Board of Directors

Housing and Human Development Corporation's Board of Directors

Rose Dubin
President

Rose is an independent HUD and Tax Credit Consultant and Contractor. Her specialties include HUD and Tax Credit compliance, and consulting services for these affordable housing programs.   She provides on-site staff training services for these program types for nationally known organizations and Management Companies.  She also provides her expertise in these areas by acting as an internal auditor for Management Companies/Owners by conducting tenant file auditing services.  

Her past experience includes supervision of field auditors for a (PBCA) Performance Based Contract Administrator having a portfolio of over 200 Section 8 properties.  She has served as a Management Agent and held supervisory roles with Property Management Companies for portfolios of HUD/ Tax Credit affordable housing sites.  She received a bachelor’s degree in education, and received her CPM designation in 2009.

John Kennedy

Vice President

John has extensive experience in developing and managing affordable housing while serving as VP and President of Metroplex, Senior VP at Related Management in Chicago and Executive VP with Evergreen Real Estate Services, LLC  He graduated from DePaul University College of Law with a JD and received a BS Degree in Business from Marquette University.

Eleanor Gross

Secretary

Eleanor (Ele) retired in 2018 after 40+ years in the affordable housing arena.  She has served as an independent consultant in affordable housing since retirement.

Ms. Gross was most recently Assistant Commissioner in the Developer Services Division of the City of Chicago Department of Housing (DOH).  She supervised staff in processing financing applications utilizing HOME, CDBG, ARC and LIHTC funding in combination with financing from other sources, i.e. HUD, IHDA and CHA.

Prior to that position, Ms. Gross spent 22 years as a development consultant with Technical Assistance Corporation for Housing (TACH) and worked with both non-profit and for-profit clients to secure financing for development of affordable housing.  Her involvement extended from inception to completion of construction and achievement of initial occupancy.

Laura Prohov

Treasurer

Laura has a long history in the social services' arena and has just recently retired from her position as Vice President of Community Services for Council for Jewish Elderly (CJE).  During her tenure at CJE, she provided operational, financial and strategic planning services for new community initiatives and oversaw home and community based services.  She, also, served in the capacity of Director of Planning and Government Affairs at CJE.

Previous employment has included Community Coordinator for international cultural exchange child care program at Au Pair in America; Planning Associate at Diversified Health Resources; Home Health and Home Services Agency Administrator for Service Master Home Health Care Services, Inc.; and Social Worker at Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center.

Ms Prohov has a BS from the University of Illinois, Master's Degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Northwestern University - Kellogg Graduate School.

Linda Brace

Director

Linda has broad experience in the development of affordable housing.  Skills and experience include financial underwriting and development of comprehensive project proformas; private and public financing, land use for planned developments, zoning variations and infrastructure and site planning.

Most recently, she was a Developer in the acquisition and rehab division of Evergreen Real Estate Group for four years.  Previously with Community Builders, Ms. Brace led the redevelopment of the Harold Ickes Revitalization, a proposed 1,000 unit redevelopment on a former 3 block CHA public housing site and managed relationships with the community and public housing stakeholders.  At Mercy Housing Lakefront, as VP of Real Estate Development, she directed the development of supportive, family and senior housing in a number of key Chicago neighborhoods - Pullman, Homan Square, Little - utilizing a combination of private and government sources.  As Vice President of Development for Holsten Real Estate Development Corporation, Ms. Brace directed and monitored the development of nearly $500 million of rental,, for-sale and retail developments to serve mixed-income communities.

Ms. Brace has a BA from Illinois Wesleyan University and a Master of Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois.

Executive Staff:

Polly Kuehl, CPM

Executive Director

Polly has a unique blend of skills and experience including property management, development and social services which has enabled her to provide affordable housing with supportive services for the past 40 years.  With a BA in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin, she secured her Master's Degree in Public Administration from University of Minnesota.  She increased her skills by achieving a CPM designation from the Institute of Real Estate Management, Managing Broker license in Illinois and a Principle Broker in Ohio.

Polly worked with Jewish Federation of St. Louis (Director of Housing); Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) (Executive Director of Housing); Providence Management (VP of Housing); and at Evergreen Real Estate Services, LLC (Senior VP of Property Management).  While at LSSI she developed 15+ affordable senior housing properties and grew the property management division from 6 properties to 36+ properties.  She developed the property management division at Providence Management and oversaw the management of 25 properties.

While at Evergreen Real Estate Services, LLC she was Senior Vice President of Property Management and grew the division from 13 properties under management to over 65 properties.  After retiring from Evergreen, she wanted to target her efforts in developing Housing and Human Development Corporation (HHDC) so that the social services component could be fully implemented in affordable housing preservation.

She has worked with all types of financing programs from LIHTC, HUD 202, Capital Advances, HUD insured loans to various subsidy programs (Section 8, PRAC, Chicago Low Income Housing Trust Fund (CLIHTF), ARC, Project Based Vouchers (PBV).  She has a long history of working with government agencies, HUD, IHDA, Chicago Department of Housing, Chicago Housing Authority and others.