Award Honorees
NHPF Affordable Housing Trailblazer Awards DARIN LAHOOD, REPRESENTATIVE (R-IL)
Congressman Darin LaHood serves the constituents of the 16th District of Illinois. Prior to his election to Congress, LaHood served four years in the Illinois State Senate. LaHood spent more than nine years as a State and Federal Prosecutor. From 2001– 2006, he worked for the U.S. Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney in Las Vegas, Nevada and was selected as the Chief Terrorism Prosecutor. LaHood has also served as an Assistant State's Attorney in Cook County and Tazewell County. From 2006 up until his election to the House of Representatives, he practiced with the Peoria law firm of Miller, Hall & Triggs. LaHood currently serves on the House Ways and Means Committee; is the
Chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare; and is a member of the Subcommittee on Trade. In 2021, LaHood was appointed to serve on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In 2022, LaHood was appointed to serve on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. LaHood also serves on the House Democracy Partnership and currently co-chairs the bipartisan US-China Working Group, Digital Trade Caucus, U.S.-Lebanon Friendship Caucus, and Congressional Soccer Caucus.
RITCHIE TORRES, REPRESENTATIVE (D-NY) Representative Ritchie Torres is a fighter from the Bronx who spent his entire life working for the community he calls home. Like many in the South Bronx, poverty and struggle have never been abstractions to him. At 25, Ritchie became NYC’s youngest elected official and the first openly LGBTQ person elected in the Bronx. He represents New York’s 15th Congressional District and is a member of the Financial Services Committee and the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party. At the City Council, Ritchie passed over forty pieces of legislation, including legislation protecting the City’s affordable housing stock and tackling the city’s opioid epidemic. As the Chairman overseeing NYCHA, he held the first committee hearing ever in public housing, which led to a $3 billion-dollar FEMA investment. As Chair of the
Oversight & Investigations Committee, Ritchie has led investigations into the heating outages and lead poisoning at NYCHA, the Taxi Medallion scandal, the City’s controversial Third-Party Transfer program, and Kushner Companies.
NHPF Industry Leader Award PAUL SWEEN, SENIOR MANAGING PARTNER, DOMINIUM
Active in the multi-housing industry since 1981, Paul Sween joined Dominium in 1989. During his involvement, the company has grown from managing 2,700 units to nearly 40,000 units and more than 220 properties. Prior to Dominium, Sween worked for the international accounting firm Ernst & Young. Sween is Capital Campaign co-Chair for CommonBond, the Minnesota-based affordable housing not-for-profit, and a member of the Council of Large Affordable Housing Owners. Previous board engagements include serving as chair of the Minnesota Housing Partnership. Sween is a founding donor to the Dominium Foundation which contributes to important housing and social service organizations in the communities
where Dominium operates. He also helped spearhead and fund the creation of Opportunity’s Front Door, a program that provides up to $2 million in post-secondary scholarships to Dominium residents, employees, and their dependents.
THE NHP FOUNDATION 2024 SYMPOSIUM • 7
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