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2009

Alle Ries MCRP 1998

Alle Ries is the the Director of La Casa de Don Pedro's Community and Economic Development Division.  La Casa de Don Pedro is a 37-year old community based social service organization located in the north end of Newark, NJ.  The organization is ranked as the 22nd largest Hispanic nonprofit in the country.  La Casa’s comprehensive network of services includes preschool for 255 Newark children ages 3 and 4, afterschool programs, domestic violence intervention, case management and referrals for families in need, adult education including GED preparation, ESL, and Adult Basic Literacy, prisoner reentry services, an immigration attorney and provision of Essex County’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and the Weatherization Assistance Program.  The Community and Economic Development Division serves as the physical and social redevelopment arm of the organization.  The Real Estate Unit manages a development budget that includes $12 million in affordable housing and commercial/community space projects.  The Sustainable Communities Unit manages the LISC-sponsored comprehensive community development project of the same name and foreclosure and first time homebuyer counseling.

Michael T. Luongo MCRP 1997

Bloomberg News has published freelance writer/photographer Michael Luongo's latest travel piece, "My Baghdad Beckons With Bazaars, Cafes, Hopeful People." The author of several books, including Gay Travels in the Muslim World and the Frommer's guide to Buenos Aires, Luongo in August was quoted in The New York Times travel section and was interviewed for C-Span's BookTV. For the Baghdad article, click here

Thomas Mann, MCRP 2008

The Pawtucket Foundation, headed by Thomas Mann, is spearheading a campaign to dramatically improve transportation access in the Rhode Island community. The improvements include the addition of an MBTA commuter rail stop in Pawtucket, located just north of Providence, bus rapid transit and bicycle and pedestrian improvements. To learn more, click here

In a November 2008 profile of Horvath, the magazine reported how Horvath used his investment talents while at New York City-based Community Development Trust (CDT) to help build a portfolio of more than $650 million in affordable housing assets. At CDT, Horvath became chief investment officer, turning down offers that could have doubled his pay.

Late last year, Horvath spent a week in Atlanta, consulting with Habitat for Humanity on its capital markets program, in particular an Accelerated Asset Recovery program that had been created by CDT founder Judd Levy. Now maintained by Horvath and Habitat, the program enables Habitat’s affiliates to raise capital for zero percent downpayment home loans that they can offer to low-income families.

Habitat has been able to pool loans to its affiliates to fund about 1,100 home loans since the program’s inception. Backed by the loan pools, Habitat issues unrated private placement bonds which it credit-enhances to cover losses up to 5 percent of the pool. Habitat then sells the A-piece bonds to investors, such as Prudential Financial, Inc., and Citibank, which use them to meet their requirements under the federal Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).

Bloustein School graduate Philip A. Abramson, who earned his MCRP degree in 2006, has been awarded a Daniel J. Curtin Fellowship from the American Planning Association to help him pursue his law degree at Rutgers-Newark. Only two Curtin fellowships are awarded annually; Abramson is the first New Jerseyan and Rutgers student to win the national award. The Curtin Fellowships are intended "to foster increased interest in the study of land use planning and its interrelationship with the law at the advanced undergraduate, graduate, and law school levels." Abramson, an associate planner with Pennoni Associates, Inc., of Cedar Knolls, NJ, is a second year law student at Rutgers-Newark.

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