LaVon Holden Named 2010 Mary Nenno Award Winner

NAHRO is pleased to announce that LaVon Holden, Deputy Director of the Vancouver (Wash.) Housing Authority, is the winner of the 2010 Mary K. Nenno Advocacy Award. Ms. Holden has devoted her life and career to advocacy on behalf of affordable housing issues. She has served on and chaired the legislative committees of several statewide and local housing-related organizations in Washington State, including the Clark County Association of Human Service Agency Executives, the Association of Washington Housing Authorities and the Washington Low-Income Housing Alliance. She has also been instrumental in the formation of several local and statewide organizations and the establishment of cross-jurisdictional programs, all of which address issues of affordable housing and homelessness. Examples of the latter include the intergovernmental Council for the Homeless and Bridges to Housing, which was tasked with creating a unified approach to providing permanent housing and supportive services for homeless families in the Portland metropolitan area-a four-county, two-state area that includes Vancouver and Clark County. Through her efforts, Washington state now has a sustainable and ongoing Housing Trust Fund. Two funds created in part as a result of her dedicated advocacy efforts established housing trust funds to address affordable housing and permanent housing for the homeless in each of Washington state's 39 counties.

Among those who endorsed Ms. Holden for this year's award are Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and former NAHRO President and director of the Vancouver Housing Authority Kurt Creager, who said, "I am a big devotee of LaVon and her work in Vancouver as well as the state of Washington...From my direct experience, [LaVon and Mary Nenno] share an unwavering passion to the cause of decent, safe, sanitary and affordable homes and sustainable communities for all Americans regardless of income, race, ethnicity, class, gender or sexual preference."

In accepting the award, Ms. Holden underscored the importance of citizen advocacy. "The only way to make something happen," she said, "is for like-minded people to communicate a common message about what is important. And there are no more important issues than social equity and affordable housing." She also noted that "[Good advocacy is] about speaking out for what you believe is important, and it takes a little bit of a different dimension when you are speaking for those who are not able to speak for themselves."

Ms. Holden accepted her award on Wed., March 31, at the 2010 NAHRO Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. To learn more about NAHRO's Mary Nenno Award, please visit our website at /nenno-award. Information on the 2011 nominating process and application deadline will be forthcoming in the months ahead.