'Rehab Addict' Nicole Curtis to headline 16th annual Building Michigan Communities Conference

LANSING, Mich., April 1, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Michigan native Nicole Curtis, host of the "Rehab Addict" television show, will serve as a keynote speaker at the 16^th annual Building Michigan Communities Conference slated for April 28–30 at the Lansing Center in downtown Lansing.

Registration for the conference is ongoing, but the deadline for early bird sign-up is the close of business Monday, April 7. Registration details are available at www.buildingmicommunities.org.

The Building Michigan Communities Conference, which annually draws more than 1,700 attendees, is one of the largest of its kind in the United States. Service providers, nonprofit and for-profit developers and financiers who are focused on improving Michigan's communities are among those who attend.

More than 100 breakout sessions are planned over the three-day event. Topics broadly address the creation and preservation of housing, providing services to the homeless and revitalization of neighborhoods and downtowns.

Curtis, whose show appears on HGTV and DIY network and features homes in Detroit and Minneapolis, will speak during the conference's April 28 luncheon. She is a self-taught rehabber and designer who advocates for saving old houses and rebuilding communities.

The April 29 luncheon will feature awards presentations, and on April 30, Carlotta Walls LaNier – the youngest of the Little Rock Nine – will provide the keynote presentation. She was 14 when she and eight other African American students became the first to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957. After graduating from Central High School, she attended Michigan State University and graduated from Colorado State College (now the University of Northern Colorado).

Other featured speakers include Scott Woosley, executive director of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), and Christopher Leinberger, president of Locus: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors.

Since joining MSHDA in the fall of 2012, Woosley has focused on spurring investment growth, promoting homeownership, revitalizing Michigan's downtowns and neighborhoods, and ensuring there's an ample supply of quality, affordable housing. Leinberger is a land use strategist, teacher, developer, researcher and author. His most recent book is "The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream."

Both Woosley and Leinberger will speak during the April 28 breakfast that kicks off the conference.

The Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) provides financial and technical assistance through public and private partnerships to create and preserve decent, affordable housing for low- and moderate-income residents and to engage in community economic development activities to revitalize urban and rural communities.*

*MSHDA's loans and operating expenses are financed through the sale of tax-exempt and taxable bonds as well as notes to private investors, not from state tax revenues. Proceeds are loaned at below-market interest rates to developers of rental housing, and help fund mortgages and home improvement loans. MSHDA also administers several federal housing programs.

For more information, visit www.michigan.gov/mshda.

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SOURCE Michigan State Housing Development Authority

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