We kick off Season 2 of The Greater Good with a conversation about affordable housing and community economic development. We start by defining both of these terms and then delve into their history in the U.S., the current housing shortage, proposed law and policy changes, and the link to environmental sustainability. Our guests are Greg Payne of the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition and Avesta Housing; Professor Peter Pitegoff of the University of Maine School of Law; and Nina Ciffolillo, the Economic Justice Fellow for the Class of 2021 at the University of Maine School of Law.

Greg Payne is the Director of the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition and a Development Officer at Avesta Housing. Greg has nearly two decades of experience in issues related to housing and homelessness, including work at the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless and the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless. Greg joined Avesta Housing in 2007 as a Development Officer. In addition to his responsibilities for managing all aspects of multifamily rental projects from concept to completion, Greg serves as Director of the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition, a diverse association of more than 125 private and public sector organizations committed to ensuring that all Mainers are adequately and affordably housed. He is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Low Income Housing Coalition and serves on the Board of Genesis Community Loan Fund.

Peter Pitegoff is Professor of Law at the University of Maine School of Law, where he was Dean from 2005 to 2015. He has taught, worked, and written extensively in the areas of community economic development, labor and industrial organization, corporation and nonprofit law, employee ownership, and legal ethics. Pitegoff served for ten years on the board of directors of Coastal Enterprises, Inc., a national leader in community development finance. Prior to his academic career, he was legal counsel for the ICA Group, a Boston firm that assists worker-owned enterprises and related economic development initiatives nationwide.

Nina Ciffolillo is a second year law student at the University of Maine School of Law. She graduated from McGill University with a degree in English and Environment and moved to Maine in 2016, where she worked for two seasons on a vegetable farm. She began at Maine Law in 2018 and is the Economic Justice Fellow for the Class of 2021. Last summer, in connection with her fellowship, she worked in affordable housing development and policy at Avesta Housing. She plans to use her law degree to combat economic and environmental injustice.