Posted on July 16, 2020
The community assistance team at the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) is a finalist for a national award that annually recognizes state and local programs, policies, and practices that support the production, rehabilitation, or preservation of workforce and affordable housing.
MHP is one of four organizations contending for the Urban Land Institute Terwilliger Center's Robert C. Larson Policy Leadership Award. The other finalists are from Housing, Tempe AZ and Vail CO.
“The finalists of this award have demonstrated unique and creative affordable housing strategies, and in the process have created models that other cities can use as a template for their own needs,” said Christopher Ptomey, executive director, ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing.
The announcement recognized MHP for working with communities to build affordable housing through the use public land, zoning, local funds and by engaging voters & leaders to build understanding and local support.
"This is a richly deserved award for a team that supports many communities on so many aspects of what it takes to create affordable housing," said Soni Gupta, director of neighborhoods and housing at The Boston Foundation, a longtime MHP partner.
MHP's application reflects its work through 2019, when the team was led by Susan Connelly and included Assistant Director Laura Shufelt, Senior Planner Katy Lacy, Senior Program Manager Shelly Goehring and Program Coordinator Katie Bosse.
Connelly left MHP in April 2020 after an outstanding 15-year run guiding MHP's technical assistance efforts with nonprofits, housing authorities and scores of communities around the state. She is now an executive at Housing Opportunities Unlimited, an organization that provides services to affordable housing residents when their homes are undergoing revitalization.
About MHP: A quasi-public organization that provides financing for affordable apartments and mortgages for first-time homebuyers, MHP roots lie in helping communities as it was created in 1986 to provide local technical assistance across the Commonwealth. Since then, MHP has provided support to over 300 cities and towns. MHP began lending in 1990 and has provided over $1.4 billion for the financing of over 26,000 apartments and has helped over 22,000 households purchase their first home through the ONE Mortgage Program. In 2017, MHP created the Center for Housing Data to support all its work and promote policies to allow more housing in response to demand.