2015 Annual Luncheon

Assistant Commissioner of Special Needs Housing
NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development

Ms. Katz began her career with HPD in 2003, and started as the Production Manager for Special Needs Housing. At that time, the department was producing 400 to500 supportive housing units per year; it now produces over 1,000. Ms. Katz believes that “even those with the most severe set of challenges can be very successful in supportive housing.” Due in no small part to the on-the ground experience and dedication of Ms. Katz and others, and the recognized importance of collaboration among organizations, supportive housing in general has undergone many changes in the past ten years.

Alan Wiener, Head of Multifamily Capital

Over the past five years Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital has made available $7 billion in permanent loans in New York City. They have provided $1.5 billion in financing for
affordable units and $900 million in direct low income housing tax credit purchases. Wells Fargo has also been responsible for $3 billion in construction lending. The volume of this investment demonstrates the commitment
that Wells Fargo has to fostering growth of affordable housing in New York City.

Alan Wiener is the group head of Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital, which is based in New York. Alan has dedicated his career to working housing and community development in both the public and private sectors.

Each member of the Nixon Peabody team brings a level of expertise that enables them to work together to suit a wide range of client needs. Many members of Nixon Peabody’s affordable housing group started at housing
practitioners, either at a city agency or in the affordable housing sector before and after law school. Nixon Peabody is one of the first practices of its kind to hire non-lawyers in order to better understand the policy side of law and better advise clients. Their innovative approach is strengthened by a highly collaborative environment.

“The most rewarding aspect of our job is creating
units for affordable [housing] residents,” says Joe
Lynch, Office Managing Partner.

Deputy Director for Strategic Planning, NYC Department of City Planning

Howard Slatkin has always been interested in helping people make sense of how the world around us works, from the smallest scale to the largest. As an undergraduate at Brown University, he left the study of physics, which seeks to explain how matter behaves, for
history, which seeks to explain how behavior matters. Mr. Slatkin is from northern New Jersey, moved to New York City soon after graduation, and quickly became fascinated with the urban energy and complex life of the city. “There is something here,” he said “that doesn’t exist elsewhere, and you don’t really understand it until you’ve found it.”