- Leadership Reception
Celebrate 2023 Housing Leadership Award Honorees
Join NLIHC in celebrating our 2023 Housing Leadership Awards honorees: Representative Cori Bush, John Parvensky, and Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico. These exceptional leaders will be recognized at NLIHC’s 41st Annual Housing Leadership Awards Reception on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, the second evening of the NLIHC Housing Policy Forum 2023, from 6:00 to 8:30 pm at the Hilton Washington DC Capitol Hill Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The NLIHC Housing Leadership Awards celebrate and honor individual leaders and organizations for their outstanding contributions to affordable housing for those most in need.
The Edward W. Brooke Housing Leadership Award is named for the late Senator Brooke (R-MA), who championed low-income housing as a U.S. senator and as chair of the NLIHC board of directors after he left the Senate. The Brooke award goes to an exemplary housing leader with a record of fighting for affordable housing on the national level.
Representative Cori Bush (D-MO) will receive the Edward W. Brooke Housing Leadership Award for leading a movement to guarantee housing for all. In her first term in Congress, she introduced legislation to end houselessness by 2025, led a campaign on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to prevent people from being evicted during the pandemic, and introduced legislation to permanently implement an eviction moratorium throughout the pandemic.
The Cushing Niles Dolbeare Lifetime Service Award is named after NLIHC’s late founder, who has been referred to as the “godmother” of the affordable housing movement. The award goes to an individual who has demonstrated an unyielding commitment to achieving safe, decent, and affordable homes for low-income people over a long period of time.
John Parvensky will receive the 2023 Dolbeare Lifetime Service Award for his longstanding leadership fighting for housing and health care justice and equity for more than 44 years as an advocate, a supportive housing developer, and a provider of health care for the homeless.
The Sheila Crowley Housing Justice Award is named for former NLIHC President and CEO Sheila Crowley, who led NLIHC for more than 17 years. The Crowley award goes to an outstanding leader who has elevated the conversation around affordable housing for the lowest-income people in America.
Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico will receive the 2023 Sheila Crowley Housing Justice Award for their persistent fight for a just recovery in the aftermath of numerous disasters, including the right to dignified housing. Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico is a non-profit organization that provides free legal education to groups and communities in the defense of their fundamental rights – and especially the right to housing.
Recognize these outstanding leaders by making a donation to NLIHC in their honor!
Your donation will be recognized in the Leadership Awards Reception program, and your contribution will support NLIHC’s mission to achieve racially and socially equitable public policy that ensures people with the lowest incomes have quality homes that are accessible and affordable in communities of their choice. Register now: https://bit.ly/NLIHCForumLR2023
Watch the Last Year's Recording
Watch the 2022 Virtual Housing Leadership Awards Celebration, free to the public on Youtube.
- Dolbeare Award
The Cushing Niles Dolbeare Lifetime Service Award is named after NLIHC’s founder. One of the leading experts on federal housing policy and the housing circumstances of low-income people, Ms. Dolbeare was widely known as the godmother of the affordable housing advocacy movement.
John Parvensky has been fighting for housing and health care justice and equity for more than 44 years as an advocate, a supportive housing developer, and a provider of health care for the homeless. As CEO of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless for the past 37 years, he has led the development of more than 2,000 supportive housing units.
Past Cushing Niles Dolbeare Lifetime Service Award Honorees
- Ann O'Hara, 2022
- Joy Johnson, 2021
- Bill Faith, 2020
- Emma "Pinky" Clifford, 2019
- Lisa Hasegawa, 2018
- Amy Anthony, 2017
- Nancy Bernstine, 2016
- William Apgar, 2015
- Charles Elsesser, Jr., 2014
- Chester Hartman, 2013
- George Moses, 2012
- Florence Wagman Roisman, Esq., 2011
- Gordon Cavanaugh, 2010
- Brooke Award
The Edward W. Brooke Housing Leadership Award is named for the former senator, who championed low-income housing in Congress and later as Chairman of NLIHC’s Board of Directors.
Congresswoman Cori Bush (MO-01) is the first Black woman and first nurse elected to the U.S. Congress from Missouri. She has championed legislation that puts racial, social, economic, health, and environmental justice front and center. During her first term in Congress, Representative Bush led a movement to guarantee housing for all. She introduced legislation to end houselessness by 2025, led a demonstration on the steps of the U.S. Capitol successfully calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to extend its eviction moratorium, and introduced legislation to permanently implement an eviction moratorium during the pandemic. Congresswoman Bush serves as Vice Chair of the Majority Leader Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity and has drawn upon her own personal experiences of being evicted and unhoused to inform policymaking decisions throughout her time in Congress.
Past Edward W. Brooke Housing Leadership Award Honorees
- Congressional Progressive Caucus, 2022
- Representative Maxine Waters & Senator Sherrod Brown, 2021
- Shauna Sorrells, 2020
- Representative Emanuel Cleaver II (D-MO), 2019
- The Honorable Susan Collins, U.S. Senate, 2018
- Ronald J. Terwilliger, 2017
- The Honorable Barbara Lee, U.S. House of Representatives, 2016
- OMB Director Shaun Donovan, 2015
- Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, 2014
- The Honorable Olympia Snowe, U.S. Senate, 2013
- The Honorable Patty Murray, U.S. Senate, 2012
- Nan Roman, 2011
- The Honorable Keith Ellison, U.S. House of Representatives, 2010
- The Honorable John Kerry, U.S. Senate, 2010
- Crowley Award
The Sheila Crowley Housing Justice Award is named for former NLIHC President & CEO Sheila Crowley. The Crowley award goes to an outstanding leader who has elevated the conversation around affordable housing for the lowest income people in America.
Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico is a non-profit organization that provides free legal education and support to low-income individuals and communities and helps other organizations and groups defend human rights through legal empowerment strategies. Ayuda Legal believes that there is power in knowing your rights, and that social impact advocacy is a tool to promote social change. This vision is the driving force behind its work.
Past Sheila Crowley Housing Justice Award Honorees
- Representative Ritchie Torres, 2022
- The National Housing Law Project's Housing Justice Network, 2021
- Jennifer Leimaile Ho, 2020
- Dr. Mitchell Katz, 2019
- Matthew Desmond, 2018
- Sponsorship
Sponsorship Opportunities:
Platinum $30,000 and above= Full Page Color Ad (7.5” x 10”) Gold $15,000 to $29,999= ½ Page Color Ad (7.5” x 5”) Silver $7,500 to $14,999= ¼ Page Color Ad (3.75” x 5”) Bronze $3,000 to $7,499= 1/8 Page Color Ad (3.75” x 2.5”) Sustainer $1,500 to $2,999= Name Listed in the Program NLIHC expresses our deep gratitude to the individual and organizational donors making each year’s Housing Leadership Awards Reception a success.
There are 2 Different Ways to Donate to the Leadership Reception:
Are you interested in becoming a sponsor? Fill out the sponsorship form below and return to Benja Reilly at [email protected] or by mail to:
National Low Income Housing Coalition
1000 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20005
Questions? Contact Benja Reilly at [email protected]