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Housing Visionary Award Honorees

The Housing Visionary Award recognizes organizations or individuals shaping the path forward for affordable housing in America through leadership, innovation with a focus on people, communities and partnerships.

2019 Award Recipients

Bill Bynum

NHC honored Bill Bynum of HOPE Enterprise Corporation. For more than three decades, Mr. Bynum has worked to advance economic opportunity for disenfranchised populations. He began his professional career in North Carolina by helping to establish Self-Help, a pioneer in the development finance industry, and later built nationally recognized programs at the NC Rural Economic Development Center. In 1994, Bill moved to Mississippi to become the founding CEO of the Enterprise Corporation of the Delta, and in 1995 organized Hope Community Credit Union.

Today, HOPE (Hope Enterprise Corporation, Hope Credit Union and Hope Policy Institute), is a family of organizations that provides financial services; leverages private, public and philanthropic resources; and engages in policy analysis to fulfill its mission of strengthening communities, building assets, and improving lives in economically distressed parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. Since 1994, HOPE has generated more than $2 billion in financing that has benefited more than one million people in of the nation’s most impoverished regions.

Bynum serves on the boards of the Aspen Institute, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Prosperity Now, William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation and is a member of the US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty. He previously chaired the Treasury Department’s Community Development Advisory Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Consumer Advisory Board. A recipient of the University of North Carolina Distinguished Alumnus Award, Bynum’s honors include the John P. McNulty Prize (Aspen Global Leadership Network), Ned Gramlich Award for Responsible Finance (Opportunity Finance Network), National Entrepreneur of the Year (Ernst & Young/Kauffman Foundation), Rural Hero Award (National Rural Assembly), Pete Crear Lifetime Achievement Award (African American Credit Union Coalition) and Annie Vamper Helping Hands Award (National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions).

California Ballot Initiative Team

NHC honored the “California Ballot Initiative Team:” Ray Pearl of the California Housing Consortium, Lisa Hershey of Housing California, Carl Guardino of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Cesar Diaz of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California. They all exemplify how organizational partnerships can influence and bring about political change that advances affordable housing in communities in a monumental way. Their joint effort that led to a statewide ballot campaign, which resulted in the approval by voters of an unprecedented $6 billion in bond funds for affordable housing.

In November 2018, Californians headed to the polls with their hearts and convictions placed on affordable housing and voted to pass Propositions 1 and 2. The winning result was a combined $6 billion for affordable housing and supportive housing for lower-income Californians and for people at risk of chronic homelessness while living with mental illness. Proposition 1, the Veterans and Affordable Housing Act, received 56 percent of the vote. Proposition 2, the No Place Like Home Act, received 63 percent.

Housing Visionary Award Past Recipients

2018
Nancy Andrews
Team Detroit

2017
Pat Tiberi
Habitat for Humanity International
Rebuilding Together

2016
Housing Assistance Council
Rural LISC

2015
The Community Properties Initiative of Columbus Ohio
Piece by Piece Regional Foreclosure Response Initiative of Atlanta, Georgia

2014
Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA)
Enterprise Community Partners

Housing Person of the Year Award Past Recipients

The Housing Person of the Year was first awarded in 1973 and recognized individuals who made significant contributions to the affordable housing industry. The award was retired after the 41st Annual Gala in 2013.

2013
NeighborWorks America and Omni New York, LLC

2012
The Home Depot Foundation, Operation Homefront, Volunteers of America, U.S. Veterans Initiative and Cloudbreak Communities

2011
Sister Lillian Murphy, RSM
Professor Nicolas Retsinas

2010
Federal Home Loan Banks’ Affordable Housing Program – 20th Anniversary

2009
J. Ronald Terwilliger, Chairman, Trammell Crow Residential and Habitat for Humanity International

2008
F. Barton Harvey III, Former Chairman, Enterprise

2007
Henry Cisneros, Executive Chairman, CityView, Former Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

2006
75th Anniversary of the National Housing Conference

2005
Stephen M. Ross, Chairman and CEO, The Related Companies, L.P. and Chairman and Founder,
CharterMac

2004
Angelo R. Mozilo, Chairman and CEO, Countrywide Financial Corporation

2003
The Honorable Susan Molinari and Richard Ravitch, Co-chairs of the Millenial Housing Commission

2002
Robert E. Rubin, Chairman of the Executive Committee, Citigroup, Inc./Chairman of the Board, Local
Initiatives Support Corporation

2001
Leland C. Brendsel, Chairman and CEO, Freddie Mac

2000
Mary Lee Widener, President and CEO, Neighborhood Housing Services of America, Inc.

1999
Hugh L. McColl, Jr., Chairman and CEO, Bank of America

1998
Patricia T. Rouse, Co-founder, The Enterprise Foundation

1997
J. Roderick Heller, III, Chairman and CEO, NHP Incorporated

1996
65th Anniversary of the National Housing Conference re-honoring past Award recipients

1995
Cushing N. Dolbeare, founder, National Low Income Housing Coalition

1994
Marvin S. Gilman, President, The Gilman Group, Ltd.

1993
Project LEND

1992
AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust
Rebuilding Together (formerly Christmas in April*USA)

1991
60th Anniversary of the National Housing Conference

1990
Fannie Mae

1989
Eugene F. Ford, Sr., Chairman of the Board, Mid-City Financial Corporation

1988
Senator Alan Cranston and Senator Alfonse M. D’Amato

1987
George M. Brady, Chairman, National Corporation for Housing Partnerships

1986
Leo Zickler, President Oxford Development Corporation

1985
Lawrence B. Simons, Partner, Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy, LLP

1984
Leon N. Weiner, Chairman of the Board, Leon N. Weiner & Associates, Inc.

1983
David O. Maxwell, Chairman of the Board, Fannie Mae

1982
Phillip N. Brownstein, Partner, Brownstein Zeidman and Schomer

1981
Thomas F. Murphy, Chairman, Masonry Industry Committee and former President, International Union of Bricklayers

1980
George W. DeFranceaux, Chairman, National Corporation for Housing Partnerships

1979
William Sidell, President, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Chairman, AFL-CIO Housing Committee

1978
Senator John Sparkman

1977
Nathaniel H. Rogg, retired Executive Director of the National Association of Home Builders

1976
Robert A. Georgine, President, AFL-CIO Building sand Construction Trades Department

1975
David L. Krooth, Advocate-at-Large, Better Housing and Communities for the American People

1974
Walter E. Washington, Mayor, Washington, DC

1973
Nathaniel S. Keith, Chairman of the Board, National Housing Conference

Carl A.S. Coan, Sr. Award for Public Service

The Carl A.S. Coan, Sr., Award for Public Service was established in 1984 in honor of Carl A.S. Coan, Sr., who was considered by his peers to be one of the most effective staff aides on Capitol Hill. The award is presented periodically in recognition of outstanding commitment and leadership in the effort to provide decent, safe and affordable housing in this country and publicizes the work of individuals both in and out of the housing arena who have by their actions ensured that we remain one of the best housed nations on earth.

2019 Award Recipient

NHC honored Wilfred Cooper, Sr. of WNC for his  lifetime of achievement for pioneering work in the advancement of affordable housing. Mr. Cooper founded WNC to specialize in development and syndication of affordable rental housing. For decades, he has worked to advance affordable housing and home building. Mr. Cooper, who has testified before Congress regarding low-income housing tax credits, is a life director of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a national trustee of NAHB’s Political Action Committee.

Carl A.S. Coan, Sr. Award for Public Service Past Recipients

2018
Robert Pohlman, Former Executive Director for the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing & Economic Development (posthumously)

2017
Shaun Donovan, Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, 2009 – 2014

2014
Dianne Spaulding, Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California

2013
Conrad Egan, Former President & CEO, National Housing Conference

2009
Honorable Barney Frank, U.S. Senate

2005
Honorable Paul S. Sarbanes, U.S. Senate

2002
Honorable Marge Roukema, U.S. Congress

2001
John T. McEvoy, Executive Director, National Council of State Housing Agencies

2000
Charles L. Edson, Partner, Nixon Peabody LLP
Clara Fox, Co-Chair, New York Housing Conference
Honorable Bruce E. Vento, U.S. Congress

1999
Former Congressman Louis Stokes
Sister Mary Louise Wessell, CSJ, Program Administrator, Tenants Empowerment Network, Catholic
Charities, Washington, DC

1989
Henry B. Schechter, Director, Office of Housing and Monetary Policy, AFL/CIO

1987
Gerald R. McMurray, Staff Director, House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development

1986
Honorable Stewart B. McKinney, U.S. Congress

1985
Cushing N. Dolbeare, founder, National Low Income Housing Coalition

1984
Honorable Ferdinand St. Germain, U.S. Congress

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