NAHRO Awards
National Housing Peers Recognize CIHA's Innovation
In May, Cook Inlet Housing Authority (CIHA) won three regional Awards of Merit in Housing and Community Development from the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO). Two of the three submissions have been sent on for consideration of a National Award of Excellence.
Our submissions for "Building Partners for Our Community" (CIHA’s 2003 housing forum) and Report to the Community 2004 (CIHA's CD rom project) both received Merit Awards in the Administrative Innovation category. Administrative Innovation includes programs that improve the efficiency or effectiveness of administrative operations or the general functioning of the agency in such areas as management systems, maintenance, community relations, inter-agency cooperation, computer use, professional development and/or public relations.
In the project design category, Cook Inlet Housing entered Kenatize Pointe, the 53 unit elder apartment building designed by Koonce Pfeffer Bettis and completed in the fall of 2002. This category focuses primarily on the physical or landscape design of a building or project.
The Report to the Community and the Kenaitze Pointe entries were sent on for consideration of a National Award of Excellence. Winners will be announced during the NAHRO summer conference in San Francisco in mid-July.
The purpose of the Merit Award is to give national recognition to the achievement and innovation of NAHRO agency members throughout the country; to provide additional opportunities to inform the public of the best in housing and community development; and to create a resource bank of information on significant, innovative activities performed by housing and redevelopment agencies and those associated with community development. Information from award recipients also will be used to support NAHRO's positions at HUD and in Congress. All entries are judged on their own merit -- not in competition with each other.
The purpose of the Award of Excellence is to recognize outstanding innovation and achievement in housing and community development programs throughout the country. Entrants in the Awards of Excellence are chosen from among the Award of Merit entries by NAHRO Regional juries and sent on to national juries for the choice of winners by competition. The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) is the leading housing and community development advocate for the provision of adequate and affordable housing and strong, viable communities for all Americans -- particularly those with low- and moderate-incomes. Its members administer HUD programs such as Public Housing, Section 8, CDBG and HOME.