Assistant Commissioner

Description

New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) fosters the creation and preservation of high-quality affordable housing, while working strategically to revitalize neighborhoods and communities throughout the Empire State. Under the leadership of Governor Kathy Hochul and Commissioner Ruth Anne Visnauskas, HCR is a vibrant, innovative agency that integrates and leverages New York State’s housing resources. We have offices in New York City, Albany, Buffalo and Syracuse, and employ a diverse workforce of professionals who are hard-working and committed to serving low- and moderate-income families.

Our mission is far reaching, encompassing single and multifamily housing finance, home improvement, rent regulation, housing subsidies, and community development. We partner regularly with a variety of public and private stakeholders.

Achieving this mission requires a wide range of skills and backgrounds in public policy, administration, real estate, architecture, finance, law and many other areas of expertise. We seek to provide a workplace environment that is productive, flexible, accountable, ethical and caring. Our employees are empowered to make a difference where they live and work. We offer competitive pay and a comprehensive benefits package, including paid leave, health, dental, vision, retirement and family-friendly policies.

In July 2023, Governor Hochul signed Executive Order 30 creating the Pro-Housing Communities program ("PHC"), a new initiative to encourage cities, towns and villages throughout New York State to support housing growth in their communities. Currently, the program requires that an interested municipality take one of two paths in order to be certified as a Pro Housing Community by HCR in order to be eligible for specific State funding programs.

HCR seeks to grow the PHC program through the new Director position. The Director will take the lead in building out the program, expanding on lessons learned in the first two years and laying the groundwork for additional policy recommendations addressing the New York State housing crisis. The Director will be the public face of the program, representing the agency at conferences, public events, and one-on-one meetings with local officials throughout New York State.

The role includes collaborating with HCR's regional directors and with our new Data Visualization and Policy Analyst to shape public materials, including the existing dashboard as well as future compilations of the zoning and housing data collected through the program.

The role will report to The Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and the Chief of Staff. The Chief of Staff’s team serves as a multi-disciplinary team in the Commissioner’s office, managing public outreach and information, internal coordination between diverse teams, and addressing high profile issues as they arise. The Director will work with the new Pro-Housing Communities team as well as departments throughout the agency.

• Serve as the external point person of the Pro-Housing Communities program in public events, individual meetings with municipal representatives, and various other stakeholders
• Liaise with Governor’s office staff to provide updates and information about program status
• Prepare and maintain internal and external public materials related to the program, including presentations, fact sheets, web materials, talking points for Commissioner and senior staff remarks, etc.
• Develop proactive strategies to grow and improve the program, including but not limited to, developing technical assistance materials on successful tools for increasing housing supply in different contexts, examples of best practices within New York State and throughout the country, and providing opportunities for municipalities to share with each other
• Research and advise on housing supply policy issues overall, including overlap with land use, environmental issues, infrastructure needs, and political challenges
• Using existing and future data collected through the PHC program to further develop statewide map(s) and data analysis on permitting practices
• Expand technical assistance…