Mayor Adams announces his administration’s affordable housing team. Image Credit: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
The three appointments are the latest to the new Adams administration. On January 30, 2022, Mayor Eric Adams announced his appointments for his administration’s affordable housing administration and policy team. The new appointees are Jessica Katz as the Chief Housing Officer; Adolfo Carrión Jr. as the new Commissioner of the Department of Housing and Preservation (HPD); and Eric Enderlin, who will continue to serve as the president of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC). The three appointments were announced as Mayor Adams finishes his first month in office.
Jessica Katz
Jessica Katz received her Bachelor of Arts in Urban Geography from McGill University and her Masters in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has served various roles in HPD from 2003 to 2009, including assistant commissioner of Special Needs Housing, assistant commissioner for Preservation Finance, senior advisor to the commissioner, and lastly the associate commissioner for New Construction. She oversaw the creation of special needs and affordable housing.
She left HPD in 2009 to serve as the executive director for Lantern Group, a not-for-profit social service programs operator in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn. She most recently was the executive director of the Citizens Housing & Planning Council (CHPC), a research and advocacy organization that addresses housing and planning issues in New York City. Some of her projects there included basement apartment conversions, Resident Decision-Making at NYCHA, Equitable Code Enforcement, a New Lens for NYC’s Housing Plan, and other initiatives.
As Chief Housing Officer, she will oversee the affordable housing strategy and housing agencies, including HPD, HDC, NYCHA, the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants and the Mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery Operations. She will report to First Deputy Mayor Lorraine Grillo.
Chief Housing Officer Katz stated, “As a lifelong advocate for safe, affordable housing, I’m grateful to Mayor Adams and incredibly honored to be leading his housing agenda. From expanding our housing supply across the city to ensuring families have easier access to stable homes and finally fixing NYCHA with resident voices at the center of the conversation, there’s a lot to do. It is our responsibility to ensure all New Yorkers have an affordable place to live, and I’m ready to get to work, fighting to achieve this for every one of our neighbors.”
Adolfo Carrión Jr.
Adolfo Carrión Jr. received his Bachelor of Arts from the King’s College and a Masters in Urban Planning from Hunter College. He served as a member of the City Council from 1998 to 2001 and as the Bronx Borough President from 2002 through February 2009. He was then appointed as the Director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs in the Obama Administration from 2009 through May 2010. He also served as Regional Administration in New York’s office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. During his time as Bronx Borough President, the borough saw increased investment in housing, commercial space, schools and businesses, and major projects like the new Yankee Stadium.
Carrión founded Metro Futures LLC, a real estate development and consulting firm focused on the development of affordable housing and economic development and mixed use projects.
Incoming HPD Commissioner Carrión stated, “Thank you, Mayor Adams, for the opportunity to return to public service and work with you, the great team you have assembled, and the dedicated public servants at HPD, so we can build a city that works for everyone. There is no greater responsibility we share than to build nurturing communities that provide families an affordable and safe place to live and an opportunity to move up the economic ladder. My parents came from Puerto Rico in the 1950s and moved into a tenement basement apartment in Williamsburg, then into NYCHA’s Jacob Riis Houses and HUD-assisted Haven Plaza on the Lower East Side, and then, with the help of an FHA mortgage, to our first home in the North Bronx. This was all possible because our city and country invested in us. Now we must do the same for this generation. We’re going to work hard to create neighborhoods of opportunity, where families have a chance to get ahead.”
Eric Enderlin
Eric Enderlin received both his Bachelor of Arts in economics and a Master of Science in urban planning and policy from Rutgers University. He has over 20 years of experience in public policy and affordable housing.
Enderlin previously served as assistant director for Asset Management and Private Market Operations for NYCHA, a consultant in the Economics department with the Louis Berger Group and the principal planner and land use mediator with the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing. He also served as deputy commissioner for Development and special advisor at HPD.
He has served as president of HDC since October 2016. HDC is the largest municipal Housing Finance Agency in the United States.
HDC President Enderlin stated, “I want to thank Mayor Adams for appointing me to lead the incredible team at HDC. We look forward to bringing our deep experience in innovative finance to help create more housing and preserve our city’s existing affordable and public housing stock. Safe, high-quality, affordable housing is crucial to the success of our city, and I am extremely proud to be a part of this team that will work tirelessly toward the goal of ensuring every New Yorker has a stable place to call home.”
In his announcement of the appointees, Mayor Adams reiterated his administration’s support for increasing housing stock and reducing housing costs including legalizing basement apartment dwellings, Accessory Dwelling Units and other small units; converting underused hotels and office buildings into affordable housing; and upzoning areas around major transit hubs and robust infrastructure, in addition to creating more housing overall citywide.
Mayor Adams stated, “I said from day one of my campaign that we are going to end the housing affordability crisis, and this is the team of extraordinary leaders who will do just that. This team has a clear mission: To create, preserve, and maintain safe, affordable housing that will build a more equitable city. I know they will ‘Get Stuff Done’ for New York and deliver the housing New Yorkers deserve.”
By: Veronica Rose (Veronica is the CityLaw fellow and a New York Law School graduate, Class of 2018.)