Mass Non-profit News—March 22, 2019
Caritas Communities, a Braintree-based nonprofit that provides very low income individuals with permanent housing, recently announced that Karin Cassel Mitterando has been named executive director of the organization.
Mitterando, who has been chief development officer and director of communications at Caritas Communities since 2013, will succeed Mark Winkeller, who served as executive director for 22 years. She’ll assume her new duties on April 1.
Winkeller will step down from overall management of the organization in order to focus on acquisitions.
Before she joined Caritas, Mitterando had served as director of development and communications for Bridge Over Troubled Waters, a Boston-based nonprofit that that serves at-risk youth in Massachusetts. Prior to that she held senior development positions at Providence Country Day School and The Wheeler School.
Mitterando earned a Bachelor of Liberal Studies degree from Boston University.
Winkeller said, “I am very proud, of the successful efforts that Caritas has made to combat homelessness during my tenure as executive director, and I look forward to continuing this work on the development side of the organization.”
Winkeller’s early career in real estate was spent in affordable rental housing before moving on to many successful years in the for-profit sector. “I always wanted to return to the challenging but satisfying world of nonprofit affordable housing,” he said. “Caritas Communities has provided me with the opportunity to give back while still practicing my craft as a developer.”
“Mark has quite literally put Caritas on the map,” said board member Gordon Pulsifer. “His creativity and expertise in navigating the complex financing instruments available for low-income housing development is unparalleled.”
Under Winkeller’s leadership, Caritas has received awards from the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation, and the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, and the TD Charitable Foundation.
When he was hired as executive director in 1997, Caritas owned and operated seven properties, housing 143 individuals. When his current projects are completed in 2020, Caritas will own and operate 32 buildings in 14 Greater Boston communities, providing homes for almost 1,000 people, and partners with 20 housing placement and social service agencies.
Caritas, founded in 1985, has no religious affiliation. It enables working men and women on minimum wage, veterans experiencing post-service challenges, and low-income elderly and disabled citizens to live in a clean, safe home that they can afford. Its residents have a median income of $20,700.
According to the organization, homelessness is growing faster in Massachusetts than any other state, with Boston having the fourth-greatest disparity between income and housing in the country.