NH&RA Fall Developers Forum (2025)

Separate registration fee required.

David A. Smith is the founder and Chairman of the Board of the Affordable Housing Institute, a global non-profit consultancy that works for the ‘good guys’ around the world. With over 49 years of experience in affordable housing, David uniquely combines the roles of practitioner and theoretician, participant, and policymaker in the affordable housing sector. He’s thoughtful, provocative, funny, and almost never dull.

His work as an international housing finance policy advisor and program developer spans projects in more than 70 countries across 5 continents.

David is also founder and Chairman of Recap Real Estate Advisors, a national expert in complex affordable housing transactions, including public housing revitalization via the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program.

A 1975 Harvard graduate, David is also an award-winning author with more than 400 published articles in real estate, valuation, and policy periodicals, a textbook, including his must-read monthly column for TCA, The Guru Is In. He has received multiple awards, including NAHRO’s Lange Award and NH&RA’s Vision Award for lifetime achievement in affordable housing.

Slides

Ms. Dara Kovel is the Chief Executive Officer of Beacon Communities LLC, a multifamily housing development, investment, ownership and management company with properties throughout New England, New York, and the mid-Atlantic.  The company currently owns over 150 communities with approximately 20,000 units of housing, with a wide variety of affordable, mixed income and mixed-use projects.   Beacon has over 50 years of history creating and maintaining award-winning residential communities that serve a diverse cross-section of society that make enduring contributions to the vitality of the cities and towns where they are located.

Dara began at Beacon in 2015 as President of Beacon Communities Development LLC, overseeing all development activities for Beacon Communities. Dara has been actively involved in the development of affordable housing her whole career. Prior to her joining Beacon, she was Vice President and Chief Housing Officer at the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) where she oversaw all multifamily lending and tax credit allocation activities, as well as the homeownership programs.

Before working at CHFA, Dara ran the New England office of Jonathan Rose Companies, a New York-based, green, real estate development and investment company.  Her previous work was with Mercy Housing California, where she ran the Southern California office and developed affordable housing throughout the state of California.

Dara currently serves on the Urban Land Institute’s Terwilliger Center’s Workforce Housing Board and Boston Advisory Council, the CEDAC Preservation Advisory Committee and the Board of Dwight Hall at Yale.  She holds a BA and MBA from Yale University.

• Rob Charest, Boston Financial
• Ryan Sfreddo, Red Stone Equity Partners
• Kaitlyn Snyder, NH&RA*
• James Tassos, National Council of State Housing Agencies
• Alex Zeltser, Tiber Hudson

Lifting PWI Cap Fact Sheet

25 Percent Test Implementation Recommended Practices

• Diane Clark, Nuestra CDC
• Charlie Rhuda, Novogradac*
• Dave Scheltz, Affirmative Investments
• Sharon Shachar, Ballard Spahr

• Dan Brennan, Maine Housing
• Maura Collins, Vermont Housing Finance Agency
• Rob Dapice, New Hampshire Housing
• Cory Fellows, POAH*
• Nandini Natarajan, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority
• Rebecca Frawley Wachtel, Massachusetts; Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities

• Dana Brown, Fannie Mae
• Todd Gomez, Bank of America
• Liz Hibbard, National Equity Fund
• Jennifer Seamons, Capital One
• Regan St. Pierre, CohnReznick*

• Drew Colbert, Winn
• Diana DiPreta, Beacon Communities
• Andrew Gilmore, Klein Hornig*
• Rachel Glikin Offitzer, The Vistria Group
• Ayanna Oliver-Taylor, Henge Development
• Mark Teden, MassHousing

• Edgar Carrere, Cruz Companies
• Eric DeWitt, AssuredPartners/Gallagher
• Ilana Morof, NH&RA*
• Konrad Schlater, Preservation of Affordable Housing
• Andrew Stebbins, The Architectural Team

• Rob Hazelton, Dominion Due Diligence Group
• Eric Keifer, Rockport Mortgage Corporation
  • Slides
  • Handout: Road to Housing Act Multifamily Provisions
• Joseph Lynch, Nixon Peabody*
• Michelle Molina, J. D’Amelia & Associates