Boston – B’nai B’rith Housing on Tuesday evening honored David M. Abromowitz, a partner in the law firm Goulston & Storrs and a longtime B’nai B’rith Housing Board Member, with its 2013 Distinguished Achievement Award for his many contributions to the creation of affordable housing.
B’nai B’rith Housing, the regional not‐for‐profit housing development organization whose mission is to ease the housing crisis by producing affordable housing throughout Greater Boston, conferred the award at its annual dinner at the Harvard Club in the Back Bay.
“Ours is an ambitious effort, and David inspires us, guides us, and consistently provides the necessary perspective to ensure success,” said B’nai B’rith Executive Director Susan Gittelman. “David’s commitment of building a more equitable society for all of us to enjoy, so basic to his professional work and his charitable pursuits, is at the core of what we do.”
Mr. Abromowitz, who has had a 30-year career at the law firm, is nationally known both for his expertise in housing and economic development and for his many activities in advancing a more just and equitable society. He is credited with creating and preserving tens of thousands of units of affordable housing.
Aaron Gornstein, Undersecretary of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, was a featured speaker, noting that Governor Deval Patrick’s administration is renewing support for assistance to prospective home owners. “We haven’t had a home ownership program for a while, and we’ll be opening up for business in that area soon,” Mr. Gornstein told several hundred guests at the event.
Mr. Abromowitz talked about his career, which early on involved representing 400 public housing tenant families at Columbia Point, then a failing public housing complex in Dorchester and now a successful mixed-use community of market-rate and affordable housing. “I was lucky in particular because of the opportunity to learn how to deploy my professional skills to help in some way with creating a better, lasting community,” Mr. Abromowitz said.
Mr. Abromowitz said B’nai B’rith Housing has a tradition of seeing a need and filling it, and he cited The Coolidge in Sudbury, a 64-unit home for older residents, which is scheduled to start construction in July. The Coolidge and the need for similar housing in communities like Sudbury were previewed in a video presentation shown during the Distinguished Achievement Award Dinner.
B’nai B’rith Housing is also currently competing for the opportunity to construct a mixed-use complex with 79 condominium residences on a City-owned block now used for parking on Austin Street in the Newtonville neighborhood of Newton.
Mr. Abromowitz has helped pioneer innovative approaches to affordable housing like community land trusts and shared-equity homeownership while working on significant commercial real estate projects in the Commonwealth. He co-chairs the 100-person real estate group at Goulston & Storrs’ offices in Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Mr. Abromowitz, who cochaired the Housing Policy Working Group for Gov. Patrick, has been a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he drafted policy that was later enacted as the $8 billion federal Neighborhood Stabilization Act. He is a founding member of the Lawyers’ Clearinghouse on Affordable Housing and Homelessness and of the American Bar Association’s Forum Committee on Affordable Housing and Community Development. He also serves in leadership positions at MassDevelopment, YouthBuild USA and many other nonprofit organizations.
Mr. Abromowitz recalled some “real wisdom” given to him by his grandmother in the Bronx, New York. “As we choose what we do, how we approach work, play, family, love, strangers, and all the other things that come along,” Mr. Abromowitz said, “we do things not only to the world around us, we shape ourselves.”