Deputy Director for Owner Engagement & Events

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 Neighborhood Strategies (ONS) is charged with ensuring that HPD’s development and preservation efforts are guided by meaningful community engagement and coordinated with public investments in infrastructure and services, as put forth in the Mayor's Housing Plan.

ONS is composed of two divisions and a cross-divisional unit reporting to the Associate Commissioner:

• The Division of Neighborhood Development & Stabilization (ND&S) leads the agency's commitment to neighborhood planning and strategic preservation through engagement with tenants, landlords, community leaders, and neighborhood stakeholders as we work to enable strong and healthy neighborhoods anchored by affordable housing. The advertised position is a part of this division.
• The Division of Planning & Predevelopment (P&P) is central to developing and managing HPD's housing production pipeline from project proposal phases through the land use review and entitlement process, to ensure that HPD's investments contribute to building strong, healthy, resilient neighborhoods in all five boroughs.
• The Strategic Initiatives Unit leads special ONS initiatives and provides essential technical, planning, and policy support to staff and the Associate Commissioner of Neighborhood Strategies.
  
  

Your Impact

As a Deputy Director for Owner Engagement & Events, you will help develop, manage, and lead the implementation of innovative programs to educate homeowners and multifamily property owners about their responsibilities and available resources to maintain safe, high quality, and affordable housing. The team implements these programs in close collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders, including community groups, government agencies, and elected officials

Your Role

The Division of Neighborhood Development and Stabilization is seeking an enthusiastic candidate with excellent project management skills, knowledge of housing issues (with an emphasis on issues affecting homeowners and multifamily property owners), the ability to effectively collaborate with community and government partners, and a commitment to racial equity and social justice. Your role will be to support the Owner Engagement and Events Director in leading new strategies to protect homeowners from displacement and managing the owner engagement and support programs, including the Office of the Homeowner Advocate, Homeowner Help Desk, tax lien sale outreach, and the Zombie Homes Initiative.

The Deputy Director will help ensure compliance with Local Law 125 of 2023, which mandates that the Department of Housing Preservation and Development create the Office of the Homeowner Advocate. The responsibilities for this new Office include maintaining a resource webpage for homeowners, managing coordination with external partners, leading data collection, and preparing reports as required by the legislation.

The Homeowner Help Desk is a collaboration between HPD and community-based organizations to connect struggling homeowners with housing counseling, financial assistance, legal services, and tax lien sale assistance. As part of the Homeowner Help Desk, the Deputy Director will provide overall program support and manage the tax lien sale outreach to notify owners included in the tax lien sale list of relevant homeownership counseling and support services that can help owners apply for assistance to remove their property from the tax lien sale.

Through the Zombie Homes Initiative, HPD conducts exterior surveys of small vacant and abandoned homes and holds banks and servicers accountable if they fail to maintain these homes by referring properties to the NYC Law Department and imposing daily penalties. The Deputy Director will assist with managing the program collecting aggregate data, and reporting.

The Deputy Director will coordinate with internal and external partners, help conduct outreach to owners, as well as organize Housing Information Classes and Housing Resource Fairs to connect owners and tenants to relevant City programs and educate them about their responsibilities. The selected candidate will join a team of diverse professional backgrounds and report to the Director of Owner Engagement and Events.

Your Responsibilities

Program Management:

• Lead management of the Office of the Homeowner Advocate, the Homeowner Help Desk, and Zombie Homes Initiative. Assist with creating work plans and program budgets and ensure all milestones and deliverables are met.
• Organize and facilitate Housing Resource Fairs and clinics, community engagement events, and Housing Information Classes.
• Build relationships with and obtain input from a wide range of stakeholders, including community-based organizations, legal services providers, residents, City and State agencies, Community Boards, and elected officials.
• Work independently to develop and implement new strategies to protect homeowners and their tenants from displacement.
• Manage and provide guidance to staff members and interns.
  
  

Policy Analysis

• Analyze proposed municipal, state, and federal legislation that relates to homeownership, conduct research on these issues, provide comments to agency leadership, and advocate for potential solutions, which may involve seeding new projects.
  
  

Communication

• Create clearly articulated and compelling materials, such as presentations, memoranda, maps, data visualizations, and plain-language explanations of complex policy issues for both internal and external audiences.
• Deliver presentations and facilitate conversations at public meetings and workshops.
  
  

Preferred Skills

The Department of Housing Preservation & Development and the City of New York is an equal opportunity employer.

• Education:A master’s degree in sociology, public policy, political science, law, urban planning, urban studies, or urban sciences is preferred.
  
  

Professional experience: A minimum of four years of professional experience in a related field is preferred.

• Project management: Proven ability to manage projects with multiple internal and external stakeholders; to receive direction and anticipate next steps; to work independently and take initiative; and to meet deadlines. Attentive to details, organized, and able to follow through.
• Subject-matter expertise: Knowledge of housing issues (with an emphasis on issues affecting homeowners and multifamily property owners) is strongly preferred.
• Commitment to racial equity and social justice: An understanding of the historic and systemic causes of social inequities and a proven commitment to undo these wrongs.
• Creative thinking and problem solving: Ability to think creatively, critically, and strategically, and to consider complex policy problems through both a micro-level and macro-level lens and from an equity perspective.
• Relationship-building: Ability to relate with people from different backgrounds and to present information clearly to people from different educational and literacy levels. Existing relationships with New York City community-based organizations and legal services providers supporting owners are welcomed.
• Communication: Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills. Proven ability to produce high-quality materials in a variety of formats and experience facilitating meetings. Ability to communicate complex data and concepts to a variety of audiences in e-mails, memos, slides, and oral presentations.
• Good judgment: Ability to analyze a situation, understand when additional input is needed, resolve issues independently, and escalate when appropriate.
• Civil Service: The candidate selected for the Deputy Director role must be permanent in the City Planner Civil Service title, be on the active City Planner Civil Service list, OR be permanent in or on an active list for another qualifying Civil Service title to be eligible for this role. Selected candidates will be asked to provide written confirmation that they currently hold a relevant permanent title or are on a relevant Civil Service list.
  
  

Please submit a resume, cover letter, and proof of Civil Service eligibility with your application. Applications without cover letters will not be considered.

CITY PLANNER - 22122

Minimum Qualifications

• A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university and two years of satisfactory full-time experience in city planning; or
• A satisfactory combination of education and/or experience that is equivalent to “1"" above. Graduate
  
  

education in city planning, urban planning, urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, transportation engineering, public administration, economic development or related fields may be substituted for experience on the basis of 30 graduate semester credits from an accredited college for one year of experience. However, all candidates must have a baccalaureate degree.

Special Qualification Requirements

Assignment Level III

To be eligible for placement in Assignment Level III, individuals must have, after meeting the minimum requirements, one additional year of professional experience as described in "2" above.

Assignment Level IV

To be eligible for placement in Assignment Level IV, individuals must have, after meeting the minimum requirements, two additional years of professional experience as described in "2" above.

55a Program

This position is also open to qualified persons with a disability who are eligible for the 55-a Program. Please indicate at the top of your resume and cover letter that you would like to be considered for the position through the 55-a Program.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness

As a prospective employee of the City of New York, you may be eligible for federal loan forgiveness programs and state repayment assistance programs. For more information, please visit the U.S. Department of Education’s website at https://studentaid.gov/pslf/.

Residency Requirement

New York City residency is generally required within 90 days of appointment. However, City Employees in certain titles who have worked for the City for 2 continuous years may also be eligible to reside in Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Westchester, Rockland, or Orange County. To determine if the residency requirement applies to you, please discuss with the agency representative at the time of interview.

Additional Information

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.