CivicCon: Bringing Private Investment To Help Solve Homelessness

351 West Cedar Street,Pensacola FL 32502

28 June, 2021

Description

Private investors And Landlords Need To Be A Part Of Solving Homelessness The Lotus Campaign is a non-profit that has brought the power of private investment to providing housing for the homeless in its community. Philip Payne and Beth Silverman, founders of the Charlotte, NC, nonprofit, will be in Pensacola for a CivicCon speaker event at the stadium from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, June 28. The Lotus Campaign is in its third year of helping homeless families and individuals get off the street and into a home. They believe important missing pieces to solving homelessness has been the lack of private investment as well as cooperation gaining the trust and cooperation of landlords. For nearly 30 years, Payne's background has been in producing and maintaining multifamily rental housing that is affordable to the workforce. He has served in various roles at a number of real estate companies including being Chairman of a public company, CFO of both a private and public company, and a Board Member and Audit Committee Chairman for two public companies. He has extensive experience and expertise in the areas of development, acquisition, rehabilitation, management, operation, financing, tax and legal issues of multifamily housing. He is currently the chairman of Ginkgo REIT, which provides workforce housing in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. He also is a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute. He holds both a BS in Psychology and a JD from the College of William & Mary. Silverman's 15-year career includes leadership roles in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors focused on building livable, equitable and resilient communities. Since 2018, Beth has served as the founding Executive Director of the Lotus Campaign. Under Beth’s leadership, the Lotus Campaign developed 14 partnerships with nonprofits, landlords and funders to facilitate housing for over 280 individuals at an annual cost of less than $800 per person and received an honorable mention in Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas competition. Beth also participated in the 2020 class of SEED20 nonprofit entrepreneurs. Prior to leading the Lotus Campaign, Beth served as Vice President of Advisory Services at the Urban Land Institute, designing technical assistance programs that addressed a range of challenges from equitable urban redevelopment to planning for resilience. From 2005 to 2013, Beth oversaw and managed large-scale real estate, policy, and economic development initiatives throughout the New York City region. While at the NYC Economic Development Corporation, Beth managed a $110 million portfolio of 10 projects that created mixed-income housing, including over 300 units of affordable housing, five new cultural assets, and 16,000 square feet of high-quality public space. Beth holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland and a graduate degree in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. She is an active member of the Urban Land Institute. CivicCon is a joint program of the News Journal and the Studer Community Institute to make Pensacola a better place to live, grow, work and invest though civic conversations and smart planning.