Tempe Vice-Mayor Shana Ellis honored at 2008 Brian Mickelsen Housing Hero Awards

Flagstaff – At a mid-day luncheon during the Fifth Annual Governor’s Housing Forum, Tempe native and Vice-Mayor Shana Ellis received the 2008 Local Elected Official Award, the annual honor that recognizes exceptional efforts over the past year in affordable housing.  On behalf of Governor Napolitano, Anna Maria Chavez, Deputy Chief of Staff for Urban Relations and Community Development in the Office of Governor, presented the award.

The ceremonies, a highlight of the annual conference, featured KNAU-FM’s Don Kraker as emcee, and were held at the High Country Conference Center in Flagstaff. In announcing the award, Kraker credited Ellis with the engagement of community residents in the city’s adoption of a local Housing Trust Fund (HTF) earlier this year.

In recognition of the dedicated service the late Brian Mickelsen shared with the Arizona Housing Finance Authority, the awards were posthumously re-named in 2007 as a lasting tribute to the former Cottonwood city manager’s public service.

Additional 2008 Honorees:
Yavapai College Residential Building Technology Program and Prescott Area Habitat for Humanity received the Sustainable Design Award that recognizes outstanding design and/or use of alternative materials in affordable housing was presented to The Fox House, for a project which merged the goals of increasing affordable housing and building energy-efficient homes. As a community college, Yavapai’s training program is the first to receive multiple national recognition awards from the U.S. Green Building Council, National Association of Home Builders, and the Energy Value Housing Awards.

Recognizing the need for pre-homeownership education for Navajo and Apache Counties, Peggy Belknap, Dean of Workforce Development at Northland Pioneer College, was honored with the Innovative Partnership Award for leadership in promoting free community education for first time homebuyers through a partnership between her institution and the Northern Arizona Council of Governments (NACOG).

Combining classroom and distance learning over a targeted 21,000 square mile area in one of the state’s most sparsely inhabited areas, the program has now reached more than 3,500 prospective first-time homeowners and real estate agents.

Yavapai-Apache Tribal Housing received the Tribal Initiatives Award in recognition of their innovation and collaboration to create a $3.6 million, mixed-income developments of newly-constructed homes in Clarkdale and Tunlii. All of the new homes will provide home ownership opportunities to low and moderate-income tribal households.

A Lake Havasu civil servant, Denise Moen-Bishop, who spearheaded effort to assist 1,065 low and moderate income residents, received the 2008 Local Initiatives Award that honors affordable housing efforts at the local level.

The final annual award, Partner in Housing, that honors lifetime achievements in affordable housing, was presented to Tucson’s Emily Nottingham in recognition of a 30-year career dedicated to housing advances in Arizona’s second largest city. 

A special Award of Excellence was also presented to Jean Richmond-Bowman, a long-time housing leader. She was honored for the dedicated service shared with the Arizona Housing Commission from 2000-2008 that included two years as Commission Chair. Additionally, the presentation noted another important civic role, her leadership as chair of the Governor’s Arizona Incentives for Affordable Housing Task Force, where she steered the development of a document that today is the basis for the legislative and programmatic focus of the Arizona Department of Housing.

About the 2008 Housing Forum
Now in its fifth year, the Governor’s Annual Housing Forum is expected to again attract a record number of registrations.  The 2008 conference theme is TRENDS…Shaping Arizona’s future.  Other conference highlights include keynotes by Fred Karnas, Director of the Arizona Department of Housing; author, educator and lawyer, Grady Gammage, Jr.; and Barry Zigas, a nationally known housing policy expert.