress and the Executive Branch in such areas as housing, taxation, aid to cities, grant programs, and financial institutions. Throughout his career, Carl was a forceful advocate for the cause of housing. Carl served as counsel to one of NAHMA’s predecessor organizations (the Advisory Council of HUD Management Agents), and to NAHMA upon its formation.

NAHMA President’s Award
This elite award is given each year to an individual selected by NAHMA’s President in recognition of a career of significant contribution to the affordable housing industry.

David Smith, International Consultant and Founder of the Affordable Housing Institute David Smith has been an inspirational and visionary leader for the industry. In particular, he is being honored with this award for his founding of the Affordable Housing Institute (AHI), which works worldwide to deliver improved housing production and housing finance ecosystems, especially for the urban poor, in informal communities and slums in the emerging world. AHI has been the recipient of two grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. With more than 30 years of direct experience in affordable housing, David uniquely combines the roles of practitioner and theoretician, participant and policymaker. David is also founder and Chairman of Recap Real Estate Advisors. David maintains a longstanding commitment to professional education, pro-bono public advice, and service to the affordable housing community. Aside from being a speaker or co-chairman at hundreds of conferences and participant in multiple industry-regulator working groups, David has provided high-quality analysis to Congress, the Millennial Housing Commission, CBO, HUD, state HFAs, foundations, and others, including NAHMA.

NAHMA Industry Achievement Award
The following awardees are recognized for their extensive contributions to the growth of the industry, the strategic nature of this service and their commitment to affordable housing. This year’s award is presented to the members of NAHMA’s two Course Updates Task Forces, as well as Gwen Volk.

The NAHMA Fair Housing Compliance (FHC) Exam Update Task Force worked over a 15- month period to update, revise and improve the FHC course exam. To launch their work, task force members participated in a three-hour workshop with a certification program specialist to learn how to write high-quality statistically valid multiple choice questions. The task force was then charged with converting the existing FHC 50- true-or-false-question exam into an exam with 50 multiple choice questions. Over the course of its work, the task force convened by conference call and corresponded through email on a regular basis to circulate, review and edit exam questions. The task force completed its work and the new FHC exam was launched in May 2013. Through the group’s hard work, NAHMA has been able to offer FHC students an updated and improved course exam as they achieve the highly respected NAHMA FHC certification. The NAHMA Certified Professional of Occupancy (CPO) Update Task Force worked expeditiously over an intense two-month timeframe to review and update the NAHMA CPO course materials and exam as soon as HUD announced its Change 4 to the 4350.3 Occupancy Handbook. As subject matter experts, task force members saw the importance of implementing the new changes into the course and exam as soon as possible to ensure that students received the most up-to-date and accurate information. A comprehensive review of the CPO materials resulted in updates to the course manual, homework assignment, exam and trainer Powerpoint. Through the task force’s hard work, NAHMA was able to offer students a first-rate learning experience as they pursued the highly coveted NAHMA CPO certification.

* Gwen Volk, Director of Affordable Housing Compliance at LBK Management Services
Gwen Volk is being honored for putting together an outstanding webinar on how to apply for NAHMA’s Communities of Quality© (COQ) National Recognition Program. The webinar, available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=95U3ckWkyVA, provides detailed and comprehensive step-by-step guidance on completing the COQ application, which is a self-scoring matrix of six benchmarks of success. Through the COQ National Recognition program, multifamily properties can be certified as having achieved a high standard of excellence in the way they are managed, the services they provide residents, the experience and training of personnel, and other criteria.

NAHMA created the COQ National Recognition program as a way to acknowledge companies that provide the highest-quality affordable housing to lower-income residents while adding value to the larger community.

NAHMA Industry Partner Award
Given annually to a government agency or other affordable housing organizational partner that has made a significant contribution to the cause of affordable housing in the previous year(s). William Christiansen, Senior Enforcement Analyst, HUD (Ret.)

William Christiansen worked with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Los Angeles for over 30 years in many positions, including multifamily and most recently in the Departmental Enforcement Center for five years as a Senior Enforcement Analyst. Bill retired in January of this year, leaving behind a legacy of professionalism and compassion for the affordable housing industry, and has been especially influential in the success of AHMA-Pacific Southwest. As noted by an AHMA PSW Board member, “Bill has been an advocate of quality affordable housing throughout his career and his hard work and dedication have set the bar very high for our industry. Bill truly goes above and beyond to help his “partners” in the industry succeed, and he is very deserving of this award.”

NAHMA Affordable Housing Advocate of the Year Award
Given annually to recognize a NAHMA member who has demonstrated a strong commitment to advance NAHMA’s legislative priorities through public policy advocacy.

David Layfield, CEO at ApartmentSmart.com, Inc.
David Layfield is an affiliate member of NAHMA who has donated many hours to developing NAHMA Maps and to helping redesign NAHMA’s website headers and navigation in 2013. Both of these efforts are critical to NAHMA’s success in grassroots advocacy. In particular, a major update of NAHMA Maps in 2013 resulted in the program being mobile-device-friendly, so that NAHMA members are able to reach out to their Congressional representatives no matter when or where they are traveling.

AHMA of the Year Award
The criteria for these awards is based on AHMA size, size of membership, success in membership recruitment, membership retention, education and training course attendance, financial stability and other factors.

* Large – SAHMA
SAHMA continues to be a leader in membership recruitment and retention; the number and quality of its educational offerings in a region that includes eight southeastern states, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands; its innovations, and its services to members.

* Medium – NEAHMA
NEAHMA recently celebrated 25 years of service to affordable housing providers in New England. The number and scope of its training continues to grow, its meetings are very well attended, and its charitable contributions are noteworthy.

* Small – AHMA NCH
AHMA-NCH’s accomplishments for 2013 include record Communities of Quality© growth; record 2013 Annual Conference attendance; expanded state advocacy efforts; and record reserves for the AHMA.

AHMA Membership Recruitment Award
The criteria for this award is membership recruitment and retention and related factors.

* Large – SAHMA
SAHMA continues to grow its three levels of membership. It recruited 54 new members, has a nearly 90 percent retention rate, and supplies its members with an ever-expanding and innovative set of services.

AHMA Innovation Award
This award is given for a new and innovative program, service or activity.

* Large – MAHMA
In 2013 MAHMA established new partnerships that will improve its member services, including one with The Inspection Group to offer online Uniform Physical Condition Standards (UPCS) training, and one with the Illinois chapter of National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) to disseminate conference information in return for an increased distribution list in Illinois and a profit-sharing agreement.

* Medium – PAHMA
In partnership with the Victim Outreach Intervention Center (VOICe), PAHMA presented an innovative program “Bullying Hurts … at Any Age!” at its annual conference. This program explored bullying in the residential setting – defining what it is and exploring the intimidating tactics used across different age groups.

* Small – JAHMA
The JAHMA Foundation embarked on a new initiative to assist returning veterans in securing safe and affordable housing in JAHMA-member apartment communities and throughout the state of New Jersey. Assistance will also be provided to these veterans in securing furniture for their homes. As a long-term goal, the Foundation wishes to assist the returning veterans by acquiring their own homes.

AHMA Communities of Quality© Award
This is awarded to the AHMA with a demonstrated active and superlative program supporting the National COQ Recognition Program.

* Large – SAHMA
SAHMA is extremely active in promoting NAHMA’s Communities of Quality® National Recognition Program. Currently 397 SAHMA region properties have been accepted into the COQ Recognition Program.

* Small – PennDel AHMA
PennDel AHMA has a total of 44 Communities of Quality. In March 2013, Newberry Estates received the 2012 NAHMA COQ Exemplary Family Development Award. PennDel AHMA focuses on the Corporate Partner designation, wherein management companies have at least 50 percent of their property portfolio accepted into the COQ National Recognition program.

NAHMA Communities of Quality© Award
Given annually to NAHMA member(s) who have the most properties (total, since program inception) and who have the most newly listed properties in the past year on the NAHMA National Recognition Program COQ Registry (based on data maintained by NAHMA staff).

* Most total: WinnResidential, Boston, MA
* Most new in 2013: Barkan Management, Boston, MA

About NAHMA:
NAHMA is the leading voice for affordable housing management, advocating on behalf of multifamily property managers and owners whose mission is to provide quality affordable housing. NAHMA supports legislative and regulatory policy that promotes the development and preservation of decent and safe affordable housing, is a vital resource for technical education and information, and fosters strategic relations between government and industry. Founded in 1990, NAHMA’s membership today includes the industry’s most distinguished multifamily owners and management companies.