Missouri Housing Development Commission
Media Release
Contact: Brandon Laster, Public Information Officer, (816) 759-6692

April 11, 2000

Columbia, Missouri -- Governor Bob Holden presented Richard Grose, Missouri Housing Development Commission Executive Director, the first Governor Mel Carnahan Public Service Award in Affordable Housing during award ceremonies at the 2001 Governor’s Conference on Housing in Columbia, April 4.

Grose will retire June 30 after 28 years of service with MHDC and almost 40 years of public service in affordable housing.

“Richard Grose has been an integral part of MHDC for over 28 years. I dare say that when people think of MHDC, they think of Dick Grose,” said Governor Holden. “Dick has spent virtually his entire career providing affordable housing opportunities for the people of Missouri. I can think of no one who is more deserving of the Governor Mel Carnahan Public Service Award in Affordable Housing than Richard G. Grose.“

Grose began his career in public service at the Federal Housing Administration in the 1960s. When he came to work at MHDC in 1973, MHDC was strictly a finance agency that authorized the sale of tax-exempt bonds for HUD insured multifamily housing. He served as the Deputy Director of Operations in charge of underwriting MHDC multifamily housing loans for nearly twelve years.

In 1976 Grose worked on the very first MHDC issue of Mortgage Revenue Bonds (MRBs) for homeownership. Since that first MRB issue, MHDC has issued $2.5 billion in Mortgage Revenue Bonds to provide financing for 55,000 families and individuals buying their first home in Missouri.

In the early 1980s he -- along with former Chairman Wayne Milsap, Commissioner Dick Brookman and then State Treasurer Mel Carnahan -- developed innovative housing programs using the commission’s own funds. Since then MHDC funded programs have helped tens of thousands of Missourians find an affordable place to live.

In 1985 Grose became only the second Executive Director in MHDC’s history. “Dick Grose has helped guide the transformation of MHDC from strictly a financing agency into a comprehensive state housing agency that has assisted in some way, an estimated one out of every 20 Missouri households with their housing needs,” said the governor.

In presenting the award, Governor Holden said, “Under Dick’s leadership, MHDC is recognized as one of the finest state housing finance agencies in the country and has been honored numerous times by national housing organizations for its innovation and achievements in rental housing production, preservation and homeownership.”

Grose has also shared his extensive knowledge of housing as a two-term past President of the National Council of State Housing Agencies, a member of the Fannie Mae Housing Impact Advisory Council and the Institute for Policy Leadership at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

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