Changemaker: Mark Gallegos

In 1977, Mark Gallegos was a graduate student at the University of Colorado when he was hired by CHFA as a part-time Administrative Assistant.

“What was amazing to me when I first started was at that time CHFA was already providing home mortgages and financing affordable rental housing in more than half of the counties in Colorado,” he recalled. “That’s remarkable considering how young the organization was, and at that time there was only a staff of eight.”

Working behind the scenes, Mark helped shape CHFA’s history and pave a path for success. He spent a year in his role as Administrative Assistant and was promoted in 1978 to become CHFA’s Director of Administration. In that capacity, he established CHFA’s Human Resources Division and oversaw several other functions within the organization including communications and risk management. As CHFA grew and evolved to meet the needs of the state, Mark was often assigned a variety of responsibilities, depending on the needs of the organization at the time. By the late 1980s, Mark was serving as CHFA’s Director of Community Relations when his duties were unexpectedly expanded to include representing CHFA in the nation’s capital at the request of CHFA’s Executive Director David Herlinger.

“One day Dave came to me and said, ‘We need somebody to do lobbying in Washington, D.C.,’ and I said, ‘Dave, I’m not really the lobbyist type,’” Mark recalled.

David assured Mark that he was confident in Mark’s abilities, seeing in him a natural capacity for connecting with people from all walks of life. Mark went to Washington, D.C. amidst an important political moment for affordable housing development. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 had established the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) to support the development of affordable rental housing a few years earlier. As the state’s housing finance agency, CHFA served as the administrator of federal Housing Tax Credits in Colorado. However, the original law contained a sunset provision which would cause the program to expire after three years if Congress did not choose to extend it. “We did everything we could to preserve the program, and we were able to earn the support of both Democrats and Republicans,” Mark said. “Nationally, even though our team wasn’t very big, CHFA always had a strong reputation, and that was largely thanks to Dave. We were always able to be forward thinking in how we approached things, staying ahead of legislation and being proactive.”

Some of the most rewarding moments in Mark’s career are those that involved partnerships with other organizations who had a shared vision for addressing the state’s housing needs. He recalls serving on the committee that established the first Housing Colorado conference (then called Housing Now), and watching the event grow and evolve over the years.

“The conference became so successful that it wasn’t long before bankers wanted to come, and legislators wanted to come,” Mark said. “There were multiple tracks that attendees could follow at the conference, and a whole team to support a deal could be built just by having conversations with people in the hallways.”

In 2001, Mark received a Chamber Champion award from the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. In 2003, following nearly three decades of service at CHFA, Mark attended the Housing Colorado conference for the last time before retiring. That year, he received an Eagle Award from Housing Colorado in the People’s Choice category, as well as a David W. Herlinger Award, which recognizes individuals in Colorado who have devoted a significant portion of their careers to affordable housing and community development.

“I was always the internal guy doing lobbying, communication, and administration, and I never thought my name would get elevated to the level of receiving an award,” he said. “When I got on stage to accept the David W. Herlinger Award, I dedicated it to everyone serving as the support staff within their organization – those who don’t necessarily have the title, but whose work happens behind the scenes.”

Mark considers integrity to be an important value he carried throughout his career, and one that CHFA took very seriously as an organization. He points specifically to CHFA’s commitment to paying back the state legislature for grant money it received to support the organization in its early days before becoming self-sufficient. While not legally obligated to do so, CHFA repaid the grant in full over a series of annual installments.

“I want to make sure and thank the Colorado legislature for their enabling legislation that created CHFA,” said Mark. “We really worked hard to never take that for granted.”