THC Affordable Housing, Inc's
Board of Directors
Philip H. Hecht, Esq., President
A partner at K & L Gates LLP, he is one of the founding board members of Transitional Housing Corporation. In his law practice, his commercial litigation practice has focused for more than 23 years on pursuing insurance coverage for toxic tort, environmental, business tort claims. He has been lead counsel in securing coverage for asbestos bodily injury and property damage claims on behalf of numerous Fortune 500 policyholders. He also has been lead counsel in coverage litigation involving environmental contamination at various sites around the country.
Winell Belfonte, CPA, Vice President and Treasurer
A long time resident of the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, Winell Belfonte is a principal of the national accounting and auditing firm Reznick Group. Winell resides in the firm’s national office located in Bethesda, Maryland, where she has served clients nationwide for more than 20 years. She is responsible for planning and performing all aspects of nonprofit, real estate and commercial audit, accounting and financial reporting engagements. In addition to managing client relationships, she is involved in many firm-wide training programs and serves as a classroom instructor for many of these programs. An active member of the community, she has served on the local nonprofit board of Housing Opportunities for Women in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area and frequently consults with Board members of her various non profit clients.
John Steele, Esq., Secretary
A partner at Roetzel & Andress, his practice focuses in the capital markets area with a heavy emphasis on real estate. For over 25 years, he has been involved with sponsors and issuers of real estate-related securities, ranging from small to multi-billion dollar securitization transactions, to funds formed to acquire and originate performing and non-performing real estate loans, to operating companies that originate for portfolio. He has closed several acquisitions and/or debt and equity financings to specialty finance companies. He previously served for two years as CFO of a large mortgage company involved in the origination of commercial and residential mortgage loans originated for the securitization markets. Mr. Steele has spoken at numerous conferences dealing with securitization and specialty finance current developments.
Michael T. Milhaupt, Immediate Past President
Michael T. Milhaupt has served since 1993 as Executive Vice President of First Centrum LLC, which is listed by the American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA) as the 18th largest owner of senior housing in the United States. In this capacity he directs all multi-family housing development for the company. He is specifically responsible for market analysis, site identification and acquisition, entitlements and subsequent development for all First Centrum independent living senior and garden apartment rental communities. He directs the architectural, civil engineering, entitlement legal and general contracting groups in the development of each project and is also responsible for asset management of the property management group during the lease-up process. He oversee the staff of developers in addition to originating proprietary projects, manages the development pipeline, entitlement and product design and quality control for all company projects. He has served in various executive capacities in the multi-family housing industry since 1983, first with Robertson Homes of California and subsequently with First Centrum. In his development career Mr. Milhaupt has been responsible for the development of over 8,000 rental apartment units, including over 2,750 senior apartment units.
Melissa Barrett
Ms. Barrett is counsel in the Washington, DC law firm of BuckleySandler LLP, where she specializes in federal and state mortgage lending law. Ms. Barrett is a member of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Dupont Circle where she previously served as Senior Warden. Ms. Barrett is past president of Samaritan Ministry of Greater Washington and served on its Board of Directors for ten years. Ms. Barrett is passionate about helping the homeless and particularly about helping underprivileged families obtain and maintain housing.
Frank Demarais
Mr. Demarais was elected to the THC Board in 2003 and served as Treasurer from 2003-2006, 2008 and also serves on the THCAH Board of Directors. Mr. Demarais is Vice President and General Manager at Manna Mortgage Corporation, Washington, DC’s first non-profit mortgage company offering low cost services to low and moderate income home buyers and to home owners refinancing high cost loans. Mr. Demarais previously worked at Fannie Mae as Vice President of Product Development and led affordable housing programs in Fannie Mae’s National Community Lending Center. Mr. Demarais also serves on the board of Neighborhood Housing Services of America, a non-profit financial intermediary providing financial services to the non-profit affordable housing sector nationwide.
Mr. Demarais states, “Working for affordable housing, in an employment and volunteer capacity, reflects a desire to make best and highest use of knowledge and skills developed over a career in mortgage and housing finance. The non-profit housing sector relies on the contribution of experienced housing and finance professionals to sustain and expand affordable housing opportunities for the large percentage of our population who live with housing uncertainty.”
Bennett Gray
Mr. Gray is the Senior Director of National Forums and the NAIOP Research Foundation at NAIOP, located in Herndon, VA. NAIOP is a commercial real estate development association for developers, owners and related professionals in office, industrial and mixed-use real estate. He has been a THC and THCAH board member since 2008. Mr. Gray is an active member of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC, and is also a member of the Association Foundation Group, a professional network for those involved with leading, managing, and raising funds for foundations related to membership organizations. Mr. Gray said that volunteering with THC and THCAH provides a meaningful way for him to connect with his extended community and is a great opportunity to give back.
Joseph Howell
A resident of the District, Joseph Howell has over 35 years of experience in housing development, particularly in the area of market analysis. Mr. Howell worked for ZA Consulting and was president and owner of Howell Associates, which for over 18 years specialized in project feasibility, strategic planning and marketing services to the retirement housing, long term care and affordable housing industries. In 1998, Howell Associates merged with ZA Consulting, headquartered in Jenkintown, PA. Mr. Howell has done extensive writing and is currently an Adjunct Professor at The Honors College of The George Washington University.
Robert Leland
Robert Leland has over 30 years of senior executive and consulting experience in local housing and community development; affordable rental and ownership housing finance; nonprofit housing and community development corporation (CDC) management; for-profit housing management and development consulting; and municipal planning. His specific key development experience includes management oversight of affordable homeownership projects and rental housing developments (including LIHTC and Historic Tax Credit financing); affordable cooperative and condominium conversions; member of multi-state CDFI credit committee for financing housing, small business, and water/sewer infrastructure development. His non-profit organization experience includes residential mortgage lending, small business lending, and single and multi-family housing development. He is currently the principal at RCLeland Consulting, LLC.
Roy Pingitore
Mr. Pingitore has been involved in property management for over twenty years leading the efforts of those responsible for improving asset value mainly in the eastern region of the United States. He has been involved in asset management, risk management, property management, which includes lease-ups, new construction and development, management of properties of all quality levels, bankruptcy workouts, rehab projects, financing, and the revitalization of troubled properties. He is a licensed real estate broker (Florida and North Carolina). He has a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from St. Leo College. Mr. Pingitore’s real estate career includes companies such as Western Development Corporation (1988 – 1993), Combined Properties (1993-1995), Wilder Richman Management Corp./The Richman Group (1995-1998), White Oak Management (1998-2001) and Peterson Management (2001-2007) before joining First Centrum/Centrum Management (2007-present).
Scott Sergio, Esq.
A partner at Nixon Peabody LLP, Scott Sergio focuses his practice on the representation of equity investors in the acquisition, development and syndication of affordable housing projects utilizing federal and state low-income housing tax credits, federal and state historic rehabilitation credits, conventional or tax-exempt bond financing, and various other government loan or grant programs. In addition, Scott represents investors, community development entities, and developers in the structuring and negotiation of projects utilizing the New Market Tax Credit program.
Lawrence A. Thrower, Esq.
Mr. Thrower is Principal of the law office of Lawrence A. Thrower, practicing in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. Mr. Thrower is member of Christ Lutheran Church, Washington, DC. Mr. Thrower states, “I volunteer because I want to help. I believe that we all should attempt to use our talents in such a way as to make the world a better place when we leave it than when we arrived.”
