Policy Advisor, Office of Development

About the Agency:

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) promotes quality and affordability in the city's housing, and diversity and strength in the city’s neighborhoods - because every New Yorker deserves a safe, affordable place to live in a neighborhood they love.

- We maintain building and resident safety and health
- We create opportunities for New Yorkers through housing affordability
- We engage New Yorkers to build and sustain neighborhood strength and diversity.

HPD is entrusted with fulfilling these objectives through the goals and strategies of “Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness,” Mayor Adams’ comprehensive housing framework. To support this important work, the administration has committed $5 billion in new capital funding, bringing the 10-year planned investment in housing to $22 billion the largest in the city’s history. This investment, coupled with a commitment to reduce administrative and regulatory barriers, is a multi-pronged strategy to tackle New York City’s complex housing crisis, by addressing homelessness and housing instability, promoting economic stability and mobility, increasing homeownership opportunities, improving health and safety, and increasing opportunities for equitable growth.


Your Team:

The Office of Development (OOD) leads the agency’s effort to create and preserve affordable housing as a critical part of the Mayor’s Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness, in collaboration with other HPD offices and other city, state and federal agencies. The OOD is comprised of seven eight divisions that administer a range of programs. These divisions include New Construction Finance, Special Needs Housing, Building and Land Development Services (BLDS), Preservation Finance, Homeownership Opportunities and Preservation, Portfolio Management & Conversions, Housing Incentives, and Compliance & Enforcement.

Your Impact and Role:

The Office’s Policy Advisor will be responsible for managing and implementing a portfolio of key initiatives related to the mission of producing affordable rental and homeownership housing units across NYC. The position will be housed within the Executive Office and report to the Deputy Commissioner of Development. The Senior Advisor will play a key role in supporting the Deputy Commissioner and OOD leadership by working on a variety of projects, analyses and issues related to development programs and goals. Examples of the types of projects that this position may support or lead include:

- Conduct analyses with regard to how proposed policy or legislation impacts pipeline, programmatic timeframes, budgets, or production numbers.
- Support the ongoing work of pipeline analysis and refinement to ensure Administration goals are met, and timing and resource considerations are incorporated.
- Support OOD teams in drafting updates to program term sheets.
- Support OOD leadership, Fiscal Management team and Budget to draft preliminary budget needs for OOD programs.
- Work collaboratively with the agency’s Sustainability team to ensure policies and requirements are clearly understood and integrated across OOD teams.
- Provide OOD updates to the Administration’s Housing Blueprint progress tracking in collaboration with OOD leadership.
- Develop and maintain strong working relationships with teams across the OOD and agency.
- Recommending policy actions related to further the development of affordable housing under the current Mayoral administration.

Your Responsibilities:

The position requires a candidate with excellent personal communication and leadership skills, and a demonstrated capacity for the performance of multiple tasks and independent judgment. Candidates should be able to demonstrate underwriting and analytical skills and work comfortably with Microsoft Excel. In addition, candidates should have demonstrated capacity and experience analyzing development proposals using knowledge of financing tools. There is a strong preference for candidates with significant real estate development experience, knowledge of and interest in the development of affordable housing, housing for the homeless and related social services, knowledge of the construction process and experience with loan underwriting and project scheduling.

In addition to the tasks described above, the individual hired will be expected to take on additional tasks as time allows which may include tracking workflow across the Office of Development, participating in the development of RFPs, assisting the Executive Director of Operations and Policy, Chief of Staff and others with time-sensitive research and report production and additional administrative activities as required.


Preferred Skills:

Strong preference for candidates who possess:
- Demonstrated capacity for performing multiple tasks, analyzing complex processes, using independent judgment, while maintaining a sense of humor.
- Knowledge of or experience working with NYC capital development sources and underwriting for affordable housing, and reading and understanding loan documents.
- Experience with the construction process, ability to read schematic architectural drawings and understand zoning calculations.
- Experience with budgeting and project scheduling.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
- Proficiency using Microsoft Office suite

COMMUNITY COORDINATOR - 56058

1. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and two years of experience in community work or community centered activities in an area related to the duties described above; or
2. High school graduation or equivalent and six years of experience in community work or community centered activities in an area related to the duties as described above; or
3. Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. However, all candidates must have at least one year of experience as described in "1" above.

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.