Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp. presented excellence in community development awards to several individuals and their organizations for their "outstanding achievements" and their commitment to building and improving communities.

MHIC Chairman Rusty Aertsen and MHIC President Joe Flatley presented the awards at MHIC’s Annual Meeting, held Wednesday in the Bank of America Auditorium in downtown Boston.

"This is my favorite part of our annual meeting. It is a pleasure to honor and celebrate the people who demonstrate what can be done to support and improve communities – even in the most challenging of times – with vision, commitment and perseverance," said Mr. Flatley in presenting the awards.

Excellence in Community Development Awards were given to:

• Ellen Feingold, President of the Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly (JCHE) for "extending an extraordinary helping hand to others in meeting the challenges of aging." For 28 years, Ms. Feingold has been president of the JCHE, a nonprofit dedicated to building and managing affordable, non-sectarian housing for independent seniors in the Greater Boston area.
• She is nationally known and recognized as an expert in the area of affordable housing for seniors. Recently, she worked with MHIC to obtain MHIC’s $3.2 million low-income housing and energy tax credit equity investment to help finance the new construction of 150-unit housing development – Shillman House – for seniors in Framingham. Brookline Bank, in a side-by-side equity investment with MHIC, also provided a $3.2 million equity investment in the project. Shillman House will be competed in 2011.
• Madeleine Steczynski, founder and executive director of Zumix Inc. for "empowering youth to use music to make strong positive change in their lives, their communities, and the world."
• In 1981, Steczynski founded Zumix in response to a particularly violent period for youth in East Boston. With MHIC’s $3.9 million New Markets Tax Credit investment, she oversaw completion of the total adaptive reuse and restoration of a long vacant Boston firehouse in East Boston that now serves as the home of Zumix. The project was started in 2005 and Zumix moved in early this year.
• Richard Stanley, developer of the Beacon Cinema in Pittsfield, for "his entrepreneurial skill and tenacity in developing a thriving cinema complex as the anchor for revitalizing downtown Pittsfield." In late 2009, Stanley completed development of a six-screen cinema complex in downtown Pittsfield. Ten years in the making, the $22.4 million project involved conversion and expansion of a long-vacant historic building.