The Sonoma County Housing Coalition will presents the Housing Hero Award to the person, people or organization that has made a significant contribution to providing affordable housing in Sonoma County each year. It could be a person who has worked for years to make a difference in this field or who has given large, continuing contributions, or people within an entity who have worked to make a significant policy change that has affected the community’s ability to create affordable housing, or an organization or developer who has helped provide affordable housing in a creative or significant way during the past year.

The award recipient receives the Housing Hero Award at the Affordable Housing Week Leadership Breakfast each year.

2009 Housing Hero

Craig Meltzner of Craig S. Meltzner & Associates was awarded the 2009 Sonoma County Housing Hero award. The award was presented this morning at the Affordable Housing Week Leadership Breakfast by Gale Brownell, vice-chair of the Sonoma County Housing Coalition. The Leadership Breakfast kicked off Affordable Housing Week in Sonoma County.

The Housing Hero Award recognizes the person, business or organization that has made a significant contribution to providing affordable housing in Sonoma County. According to Brownell, Meltzner was selected because, “Craig is the ‘go-to’ guy for affordable housing development in Sonoma County. He’s been involved in creating over 2,000 affordable housing units for our residents. His formidable record of success, his in-depth knowledge of what it takes to create affordable housing, and his personal commitment to our community made Craig an easy choice for our 2009 Housing Hero award.”

On receiving the award, Meltzner thanked the Sonoma County Housing Coalition and said, “…peer recognition is most gratifying because only you (his peers) understand the craziness we go through to create affordable housing. I’m grateful to have spent almost 25 years working in Sonoma County which has an extremely committed and capable network supporting advocacy, policy, planning, design, construction, financing and operation of affordable housing. I’m very proud to have touched thousands of live in a positive way…and I thank you for this honor.”

Craig S. Meltzner & Associates is a professional housing and community development consulting firm established in 1989 to assist community-oriented developers to plan, permit, and finance affordable homeownership, rental housing, emergency housing, and related community services. The firm helps to identify and secure available financing and help meet multiple requirements for project permitting and development. Their services include planning, development, and management of housing programs and projects; client representation to public agencies; project feasibility analyses and finance packaging; organizational development and training; and proposal writing.

Previous Housing Hero honorees include the City of Petaluma (2008); Sydney and Herschel Berry, housing advocates for the disabled (2007); Ray Ambrosio, Christopherson Homes (2006); Stephen Burke, City of Santa Rosa Director of Housing and Redevelopment Department (2005), and Burbank Housing Development Corp. (2004).

The Sonoma County Housing Coalition is a broad-based group of more than 100 housing interests working to provide housing for low and moderate income people throughout Sonoma County and its nine cities and towns. The Coalition’s members include representatives from businesses, unions, faith-based organizations, non-profit and for-profit developers, environmental groups and housing advocates. Since it was founded in 2001, the organization has advocated for 600 affordable housing units in Sonoma County.

Past Housing Heroes:

2008: City of Petaluma
2007: Sydney and Herschel Berry, Housing Advocates for the Disabled
2006: Ray Ambrosio, Christopherson Homes
2005: Stephen F. Burke, Executive Director, City of Santa Rosa Redevelopment Agency
2004: Burbank Housing Development Corp.

2010 Nominations

To submit a nomination, please use the online submission form on this page.

Nominations are due by April 16, 2010