Edwina Carrington Wins National Commissioner’s Award
(Washington, D.C. — October 26, 2018) –Edwina Carrington, a member of Board of Commissioners of the Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA), was named the 2018 recipient of the Elizabeth B. Wells Memorial Award by the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO). An award presentation will be held on October 26 at the NAHRO National Conference in Atlanta, Ga.
As a HACA commissioner, Carrington helped HACA and its nonprofit subsidiary, the Austin Affordable Housing Corporation (AAHC), to build and acquire more than 2,100 units of affordable housing in Austin, using more than $305 million in tax credits and bonds. She also serves as Austin Mayor Steve Adler’s representative to the board of Affordable Central Texas (ACT), a nonprofit and general partner in an open-ended private equity fund that preserves existing multifamily housing in the Central Texas area.
Throughout her career, Carrington has been an educator on and advocate for affordable housing issues. For eight years, she delivered an introductory class on the Low Income Housing Tax Credit at the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers annual conference. As a trainer, she has traveled throughout the country to educate housing professionals from 1984 to 1986. Carrington has also convened several panels of experts to speak about housing issues and programs.
“Ms. Carrington is a passionate thought leader for housing and community development professionals,” said NAHRO CEO Adrianne Todman. “She has also been a driving force behind affordable housing programs in Austin’s hot housing market.”
Since 1978, Carrington has been involved in the planning, development, financing, and delivery of affordable housing and community development programs in Texas. She has more than 40 years of leadership experience and is currently the president of CHK Enterprises, a commercial real estate consulting company. Previously, she served as president and CEO of the Texas Housing Finance Corporation, a tax credit equity fund that raised over $80 million to invest in tax credit developments in Texas and New Mexico, and the executive director of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, where she was responsible for over $700 million in federal and state funds and a multifamily and single-family exempt bond portfolio of over $1 billion.
Carrington previously served on the board of the Austin Community College (ACC) Foundation, who provided more than 600 desktop computers with free and open source software to HACA residents to connect public housing residents to the internet, digital literacy and earned devices. Their Work Study Internship program provided more than 60 information technology students with seven semester-long internships and resulted in almost $200,000 in paid labor.
Carrington has been a NAHRO member since 1978.
About Elizabeth B. Wells Memorial Award
The Wells Award honors a current commissioner, or one who has served within the past 12 months, who has demonstrated excellence in advocating for and developing the financial, political, and community support necessary to ensure the continuation and expansion of housing or community development programs. The award was established in 1987 in the name of Elizabeth B. Wells to provide a living acknowledgment of the outstanding contributions she made to the housing field as a member of the Board of Commissioners of the King County (WA) Housing Authority and as NAHRO’s first Vice President of the Commissioners Committee.
About NAHRO
NAHRO, established in 1933, is a membership organization of nearly 20,000 housing and community development agencies and professionals throughout the United States whose mission is to create affordable housing and safe, viable communities that enhance the quality of life for all Americans, especially those of low- and moderate-income. NAHRO’s membership administers more than 3 million housing units for 7.6 million people.