Before joining Klein Hornig, I worked for a Chicago-based nonprofit organization to promote meaningful access to quality affordable housing. I came to Klein Hornig in 2013 because I wanted to work collaboratively on efforts to preserve and create equitable, affordable, and sustainable housing solutions for people and their communities, and I have stayed at Klein Hornig because I feel so lucky to do this work with committed and creative colleagues and clients.
Emily Blumberg represents nonprofit, for-profit, and public sector clients nationwide in affordable housing development, fair housing, and regulatory compliance matters.
For over a decade, Emily has structured, negotiated, and closed complex and innovative affordable housing transactions involving an array of financing tools, including Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, state credits, tax-exempt bonds, FHA-insured loans, and public and private debt and grants. She brings to her work a deep understanding of HUD programs such as Section 8, Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI), Faircloth-to-RAD, and other repositioning options. Recently, she has advised local and national nonprofit organizations on the design and implementation of resident wealth-building strategies.
Emily is an expert in fair housing, relocation, and regulatory compliance. Emily guides clients through the labyrinth of legal requirements that govern housing development and operations, including the Uniform Relocation Act, Fair Housing Act, Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, HUD’s admissions and occupancy standards, and other federal, state, and local civil rights and anti-discrimination statutes. Emily helps clients assess compliance in their plans, policies, properties, and portfolios.
A creative problem solver, Emily works collaboratively with community stakeholders, public officials, and financing teams to reach win-win resolutions that achieve her clients’ goals and accelerate project timelines. She distills complicated concepts down to relevant, digestible key points and presents them in easily understood language. In all matters, Emily helps her clients build, revitalize, and maintain housing in ways that promote resident success and community goals.
Emily has spent her legal career as an advocate for affordable housing and civil rights. Before joining Klein Hornig, she helped to enact a Chicago ordinance protecting tenants in foreclosed rental properties and represented the Cook County Office of the Independent Inspector General as a Special State’s Attorney in litigation that established the office’s authority to investigate corruption in property tax assessments. Immediately after law school, she clerked for Justice Denise Johnson on the Vermont Supreme Court—the first woman to serve on that state’s highest tribunal.
