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About the Contributors
Charles C. Bissinger, Jr., a partner in the Cincinnati, Ohio, office of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP, has over 30 years of experience in representing lenders, borrowers, developers, investors, and contractors in FHA-insured financings for multifamily and health-care projects. Mr. Bissinger served as co-chair of the FHA Closing Documents Workgroup of the Mortgage Bankers Association, preparing and coordinating industry comments on FHA’s new Multifamily Form Closing Documents and related changes in HUD regulations, published in 2011. Mr. Bissinger also played a leading role in the preparation and coordination of comments made by the HUD Practice Group of the American Bar Association’s Affordable Housing Forum on FHA’s new Multifamily Closing Guide, also published in 2011. Mr. Bissinger is a frequent speaker on topics related to FHA mortgage insurance programs. Harry Carey served in the Office of General Counsel at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for more than 36 years, retiring in 2007. Mr. Carey has specialized in civil rights and fair housing laws and their impact on housing and community development programs and activities. He served as the Assistant General Counsel for Fair Housing Enforcement and the Associate General Counsel for Fair Housing. Mr. Carey participated in drafting of the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 and led a team of HUD staff in the development of regulations implementing the Fair Housing Act. Mr. Carey is now working with the National Fair Housing Training Academy and National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO). John Daly served in HUD’s Office of General Counsel for 35 years as an attorneyadvisor for FHA and Ginnie Mae programs and in-house tax counsel for HUD programs. From 1990 until retirement in July 2011, he was responsible for legal support of all FHA mortgage insurance programs as the Associate General Counsel for Insured Housing. Michael Decina is a shareholder with Kantor Taylor Nelson Boyd & Evatt PC whose practice emphasizes HUD Programs, including Section 202/811s and Section 202/ 811 Mixed-Finance transactions, Section 8 matters, and loan closings and mortgage assumptions utilizing HUD and FHA/GNMA loan products. Prior to joining Kantor Taylor, Michael was an attorney at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), first as an attorney-advisor in HUD Region III and later as an Associate Regional Counsel in HUD Region X. Further information can be found at www.kantortaylor.com. xxiii
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Mary Grace Folwell, an associate with Ballard Spahr LLP and a member of the firm’s Housing Group, advises clients on HUD regulatory and statutory matters and compliance with HUD programs. She has considerable experience in a variety of HUD programs and requirements, including the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, the MTW Program, the Uniform Relocation Act, OIG audits, Davis-Bacon, HOME and CDBG Programs, the NSP Program, fair housing compliance, and formation and compliance of nonprofit affiliates. Elizabeth H. Friedgut is a partner in the Chicago office of DLA Piper. Before joining DLA Piper, Ms. Friedgut was as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C., for seven years. Ms. Friedgut has been designated an Illinois Super Lawyer as the result of research projects conducted jointly by Law & Politics and Chicago magazines. The Leading Lawyers Network has named her among the Top 50 Women Real Estate–Related Lawyers in Illinois. Sharon Wilson Géno is a partner with Ballard Spahr LLP in Washington, D.C. Ms. Géno focuses her practice on affordable housing and real estate transactions, legislative advocacy, general corporate and nonprofit organizations, and administrative law. She has represented housing authorities on HOPE VI and mixed-finance transactions, administrative and regulatory issues, the MTW Program, and the borrowing of private monies secured by a pledge of Public Housing Capital Funds. Amy M. Glassman represents public housing authorities and other recipients of HUD funds in regulatory, administrative, transactional, and related matters. An associate with Ballard Spahr LLP and a member of the firm’s Housing Group, Ms. Glassman has extensive experience assisting housing authorities with HUD regulatory and statutory compliance issues. N. Linda Goldstein is a partner at the law firm of Reno & Cavanaugh in Washington, D.C. Ms. Goldstein is a past chair of the American Bar Association Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law and is presently co-chair of the National Leased Housing Association, Green/Energy Committee. Ms. Goldstein focuses her practice on affordable housing and economic development, mixed-use real estate transactions, energy efficiency and renewable energy, community development financial institutions and the mandates of the Community Reinvestment Act. Ms. Goldstein began her career with HUD. Tatiana Gutierrez Abendschein is an associate at Nixon Peabody LLP. Tatiana commenced her career in affordable housing at Georgetown University Law Center’s Harrison Institute for Public Law in 2002. For the past eight years, Tatiana has focused her practice on HUD regulatory matters, including Section 8 project-based contract renewals, restrictions, and assignments.
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Robert Hazelton is president of the Dominion Due Diligence Group, which is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, and is a third-party due diligence consultant for the HUD-FHA-MAP mortgage insurance industry. In addition, the firm has a full-service environmental and engineering real estate due diligence team and healthcare group. Michael Johnson is a vice president at the mortgage banking firm Walker & Dunlop, one of the largest Fannie Mae DUSTM, Freddie Mac Program Plus,® and HUD lenders. Walker & Dunlop’s multifamily products include market-rate apartments, affordable apartments, manufactured housing developments, seniors housing, and student housing. Mattye Gouldsby Jones is a partner at the law firm of Coats Rose, PC, in Dallas, Texas. Ms. Gouldsby is a past chair of the American Bar Association Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law. Prior to joining Coats Rose, Ms. Jones served as senior vice president, chief operating officer, and general counsel of the Dallas Housing Authority. Bob Kenison, upon completing two years as Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia, South America, joined HUD’s Office of General Counsel, where he served the last 30 years of his 41-year HUD career heading up the team of legal advisers responsible for assisted housing, including public housing, Section 8, and Section 202, and for the programs discussed in the chapter on community development. Margarita Maisonet worked at HUD from 1991 to 2006. She joined the Departmental Enforcement Center as the Chicago Satellite Office Director in 2000. In 2003 she was detailed to the Departmental Enforcement Center in HUD Headquarters and in 2004 was appointed to the position of Director. While working in this capacity, she also served as a voting member of the Federal Housing Administration’s Mortgagee Review Board and as the Department’s Debarring Official. Ms. Maisonet is a partner at Federal Practice Group, LLC. Amy M. McClain, as a partner at Ballard Spahr LLP and a member of the firm’s Housing Group, primarily represents public housing authorities and affordable-housing developers in the context of mixed-finance transactions and is often engaged in matters addressing traditional real estate issues intertwined with low-income housing development. Kevin McMahan is managing partner of the Federal Practice Group, LLC, which consults with the federal government and state governments concerning low-income multifamily rental housing programs, including energy-efficiency programs. La Fonte Nesbitt is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Holland & Knight LLP. He has more than 23 years of experience with all manners of real estate projects,
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but his practice emphasizes urban and community development, affordable and multifamily housing, government-related real estate projects and programs, and various types of public-private partnerships and privatization initiatives. Mr. Nesbitt has extensive experience in multifamily housing finance and development, including programs for HUD, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, tax-exempt housing bonds, low income housing tax credits, and other affordable housing programs. He serves as counsel to various parties in connection with the acquisition, development, and financing of multifamily housing, retail developments, office buildings, and mixed-use projects, including for-profit and nonprofit developers and owners, investors, lenders, and underwriters, housing authorities, housing finance agencies, and other government and quasi-government agencies. Mr. Nesbitt is a frequent speaker and contributor on affordable housing, military housing, and public-private partnerships, including speaking and moderating many panels at the ABA Forum of Affordable Housing Annual Conference. He currently serves on the District of Columbia, 2012 Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Force, having been appointed by Mayor Vincent C. Gray. Stephen (“Steve”) Niles joined Klein Hornig LLP as a partner in 2011. Steve has more than 25 years of experience representing for-profit and nonprofit clients in transactional, regulatory, and enforcement matters relating to multifamily housing and community development. Steve assists project owners, sponsors, investors, property management agents, government agencies, and trade associations, among others, with various matters relating to the acquisition, development, financing, and operation of multifamily housing and community development projects. Prior to joining Klein Hornig, Steve was a partner at Holland & Knight and was co-chair of their National Affordable Housing Team. Steve earned an M.S. in real estate from the Johns Hopkins University, a J.D. from the American University, Washington College of Law, and a B.A. from Franklin & Marshall College. Kristin M. Neun has served as a principal of Hessel, Aluise and Neun, P.C. since 2001. Prior to joining the firm in 1996, Ms. Neun practiced law in the Washington office of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C., and worked at the National Leased Housing Association, the Council for Rural Housing and Development, now known as the Council for Affordable and Rural Housing, respectively. Ms. Neun is active in the ABA Affordable Housing Forum, National Leased Housing Association, and other industry groups. Joy C. O’Brien’s practice focuses on the representation of public housing authorities with respect to mixed-finance real estate transactions, in which she has drafted, negotiated, and prepared the submission of evidentiary and loan documentation to HUD. As an associate with the law firm of Ballard Spahr LLP, she also represents public housing authorities in connection with the disposition and acquisition of their real estate holdings.
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Dianne Pickersgill is Of Counsel in the Real Estate Department of Ballard Spahr LLP in Washington, D.C., where she focuses her practice on the representation of public housing authorities and for-profit and nonprofit owners and managers of affordable housing in connection with HUD regulatory compliance matters. She also represents mortgage lenders in a variety of commercial real estate financing transactions, with an emphasis on multifamily project loans. Andrea R. Ponsor is an associate at Hessel, Aluise and Neun, P.C., where she represents lenders, for-profit and non-profit owners, and developers in a wide range of affordable housing financings and regulatory compliance issues. Ms. Posnor’s practice routinely involves negotiating and closing FHA-insured loan financings, advising clients on matters related to Section 8 renewals and modifications, preservation and refinancing of properties financed by HUD and USDA/RD, transfers and ownership restructuring of HUD-assisted properties, and structuring transactions involving public and private sources of green financing. Ms. Posnor was previously an attorney advisor in the HUD Office of Regional Counsel in Atlanta, Georgia, and in the HUD Departmental Enforcement Center Atlanta Satellite Office. Nydia M. Pouyes represents public housing authorities on a variety of issues, including public housing demolition and disposition and regulatory matters. Ms. Pouyes is an associate with Ballard Spahr LLP’s Housing Group. She advises clients on HUD OIG audits and investigations and Section 504 compliance, as well as a variety of other housing-related issues. Michael H. Reardon is a partner at Nixon Peabody LLP and was previously assistant general counsel for assisted housing at HUD. For more than 20 years, Michael Reardon has concentrated his practice on affordable housing and real estate matters, in particular the public housing and Section 8 housing assistance programs, the Section 202 program for the elderly, the Section 811 program for persons with disabilities, and, most recently, the HOPE VI and mixed-finance public housing development programs. Mr. Reardon provided the legal basis and framework for HUD’s implementation of the HOPE VI and mixed-finance public housing development program. Roberta L. Rubin is Of Counsel at Klein Hornig, LLP in Boston, Massachusetts, and adjunct professor at Tufts University and at Northeastern University School of Law. In her legal practice, she specializes in complex, multifaceted affordable housing and community development transactions, with a particular emphasis on comprehensive neighborhood revitalization, special-needs housing, and neighborhood stabilization activities. Brianne N. Schwanitz is an associate in the Columbus, Ohio, office of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP, whose practice focuses primarily on representing lenders in FHA-insured financings for multifamily and health-care projects. Ms. Schwanitz worked
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extensively with the FHA Closing Documents Workgroup of the Mortgage Bankers Association, preparing and coordinating industry comments on FHA’s new Multifamily Form Closing Documents and related changes in HUD Regulations, published in 2011. Ms. Schwanitz also assisted in the preparation and coordination of comments made by the HUD Practice Group of the American Bar Association’s Affordable Housing Forum on FHA’s new Multifamily Closing Guide, also published in 2011. Laura Schwarz is an associate at Reno & Cavanaugh PLLC, in Washington, D.C. Her practice focuses on public housing regulatory issues, mixed-finance transactions, and affordable housing. She has assisted a number of public housing authorities and nonprofit developers in the establishment and operation of their Neighborhood Stabilization programs. Karen Sherman, principal of ShermanLaw, is an author and frequent lecturer on affordable housing and community development projects financed with low-income housing tax credits, new market tax credits, tax-exempt bonds, HUD 202/811, and public and private debt and grants. She is a former chair of the ABA Forum on Affordable Housing & Community Development Law. Her New York–based firm (www.shermanlaw.net) represents not-for-profit and for-profit developers of affordable housing and community development projects. Inez Tremain is a partner with the law firm of Tishler & Wald, Ltd., in Chicago, Illinois. She is a past president of the National Leased Housing Association. Prior to practicing law, Ms. Tremain held various managerial positions with HUD. While at Ballard Spahr, Margaret H. (Maree) Tucker represented public housing authorities in various mixed-finance transactions and assisted housing authorities in matters involving the disposition and leasing of their real estate assets. Maree now serves as associate general counsel with Alex Brown Realty, Inc. Melissa Worden is a partner at Reno & Cavanaugh, PLLC in Washington, D.C., where her practice focuses on affordable housing, mixed finance development, and related regulatory issues. Prior to joining Reno & Cavanaugh, she spent four years in the Detroit Housing Commission’s General Counsel’s office, where she touched upon many of the issues discussed in this chapter. William J. Ward, MPA, is currently the Director of Compliance and Capital Improvement at the Detroit Housing Commission. Prior to joining DHC, Mr. Ward spent several years working for or with local units of government in the areas of economic development, governmental affairs, mental health, and airports.
