Episode description
Episode description
Part two of our conversation about affordable housing andcommunity economic development focuses on the factors that create vibrant, successful
communities in urban and rural areas alike, using Maine as a case study. We also
discuss how law can be a contributor to effective development efforts. 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.