Jennifer Ho of Minnesota Housing to be Honored with 2020 Housing Leadership Award

NLIHC will honor Jennifer Leimaile Ho, commissioner of Minnesota Housing and former senior advisor at HUD and deputy director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), with the 2020 Sheila Crowley Housing Justice Award, named for NLIHC’s former President and CEO Sheila Crowley, who led the coalition for more than 17 years. Jennifer will be recognized at the 38th Annual Housing Leadership Awards Reception on Thursday, March 26, 2020 at the Washington Court Hotel in Washington, DC. Individuals and organizations are encouraged to contribute to NLIHC in Jennifer’s honor.

Jennifer Leimaile Ho, commissioner of Minnesota Housing

Jennifer Leimaile Ho has worked to end housing poverty and homelessness since 1999. As executive director of Hearth Connection, a Minnesota non-profit, she managed a nationally recognized demonstration project on supportive housing and long-term homelessness for single adults, youth and families in two counties and oversaw its replication in 34 additional counties in partnership with the Fond du Lac, Bois Fort and Grand Portage Tribal Bands. Prior to leading Minnesota Housing, Jennifer served as a senior policy advisor for housing and services at HUD in the Obama administration and as deputy director at USICH, shepherding the creation of “Opening Doors,” the nation’s first-ever comprehensive federal plan to prevent and end homelessness. She worked with First Lady Michelle Obama to launch the “Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness” that reduced the number of veterans experiencing homelessness on any night by nearly half. Jennifer has served on the boards of directors for West Side Community Health Services in St. Paul and nationally for the Corporation for Supportive Housing and the Melville Charitable Trust.

The other 2020 Housing Leadership Awards honorees will be Shauna Sorrells, former NLIHC board member and chief operating officer at the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County, who will receive the Edward W. Brooke Housing Leadership Award posthumously; and Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) and former NLIHC board chair, with the 2020 Cushing Dolbeare Lifetime Service Award, named for NLIHC’s founder and early leader of the modern affordable homes movement.

Recognize these outstanding individuals by making a donation to NLIHC in their honor!  

Donate as an individual at: https://bit.ly/34ng1FP

Donate as an organization at: https://bit.ly/2WyFnOb

Your donation will be recognized in the Leadership Awards Reception program. The contribution will support NLIHC’s mission to achieve socially just public policy to ensure the lowest-income people have decent, affordable homes.

The 2020 Leadership Awards Reception will be held on the second evening of NLIHC’s 2020 Housing Policy Forum: Ending Homelessness & Housing Poverty taking place March 25-27, 2020. Register for the Forum at: https://bit.ly/2PutSGn and/or Leadership Awards Reception at: https://bit.ly/362lyDf