Young Pros Plus Affordable Equals A Good Match

Kannan: “The level of social good will in affordable housing makes you feel like you’re having a direct impact on families’ and seniors’ lives by what you do.”

IRVINE, CA—It’s just good business sense overall for affordable-housing developers to hire smart, young professionals as much as possible, plus this cohort can see the direct impact this work will have in communities and on individual lives, Anand Kannan, president of Community Preservation Partners, a subsidiary of WNC, tells GlobeSt.com. Kannan was recently recognized as an Affordable Housing Finance 2016 Young Leader at AHF Live: The Affordable Housing Developers Summit in Chicago. During his time with Community Preservation Partners, Kannan has grown the firm’s portfolio from approximately 1,000 units to more than 4,600 units, with a combined development cost of approximately $750 million.

Kannan, who has approximately 15 years of experience in the development and preservation of affordable housing, joined CPP as VP in 2010 and was promoted to president in 2014. The firm was founded by WNC in 2004 to address the growing need to preserve the aging affordable rental housing stock across the country and has successfully acquired, developed and rehabilitated more than 4,000 affordable-housing units across the nation since its founding.