CHC welcomed our largest crowd ever at this year's Policy Forum & Housing Hall of Fame Awards on May 12. Over three hundred affordable housing leaders spent the day at the beautiful Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows in Santa Monica. The program featured insightful housing experts, an engaging crowd sourcing panel with knowledgeable and diverse panelists from across the state and acknowledging six heroes in our field who have made a substantial contribution towards advancing affordable housing throughout California.

We started the program with a video prepared by our Presenting Sponsor, California Economic Summit. The video, featuring many CHC members, tells the current story of the housing crisis and will be an amazing tool to tell our industry's story in the coming months. Please view CA Forward's video here and share it with your networks.

We then welcomed Department of Housing and Community Development's new director, Ben Metcalf, who talked about his vision for HCD and the expected release of the state housing plan. We are excited to have Ben leading the department and look forward to working with him to elevate the state's role in housing policy and to increase the supply of housing for low- and moderate-income families.
 
Our 2016 Policy Forum theme was 'Three wishes from the Genie: a CHC Reality-TV show'  where each panelist was tasked with articulating a vision that is premised on the idea that "Housing is a platform to produce positive change in California in addition to creating more housing supply."
 
This year's panelists, Carol Ornelas of Visionary Home Builders of California, Michael Costa of Highridge Costa Housing Companies and Robin Hughes of Abode Communities, presented three wishes necessary to fulfill their vision prior to the audience vote of their top choice. You can see the slides used to articulate each vision here.
 



We had the privilege of honoring a distinguished group of multi-sector inductees into the California Housing Hall of Fame.  This year we were pleased to recognize the following affordable housing industry all-stars: Public Sector-California Emerging Technology Fund (Raquel Cinat accepting); Nonprofit Sector-Ron Griffith, Century Housing (Aaron Wooler accepting); Dianne Spaulding Local Leadership Award-Marc Trotz, Housing for Health; Private Sector-Tom Safran, Thomas Safran & Associates; Community Development Lending-Bank of America's Low-Income Housing Challenge (Maria Joyce accepting); Lifetime Achievement Award-Hunter Johnson. (Pictured left to right below)
 





 



 
We finished our day with a presentation from Ali Solis of Enterprise Community Partners on the Make Room campaign, whose goal is to give voice to struggling renters and elevates rental housing on the agendas of our nation's leaders.

Make Room has done a wonderful job highlighting the stories of struggling renters across the county and Ali shared the story of the Duartes, a family in Los Angeles that was featured in the Make Room Concert for the 1st series. CHC looks forwarding to working with Make Room to feature more struggling California renters' stories.

The success of our event would not be possible without our amazing group of sponsors. We sincerely appreciate your support and look forward to having you all back in 2017!
 
Presenting Sponsor: CA Forward/California Economic Summit
 
Breakfast Sponsor: CBRE Affordable Housing
 
Policy Forum Sponsor: Union Bank
 
Luncheon Sponsor: AmCal Multi-Housing, Inc  

Program Sponsor: Highridge Costa Companies

Federal Update Sponsor: US Bank
 
Centerpiece Sponsor: CCRC

WIFI Sponsor: Jamboree Housing Corp

Leave Behind Sponsor: CHASE

BOD Dinner: Bank of America



Table Sponsors: Abode Communities, Affirmed Housing, Alliant Capital, Barker Management, BBVA Compass Bank, BRIDGE Housing, CALHFA, Century Housing, Citibank, Cohn Reznick, Domus Development, EAH Housing, Eden Housing, KTGY Planning & Architecture, LINC Housing, Mercy Housing, National CORE, Novogradac & Co, Orrick, Red Stone Equity Partners, Related California, San Diego Housing Commission, Solari Enterprises, The Pacific Companies, Thomas Safran & Associates, USA Properties Fund, Wakeland Housing & Development, Wells Fargo, WNC & Associates, YHLA Architects
 
Are you a CHC member? Join these industry leaders and become a member today!   
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