Peter Levavi

Peter Levavi, History Maker

The History Maker Award is presented to someone whose life and work has altered the course of history in our community and in Chicago. The inaugural History Maker Award winner was Doug Dobmeyer, with Calvin Holmes and Helen Shiller later honored in our celebrations of Sweet Home Uptown.    

This year’s History Maker award winner is Peter Levavi – an attorney, professor, community development trainer, and Executive Vice President at Brinshore Development – one of the nation’s private sector leaders in affordable housing.

For decades, Peter has been working in communities on affordable housing initiatives, including with Peoples Housing in Rogers Park, and training dozens of non-profit professionals in the groundbreaking Urban Developers Program at Spertus College. He brings his qualifications within several disciplines with extraordinary aplomb, creativity, resilience and devotion to the cause of housing as a right, not a privilege.

At Brinshore Development since 2000, Peter routinely makes things happen, leveraging his technical knowledge of Low Income Housing Tax Credit project financing and lived experience addressing challenges of property management and resident services.                

Peter has been responsible for family housing, supportive housing and senior developments, and is currently innovating in public housing partnerships on over 20 projects nationwide. Brinshore has their fingerprints on dozens of affordable housing developments in the Midwest region, including recent ones in Uptown in support of Sarah’s Circle and the Lakeview Towers Residents Association.

He has a unique perspective on the historical narrative and current innovative practices, particularly in the public housing arena, and applies these lessons to today’s challenges. Peter contributes his expertise on financing strategies and community land trusts as a volunteer advisor to Voice of the People, including for the Dovie Thurman Affordable Housing Trust, and gives back as mentor to the next generation of activists and community developers.

For more about our other Honorees, please click the link.

835 West Wilson Avenue, a pending development in Uptown

by Brinshore Development and the Lakeview Towers Residents Association