The National Affordable Housing Management Association (NAHMA) congratulates the 2026 Affordable Housing Vanguard Awards winners. The awards recognize newly developed or significantly rehabbed affordable multifamily housing communities that showcase high-quality design and resourceful financing.
“The excellence exhibited throughout these multifamily developments dispels the notion that affordable housing cannot be an asset to their communities. Vanguard Award winners deliver powerful proof that affordable housing done well can transform neighborhoods and the lives of individual residents,” NAHMA CEO Kris Cook, CAE, said.
The Affordable Housing Vanguard Awards winners will be recognized at an awards ceremony at the NAHMA Biannual Top Issues in Affordable Housing Conference in November 2026 in Washington, D.C.
The 2026 winners are:
- New Construction, under 100 units: Mitchell Park Place, Palo Alto, Calif.; Management Company: Eden Housing Management Inc.; Owner: Eden Housing Inc., Hayward, Calif.
Developed by Eden Housing and AbilityPath, Mitchell Park Place offers 50 affordable apartments, including 25 reserved for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The community reached full occupancy within a month of opening in November 2025.
- New Construction, over 100 units: Walnut Knoll, Foxborough, Mass.; Management Company: Peabody Properties Inc.; Owner: AHSC Peabody Developer LLC & Onyx Group Development, Braintree, Mass.
Developed by the Walnut Street Joint Venture, Walnut Knoll provides 200 affordable apartments for adults 55 and older. Built to Passive House standards, the community began welcoming residents in September 2025.
- Major Rehabilitation of an Existing Rental Housing Community: Evergreen East, Fairport, N.Y.; Management Company: WinnResidential; Owner: WinnCompanies, Boston, Mass.
A multiyear rehabilitation preserved and modernized all 508 homes at Evergreen East, a historic affordable community, while residents remained on-site throughout construction. The community was completed in October 2025.
- Major Rehabilitation of a Nonhousing Structure into Affordable Rental Housing: The Stewart Cannery at Railroad Square, Santa Rosa, Calif.; Management Company: The John Stewart Company; Owner: The Cannery at Railroad Square LP (John Stewart Company and Pacific Housing), San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif.
The Stewart Cannery transformed a historic 1908 cannery building into 129 affordable apartments, including units for formerly homeless families, helping address housing needs following the 2017 Sonoma County fires.
- Major Rehabilitation of a Historic Structure into Affordable Rental Housing: Ellis Block, New Britain, Conn.; Management Company: WinnResidential; Owner: WinnCompanies, Boston, Mass.
Ellis Block Apartments converted the former Landers, Frary & Clark manufacturing complex into 154 mixed-income apartments, preserving the site’s industrial character while adding affordable and workforce housing.
For details on each of the NAHMA Vanguard Award winners, visit https://www.nahma.org/award/vanguard-awards-2026/.
The Vanguard Awards demonstrate that exceptional new affordable housing is available across the country; confirm that the affordable multifamily industry is and must be creative if such exceptional properties are to be built given the financial and other challenges to development; highlight results of the private/public partnerships required to develop today’s affordable housing; and share ideas for unique design and financing mechanisms with industry practitioners to further stimulate creative development in the affordable multifamily industry.
The judges of this year’s Vanguard Awards were distinguished NAHMA members from across the country: Phil Carroll, Community Housing Services; Frank DuPree, Vista Capital Management Group; Glenda Leduc, Mansermar Inc.; Jim McGrath, PRD Management Inc.; and Michele Nathaniels, Seldin Company.
NAHMA is the leading voice for the affordable housing management industry, promoting developing, managing and preserving quality affordable multifamily housing. NAHMA advocates for legislative and regulatory policy and provides affordable housing professionals with the knowledge to advance excellence in the communities they serve. NAHMA’s membership represents 75% of the affordable housing industry and includes its most distinguished multifamily owners and management companies. Visit www.nahma.org for more information.