Social Housing Found

South End Community Development Inc. was a new idea when Whittlesey accepted its directorship. He worked with the United South End Settlements staff on a successful proposal to rehabilitate South End houses in one of Bostons urban renewal areas. They received a grant from the US Federal Housing and Home Agencies for $205,000 matched with a contribution of $50,000 from the United South End Settlements and $75,000 from the Committee of the Permanent Charity Fund, now known as the Boston Foundation. This book tells the story of the completion of that Demonstration Program, of its transformation into a technical assistance corporation, and its expansion into the Greater Boston area.
Convinced that financing was key for successful affordable housing ventures, Whittlesey accepted the directorship of the Boston Housing Partnership (BHP). BHP organized the projects, raised financing for them, and had local community development corporations own and operate them. BHP became a model for the nation. Conducting a national survey and identifying the presence of significant housing organizations around the country, Whittlesey then left BHP to head up the organization of a national association of housing partnerships, now known as the Housing Partnership Network (HPN). With a hundred members, by 2014, HPN had collectively developed and preserved over three hundred thousand units of affordable rental housing and built, rehabilitated, or financed sixty-three thousand single-family homes.

This book is the personal account of one of the founders of community development in the United States. He was of the "greatest generation" and has been called "the Pete Seeger of affordable housing." Langley Keyes, professor emeritus at MIT, states that "Bob Whittlesey is the heart and soul of a movement that has impacted American life for the past half century. The book is an incredible story of engagement from the Battle of the Bulge in World War II to the Housing Partnership Network in the twenty-first century. Whittlesey has fought the good fight for low-income housing needs in one forum after another-most of which he has personally created and caused to flourish. He has been a rock of integrity, commitment, and creativity in providing good housing for all Americans. Filled with personal history and detailed knowledge of the transformation of the affordable housing world, this is the book to read for those concerned with social housing and the power of one individual to shape its destiny."
Whittlesey holds a degree in engineering from Princeton University and a master's degree in urban planning from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Sears Roebuck fellow. He has taught at the University of Massachusetts and the Kennedy School at Harvard University. He has served on numerous nonprofit boards of directors and published widely.