March/April 1998

Industry News

People
 

• FHA Commissioner/Assistant Secretary for Housing Nicolas Retsinas has left HUD to become Director of Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. HUD Secretary Cuomo has tapped Art Agnos, former San Francisco mayor and current HUD representative to the Pacific/Hawaii Region, to fill Retsinas' position.
   
• Retsinas replaces former Joint Center for Housing Studies Director William C. Apgar, whom President Clinton has nominated as HUD Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research. Apgar has been an adviser to Secretary Cuomo since October 1997.
   
• Cardell Cooper, former mayor of East Orange, NJ, (and National Housing Institute board member) has been nominated by President Clinton to become HUD assistant secretary for community planning and development. He would replace Saul Ramirez, who has been nominated to become HUD deputy secretary.
   
• Kevin Marchman resigned early this year from his post as HUD assistant secretary for public and Indian housing.
   
• Ellen Lazar began as the new Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund director on January 5. Lazar was formerly executive director of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders (NAAHL). Judy Kennedy, former vice president for government relations at Sallie Mae, is the new president of NAAHL.
   
• Comptroller of the Currency Eugene Ludwig left office at the end of his term April 4.
   
• Clarence J. Snuggs has been named deputy executive director/treasurer of Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation. Snuggs had previously been vice president of community development lending for Signet Bank, and prior to that had held the same position at Maryland National Bank.
   
• Kathryn Rock, comptroller of the Federal Housing Authority, has left that position to become chief financial officer of Mercy Housing, Inc., of Denver, Colorado.
   
• James Bothwell, formerly an economist at the General Accounting Office, is now policy director of the Federal Housing Finance Board.
   
• Jay Small has left his position of seven years as executive director of NYC's Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, Inc.
   
• National Housing Institute board member Robert O. Zdenek, formerly economic development director of New Community Corporation in Newark, has become president of United Way of Somerset County, New Jersey.
   
• Richard C. Gentry is leaving his job as executive director of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority to become director of public housing initiatives at Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC).
   
• Carl R. Greene, former head of the Detroit Housing Commission, has been appointed executive director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

• The McKnight Foundation awarded the Minnesota Housing Partnership (MHP) $523,000 to continue its Greater Minnesota capacity-building initiative for a seventh year. The goal of the initiative is to strengthen the internal capacity of nonprofits in Minnesota to build and maintain affordable housing. MHP: 800-728-8914.
   
• A new $250 million venture between the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust and Fannie Mae aims to expand homeownership opportunities for low- and middle-income families in 14 metropolitan areas across the nation. A portion of the initiative targets union members and municipal employees. AFL-CIO: 202-331-8055.
   
• The Baltimore Corporation for Housing Partnerships, once considered the pre-eminent nonprofit housing force in that city, announced that it is preparing to turn over its properties to other parties and close its doors permanently.
   
• Fannie Mae announced it is approaching the halfway point in its effort to provide $1 trillion in affordable housing financing by the end of the century, having financed $440 billion in loans to 5.6 million families through the four-year-old program, which targets low- to moderate-income families, minority, and immigrants.
   
• Chase Manhattan, PNC, and Dauphin Deposit banks will invest a total of $8.25 million to be the first private-sector partners in the newly created Pennsylvania Community Development Bank (PCDB), created to encourage economic development and job growth in economically disadvantaged areas of the state. The bank is seeded with $15 million in state funds and has a goal of raising $30 million in private-sector investment.
   
• Hartford Areas Rally Together (HART), a grassroots community-based organization formed to revitalize Hartford neighborhoods, has received $150,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation and Chase Manhattan Foundation to support the Neighborhood Jobs Initiative (NJI), a national neighborhood-based employment program designed to substantially increase employment rates in distressed neighborhoods. NJI will operate in six cities around the country. Hartford joins New York and Washington, DC, as the three cities named thus far. The Chase Manhattan Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation are each contributing $1 million to the national program, while HUD is contributing $100,000.

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