Members of the Boston area real estate industry and United Way of Massachusetts Bay & Merrimack Valley recently celebrated raising more than $33 million in the last 20 years at their annual real estate breakfast.
Over 1,200 local real estate leaders gathered Oct. 31 for the 20th Annual United Way Real Estate & Building Industry Leadership Breakfast. The event, which was started by Kevin Phelan and the late Ed Sidman, was started in 1993 to help prevent family homelessness.
Through a model called Housing First, which strives to move families quickly from shelters to stable, permanent housing, families struggling with homelessness get greater benefit from services, suffer fewer negative effects and are more likely to become financially stable in the long run.
“We’re in an industry where action is really from the ground up, from the dirt up. What’s whether it’s a skyrise or a two-story home in Newton,” said Phelan, co-chairman of Colliers International’s Boston office. “I think the attachment to this project is the gratification of seeing people’s needs fulfilled. It’s just a natural progression of what we do.”
As a result of the event fundraising, the United Way Housing First project has helped end homelessness for 1,200 families. Seventy-seven percent of those families remain stable after three years, and help save taxpayers $3.6 million in long-term shelter costs, according to a press release.
United Way of Massachusetts also presented the Norman B. Leventhal/Edwin N. Sidman Real Estate and Building Industry Leadership Award to Ronald M. Druker of The Druker Co. and Thomas J. Hynes Jr. of Colliers International. The award recognizes industry members who have greatly contributed to the real estate community, both professionally and philanthropically.
While the inaugural event was a breakfast for around 250 people, it has more than quadrupled in size and has spawned similar events in other industries.
“When we did this 20 years ago, we really created a model. Now, I believe the venture capitalist industry, lawyers, and some other subgroups have done their own industry events based on that template,” said Phelan.
The organization has no plans to slow down their efforts. “The next step is really that many of the 1,200 people that attended have the capacity to do more,” said Phelan. “There’s no reason that the dollars can’t be more generous in the future.”
