Mary E. Brooks
Director, Housing Trust Fund Project
Center for Community Change

Mary E. Brooks has worked as a low-income housing advocate for more than 30 years. The majority of her work has involved policy advocacy advancing affordable housing, land use and zoning, community development, and civil rights issues. She holds a Masters Degree in City and Regional Planning from Ohio State University, where she received the College of Engineering Distinguished Alumna Award. She was awarded the Community Housing Leadership Award by the National Low Income Housing Coalition in 2004.

Currently, she directs the Housing Trust Fund Project of the Center for Community Change. The Center for Community Change is a national nonprofit organization that provides technical assistance and other services to nonprofit organizations working in low income and minority communities throughout the country.

The Housing Trust Fund Project compiles information about the development of housing trust funds throughout the country and promotes the involvement of neighborhood organizations in the creation and implementation of these funds to ensure that they benefit those most in need of housing. Ms. Brooks has prepared several publications on housing trust funds, as well as, publishing a quarterly newsletter that provides current information about the development and implementation of housing trust funds around the country. She devotes most of her time giving technical assistance to nonprofit community organizations and others involved in the creation and implementation of housing trust funds. She is widely recognized as the nation's expert on these unique funds. She created the Housing Trust Fund Project in the mid-1980's.

Ms. Brooks has provided consulting services on low income housing issues; has taught at the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning at University of California at Los Angeles and Columbia University in New York City; and has authored numerous publications and articles on low income housing issues.