James A. Johnson Fellows, 2002 Fellows

Get to know our 2002 Fellows.

Jan Breidenbach, Executive Director
SCANPH, Los Angeles, CA

Since 1991, Jan Breidenbach has been executive director of the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing (SCANPH), a Los Angles-based, 550+-membership association dedicated to the production and preservation of affordable housing for low-income people. Virtually every nonprofit developer in Southern California is a member, along with for-profit developers, lenders, local governments, social service agencies, and ancillary businesses. Jan has been successful in moving affordable housing into a more visible and proactive position on the public agenda.

Jan's greatest achievement may be the creation and success of Housing LA. Conceived in 1998 to address the problem of maintaining even minimal levels of city housing funding, Housing LA was a citywide campaign for a $100 million annual housing trust fund. One civic leader called it "the largest coalition of unlikely allies" the city has ever seen, but with Jan's strategy and determination, the campaign was a success. She convinced the entire elected leadership of the city to support the Housing LA fund, which had a self-imposed deadline of December 2001 to achieve the goal. Even though it experienced no organized opposition, the campaign was tested after September 11th when the Los Angeles economy went into a tailspin. The effort held steady, however, and the successfully funded LA Housing Trust Fund was announced just two weeks after deadline.

Jan also argued successfully for regional allocation of state housing funds for Southern California. In 1997, she convened CDC leaders to address the impact of the recent recession, earthquake, and riot, and she helped preserve and re-energize all of the struggling organizations. Before coming to SCANPH, Jan was the founding executive director of the Coalition for Women's Economic Development, a microenterprise nonprofit.

James F. Capraro, Executive Director
Greater Southwest Development Corporation, Chicago, IL

James Capraro is executive director of the Greater Southwest Development Corporation (GSDC), an organization he founded in 1975 to improve his neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. Long home to factories and working-class ethnic European immigrant families, the neighborhood in the early 1970s was in swift decline. Racial tensions were high, and longstanding businesses were threatening to leave, taking their jobs with them. Today, largely as a result of Jim's leadership, the increasingly diverse community welcomes new immigrants and works together toward shared goals.

Over the past 25 years, GSDC has attracted $492 million to Southwest Chicago in real estate development, including multi- and single-family housing creation and rehabilitation, industrial attraction and retention, and retail and mixed-use development.

In the Greater Southwest Model Industrial Corridor, Jim led an effort to retain existing companies, attract new companies, connect residents with employment opportunities and local suppliers with vending opportunities, and improve the community's infrastructure. Nabisco, the world's largest bakery, decided to stay and has invested $220 million in a $5.5 billion project; 1,800 jobs were saved. StyleMasters ®, a million-square-foot manufacturing and distribution center owned by an African-American woman, is a $45 million project that retained 100 jobs and created 600 new ones. Tootsie Roll has invested $30 million toward a $130 million project and has retained 700 jobs.

GSDC's Western Avenue Retail Corridor projects have attracted more than $100 million in new retail development, including the transformation of a vacant former pornographic theater into $1.5 million tax-reactivation project to house two new commercial ventures. A vacant, blighted 132-acre Conrail yard site has become a $35 million enterprise, including $1 million for local housing rehabilitation and a projected 600 jobs.

Jim's vision of a healthy community includes diverse populations, good housing options, a vibrant economy, and strong social services and civic institutions. His dedication to and success in realizing that vision in his own southwest Chicago community has led to demand for his expertise in many other cities.

R. Chuck Gatson, Executive Director
Community Builders of Kansas City, Kansas City, MO

R. Charles "Chuck" Gatson is executive director of Community Builders of Kansas City (CBKC) in Kansas City, Missouri, where he has served in various capacities for the last ten years. In his 24 years in the field of community development, he has worked as a neighborhood organizer, a city official, a development specialist, and a lender. His current position makes use of all his previous experience.

Chuck believes the key to sustainable development is community building. He was primarily responsible for the Mount Cleveland Initiative, a $100 million urban revitalization project in Kansas City. Anchored by the $20 million Swope Parkway Health Center, the project includes 250 units of single- and multifamily housing, 15,000 square feet of commercial office space, and another 150,000 square feet of retail space. A daycare center and Imani House, a drug rehabilitation center, are nearby.

Chuck secured more than $9 million in direct federal grants over seven years for the Initiative while simultaneously accessing local CDBG, HOME, Capital Improvements, Section 108, and local and national philanthropic funds to support the project. The CBKC staff worked with residents and the city to clear out abandoned houses used by addicts. They patrolled to prevent dumping and started construction on the first new single-family homes in the area in 40 years. Many existing homes were slated for renovation.

Because of the Initiative, homeownership on the Eastside has increased 13 percent since 1992 and new home values have jumped by 28 percent. Chuck's skill in convening and holding together a diverse array of public, private, nonprofit, and neighborhood stakeholders in common purpose is key to his accomplishments.

In partnership with the University of Missouri of Kansas City, Chuck has developed new tools for measuring the physical and social impacts of community development work. In this effort, CBKC served as sponsor to the Kansas City Region of the Development Leadership Network's Success Measures Project, a practitioner-driven review of community development assessment tools.

Chuck has been active nationally through participation in the National Community Building Network, the Urban Land Institute, the American Planning Association, the National Council of Community Economic Development, and the NAACP.

Robert L. Jackson, Chief Executive Officer
Quitman County Development Organization, Inc., Marks, MS

Since 1987, Robert Jackson has been chief executive officer of the Quitman County Development Organization, Inc. (QCDO) in Marks, Mississippi. With his leadership, the organization has increased its asset base by more than 500 percent and has expanded its staff from a single person to 22. More than 65 percent of the households in the area have participated in QCDO initiatives, which include sustainable community development, community development finance, and microenterprise and housing development. This indigenous leader, after leaving to receive an education, returned to his home community to make a difference, and he has become nationally recognized for his efforts.

Rural Quitman County is one of the poorest regions in the country. As a QCDO staff member, Robert established the Quitman Tri-County Federal Credit Union especially to benefit low-income African Americans who had little success obtaining bank loans. Now one of the premier rural-based community development credit unions in the nation, it has been widely studied as a model. Since 1981, it has assembled assets of well over $5 million and has made more than 11,500 loans worth some $13.5 million to low-wealth families. The corresponding Quitman County Youth Credit Union Program, established in 1994, has enabled 650 young members to accumulate more than $54,000 in assets and learn how to support their dreams.

In 1989, Robert created Big River Housing Development Corporation, the first nonprofit certified as a CHDO in Mississippi. In 1985, he created the Black Church Community and Economic Development Program, which has helped some 300 faith-based organizations with a wide range of projects. In 1999, he founded the Mississippi Association of CDCs and the 21st Century Investment Club.

QCDO's Clint Handy Estates in Sledge is the first multifamily affordable housing in the community. Hundreds of families have assumed mortgages through an innovative non-conforming mortgage program, significantly boosting the county's homeownership rate. He initiated a three-state, seven-organization collaboration to address issues of credit, predatory lending, and wealth building. Among other honors and awards, Robert has been recognized as a Kellogg Fellow and a Whitney Fellow.

Ronald L. Phillips, President and CEO
Coastal Enterprises, Wiscasset, MA

Since 1977, Ronald "Ron" Phillips has been president and CEO of Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI) in Wiscasset, Maine. He founded the community development corporation and financial institution to provide financing and technical assistance to small businesses, natural resource industries, and affordable housing and social services providers. Today, CEI has eight branches, a staff of 89, and $90 million in assets. It has mobilized more than $400 million of mostly private capital to develop 350 units of affordable housing and create 1,200 ventures that employ some 10,000 people.

Ron began CEI with an innovative investment in the aquaculture and fishing industries. He trained pioneering aquaculturists and organized the Maine Aquaculture Association. Today, $23 million has been invested in 140 small-scale aquaculture ventures along the Maine coast, including the innovative Portland Fish Pier. CEI's organizational capacity, financing, and technical assistance have been important to Maine's economy and play a vital role in the future of the state's traditional farming communities and its newer Internet-based and biotechnology firms. Some of Maine's most notable companies, such as Tom's of Maine, Delorme Mapping, and Moss, Inc., have been CEI ventures. Last year, CEI and its partner were awarded federal funds to redevelop the site of the decommissioned Maine Yankee nuclear plant.

In 1985, Ron initiated a microenterprise lending and women's business assistance program and he secured a Women's Business Center for the state. In 1988, he successfully advocated for a state appropriation to launch child-care development project with the Ford Foundation and several Maine companies. Today, more than $10 million has been mobilized for 120 providers who serve 2,500 children. In 1990, CEI was selected by the Lilly Endowment to create partnerships among the religious and CDC sectors. This prompted CEI to develop its housing program, which today specializes in affordable housing for people with disabilities, single parents in transition, and low-income residents who can become homeowners through lease-purchase. Ron recently arranged for CEI to manage a $430 million affordable-housing fund from 14 banks under the Maine Community Reinvestment Corporation.

Ron helped build the state's community investment infrastructure by obtaining support from the Finance Authority of Maine and key legislators for a $10 million program to capitalize regional revolving loan funds. He was a founding member of a coalition that advocated successfully for a $12 million affordable housing bond. He has led numerous initiatives in the areas of rural development, CDFI legislation, and SBA microenterprise.

William T. Sullivan, President and CEO
Rocky Mountain Mutual Housing Association, Inc., Denver, CO

Since 1994, William "Bill" Sullivan has been president and CEO of Rocky Mountain Mutual Housing Association, Inc. (RMMHA) in Denver, Colorado, a membership organization known nationally for its real estate development, asset management, and operational accomplishments. It has grown from a staff of one to 118 and has expanded to control more than $110 million in assets with an annual budget of $15 million. It has housing communities in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona and may soon expand into Nevada. Bill has worked for the for-profit, public, and nonprofit sectors but, for the last eight years, has been the driving force behind RMMHA.

Bill's passion has been to develop the potential of people, using affordable housing as the organizing vehicle. He has worked in the field of housing and community development for 27 years and has developed a leadership model that builds stable communities from the ground up. A volunteer board that blends residents, advocates, and professionals for the business and public sectors governs RMMHA. RMMHA also supports Resident Councils in its communities and strives to create a sense of pride and ownership.

The RMMHA model emphasizes housing stability as a basis for personal empowerment, and it supports affordable housing opportunities with financial literacy classes, homeownership counseling programs, and an IDA savings program. Many RMMHA communities incorporate technology centers and after-school programs, and collaborative relationships with other service providers are encouraged. RMMHA's success is reflected in low vacancy rates, low turnover rates compared with area markets, and high numbers of residents who go on to purchase their own homes.

In addition to his work with RMMHA, Bill serves as a leader in a wider arena. Bill and a few other advocates regenerated the Colorado Affordable Housing Partnership to explain how the lack of affordable housing affects businesses, communities, and political jurisdictions. Building regard for affordable housing has resulted in a state low-income tax credit to extend the resources for development, tax abatement for public-housing properties, and increased funding for the Division of Housing. He helped establish the Neighborhood Capital Corporation (NCC) to provide access to capital and serves as its first president.