PRESS RELEASE
LONG-TIME HOUSING JOURNALIST RECEIVES CORLETTA AWARD
WASHINGTON, DC, October 13, 2005 - The Neighborhood Development Collaborative and the National Association of Home Builders presented the 2005 Robert J. Corletta Award for Achievement in Affordable Housing to affordable housing journalist and advocate Andre Shashaty this September.
The award was established in 1999 in memory of Robert J. Corletta, one of the Collaborative's founders and long-time multifamily director for NAHB. The Collaborative’s chief operating officer, David Cole, said the award was created to “honor those in our industry who, like Bob Corletta, really care about affordable housing and what it provides to hard working wage earners whose families deserve much more than what private and subsidized housing can offer.”
“Andre Shashaty has a consistent history of demonstrating how much he cares by using the power of the pen to address the really difficult issues which often determine whether or not organizations such as the Collaborative can fully carry out the mission to create and preserve desirable housing with affordable rents. He has courageously paved the way to remove affordable housing barriers and correct many mistakes of the past. In so many ways, he is the voice of affordable housing,” said Cole.
Shashaty was nominated for the award based on his work on behalf of affordable housing issues:
-as a journalist specializing in housing
-as an advocate for affordable housing
-as founding executive director of a non-profit organization dedicated to building public support for affordable housing
Andre Shashaty publishes the Affordable Housing Finance and Apartment Finance Today magazines. In October he will serve as the conference chairman for "AHF Live: The Tax Credit Developers' Summit," October 24-26 at the Hilton Chicago. The conference is sponsored by Affordable Housing Finance magazine. It is the only event designed exclusively for organizations and individuals who own and/or develop affordable
housing, as well as government housing agencies. It will bring together active developers, financiers, and housing finance agency executives in a unique high-level summit; providing in-depth, practical information. Registration for participants and the press remains open and information can be obtained at www.AHFLive.com
In addition to his professional work, Shashaty has also dedicated much of his personal time to the issues of affordable housing. He is the founding executive director of the non-profit organization The Campaign for Affordable Housing: a Partnership for Public Education (TCAH). TCAH is a non-partisan effort to create a more receptive climate for creating affordable housing by counteracting misconceptions and misperceptions. The organization accomplishes this goal by educating Americans about the benefits of affordable housing as a community asset and supporting grassroots efforts to mobilize public support for housing programs.
"I am honored to receive an award named for Robert Corletta," said Shashaty. "Bob was an energetic and influential advocate for affordable housing, and he always approached his work with grace and good humor. There is no better way to honor them than to rededicate ourselves to carrying on their work."
The Neighborhood Development Collaborative uses private and public financing to acquire, rehabilitate, construct and renovate affordable rental housing. It serves communities with working class, low income and senior populations. Past Corletta Award recipients include Judith Siegel of the Landex Corporation; Larry Swank of the Sterling group; Ted Dinerstein founder of The Dinerstein Companies; Bob Gould of the Riley Mortgage Group; Representative Nancy L. Johnson (R) of Connecticut’s Fifth district; and Stillman D. Knight, Jr., the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing Programs in the Office of Housing/Federal Housing Administration (FHA) at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
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For more information about the Neighborhood Development Collaborative, go to www.n-d-c.org.
The AHF Live will be held October 24-26 at the Hilton Chicago.
For details go to www.ahflive.com.