LIHTC Veterans Join Walker & Dunlop
Walker & Dunlop has expanded its low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) equity team with the addition of Jack Hodgkins and Stacie Nekus.
Hodgkins, senior vice president and head of LIHTC credit, leads housing credit strategy and underwriting, with a focus on bolstering investment risk analysis, enhancing underwriting rigor, and maintaining portfolio quality. He brings more than 25 years of experience in affordable housing and real estate investment management, with a track record of overseeing billions of dollars in equity investments across tax credit funds and direct investments. Hodgkins is based in Denver.
Nekus, senior managing director and head of business development, leads business development efforts for the firm’s LIHTC investor relations team, focusing on strengthening investor infrastructure, expanding institutional relationships, and driving equity capital formation. She will also focus on enhancing investor reporting, optimizing fund structures, and driving growth across both multi-investor and proprietary funds. Based in Pittsburgh, Nekus brings more than 30 years of real estate experience, including more than 20 years of experience raising and placing equity capital.
Both are part of Walker & Dunlop’s affordable equity platform under the leadership of executive vice president John O’Toole. The team originated over $8.9 billion in affordable and workforce financing from 2022 to 2025 through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and capital markets sources.
NYC Housing Partnership Launches Asset Management Unit
The NYC Housing Partnership has launched an asset management/housing stability unit to strengthen asset management capacity across New York City’s affordable housing ecosystem.
Malcolm McGregor has joined the organization as chief asset management officer, a newly created role, to lead the unit.
The move comes at a time when affordable housing is facing increased financial stress as regulated rents fail to keep pace with rising operating costs, say officials.
The new unit provides earlier identification of emerging risk, tighter coordination among stakeholders, and stronger follow-through so issues are addressed before they become crises.
For more than four decades, nonprofit Housing Partnership has led relationships among private-sector developers and financial institutions and city, state, and federal agencies that have created and preserved 100,000 low and moderate-income housing units in the five boroughs, leveraging over $11.1 billion in private financing and utilizing more than $550 million in subsidies for affordable housing.
McGregor joins the Housing Partnership from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, where he served as senior policy analyst in the Office of Multifamily Analytics and Policy. Previously he was director of policy and analytics at the New York City Housing Development Corp. Earlier in his career he served as senior project manager at the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
RiseBoro Community Partnership Names COO
Melanie E. La Rocca has been appointed chief operating officer (COO) at RiseBoro Community Partnership, a leading nonprofit affordable housing developer and social services provider in New York City.
A veteran of city government and the real estate development sector, La Rocca will oversee RiseBoro's day-to-day operations and help drive the organization's continued growth and mission delivery across the city.
She most recently served as COO of BFC Partners. La Rocca has also served as New York City’s chief efficiency officer under mayor Eric Adams. Prior to that role, she was as commissioner of the city Department of Buildings, where she led the agency responsible for regulating nearly 1.1 million buildings and more than 45,000 active construction sites, advancing a sweeping modernization agenda that improved agency response times and operational consistency.
The appointment is part of a broader effort by RiseBoro to strengthen its leadership team and operational capacity under Kieran Harrington, who joined the organization as CEO in 2024. In 2025, the organization brought to market more than 1,000 affordable units and has over 1,000 units under construction and 2,000 units in development.
Merchants Capital Announces Promotion
Jillian Standish has been elevated to executive vice president and chief credit officer for Merchant Capital’s national tax credit syndication platform.
Since joining the company in 2020, Standish has played a pivotal role in its growth, having managed the underwriting and credit risk for nearly 200 partnerships, representing more than $2.7 billion in equity under management across Merchants’ multi-investor, proprietary, and state credit fund offerings.
Prior to Merchants Capital, Standish provided consulting services for 10 years at Ernst & Young’s Tax Credit Investment Advisory Services group. She advised on federal and state monetizable tax credits, including low-income housing, historic, New Markets, and renewable energy investments and production tax credits.
Standish began her career as a child advocate at a family homeless shelter in East Boston and worked as a Section 8 and Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program representative at Metro Housing Boston. She also served as a project manager for affordable housing developments receiving federal and state soft debt financing at Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities.
Nixon Peabody Adds Counsel
Nixon Peabody has strengthened its counsel ranks with the additional of several members, including Sandra Buchko in the affordable housing and real estate group. She is based in Washington, D.C.
Buchko represents landlords, tenants, real estate developers, embassies, hotels, nonprofits institutions, and real estate investment trusts in retail, office, hospitality, and multifamily real estate transactions. Her work includes landlord and tenant leasing matters; acquisitions and dispositions; financing, including note sales and general foreclosure; and related corporate aspects of commercial and hospitality properties.