friend of housing

The annual awards honor affordable housing champions and are presented to individuals, projects, or organizations who've made exceptional contributions to create or support affordable housing to low and moderate income residents of Washington state.

award categories

Margret Sevy Lifetime Achievement Award

Honoring individuals who over the course of their career have shown remarkable and sustained leadership and made an impactful contribution to affordable housing in Washington state.

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Friend of Housing Awards

• Emerging Leader: Honoring individuals new to the housing industry (under 3 years) whose leadership in their organization or community has resulted in demonstrable improvements or achievements.

• Racial Equity Initiative: Honoring initiatives that address, in a demonstrably effective way, systemic racism in the housing industry.

• Empowering Housing Residents: Honoring initiatives or programs (multifamily or single-family) that are resident-led or that have resulted in residents becoming engaged and active in improving their community.

• Homeownership Equity: Honoring those who have purposely reached out to, and worked with, homebuyers from underserved communities and communities of color, resulting in increased homeownership for these groups.

• Community Crisis Response: Honoring individuals, organizations, or initiatives in the affordable housing field that have shown extraordinary leadership in responding to a community crisis, such as a disaster, pandemic, accident, major defunding, or other such unexpected event.

• Housing Intersection: Honoring those who work outside the affordable-housing field and whose work has positively impacted affordable housing production, management, resident well-being, etc.

• Unsung Hero: Honoring someone who may not occupy a position high in profile or leadership, but whose efforts behind the scenes have had a far-reaching impact.

evaluation criteria & submission

Nominees are evaluated based on their active commitment over the previous twelve months in:

• Innovation, leadership, creativity, and/or partnership that goes above and beyond job duties.

• Specific examples, quantified results, and other details that show the nominee's impact.

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To submit your nomination:

• Click the "Nominate" button above to download the application.

• Fill in the PDF application form, describing with details, examples and results the nominee’s achievements in the chosen category in up to 1,000 words.

• You may add up to five pages of additional materials such as articles, photos, etc. that support your nomination. Links to online sources are encouraged.

• If possible, combine your written responses and any accompany materials into one PDF file. (Nominations submitted in other forms will still be accepted.)

• Email your completed nomination as indicated on the application.

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Awards:

• Awardees will be chosen through a competitive selection process. Do not rely on the selection committee's familiarity with the nominee.

• The Commission may not give an award in every category.

• Awards will be announced in October 2021 at Housing Washington's virtual event.