Current Projects

Leo Quigley

New position: Senior Program Officer - Housing and Community Development

On October 12, I will join The Boston Foundation as Senior Program Officer - Housing and Community Development. In this role, I will drive the implementation of the Foundation's housing and community development strategy. The work will include developing and managing relationships with partner organizations; leading the design, resourcing, and implementation of key initiatives; and working with Foundation colleagues and external partners to formulate and execute key research, policy, and convenings central to the strategy.

The Boston Foundation
75 Arlington Street
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 338-1700
tbf.org

New publication:

Preserving Affordable Housing Near Transit: Case Studies from Atlanta,
Denver, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Edited for Enterprise, The National Housing Trust, and Reconnecting America, 2010.

Soon to be available at: greencommunitiesonline.org

Recent publications:

Green Affordable Housing Policy Toolkit
Researched and edited for Enterprise Green Communities, 2010.
practitionerresources.org

Innovation in Senior Housing: Four Case Studies
Prepared for the MetLife Foundation and Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., 2010.
practitionerresources.org

Recent Consulting

Client: The Achievement Network (ANet), Boston, Massachusetts
Statistical analysis of student achievement test results in ANet schools in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Louisiana, and the District of Columbia. ANet was recently awarded "Investing in Innovation" (I-3) funding for program expansion from the U.S. Department of Education.

Client: Enterprise Community Partners, Columbia, Maryland
Research, writing, and strategy consulting in a variety of areas including green building, transit-oriented development, senior housing, nonprofit capacity building, and resource development.

Client: The Community Builders, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts
Financial modeling to support acquisitions of foreclosed multifamily properties using NSP-2 funding.

Predatory Equity and TARP/TALF

By 2008, housing advocates at the Urban Housing Assistance Board (UHAB) and Tenants and Neighbors in New York, along with allies across the country, had been sounding the alarm about the rise of "predatory equity" in affordable housing for three years. Their research identified 90,000 units acquired by private equity firms in a short span. Tenant advocates in California saw similar disturbing trends. Financing for these purchases was often predicated on exceptionally large increases in rental income. In New York, this kind of rent increase is achieved either by turning out long-term tenants with low rents or escaping the rent-stabilization system that limits rent increases to the cost of living and appropriate improvements to the properties. This article proposed using the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) to finance the purchase of these at-risk housing projects for preservation as affordable housing resources for decades to come.

See, Run for Shelter: Use the federal TARP money to preserve affordable housing on Slate's The Big Money.

Teaching: Policy Analysis

Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy Laboratory in Issue Analysis (Spring 2009)

Supervising graduate level applied policy analysis exercises for nonprofit and government clients.