Director – Fix the City Initiative for Office of Enforcement and Neighborhood Services

City of New York • New York City, NY

1d

About The Position

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) oversees housing standards across all 3.7 million homes in New York City. As the nation’s largest municipal housing agency, HPD is responsible for building and preserving affordable housing, protecting tenants from harassment and displacement, and holding landlords accountable across the five boroughs. Under Commissioner Dina Levy and the Mamdani Administration, HPD is pursuing an ambitious housing agenda focused on the needs of New York’s tenants. With a broad set of tools including standards enforcement, tenant resources, and the creation of new affordable housing, HPD is committed to making New York City a more affordable place for renters and homeowners alike.

Your Team: The Office of Enforcement and Neighborhood Services (OENS) leads the agency’s effort to work closely with other HPD divisions and outside community partners to identify buildings in distress, assess and develop appropriate strategies to address those properties and work closely with responsible owners to develop a plan to improve conditions and return buildings to firm financial footing and physical health. OENS uses enforcement tools within its Division of Code Enforcement, Housing Litigation Division, Emergency Operations and Enhanced Enforcement, and the Division of Neighborhood Preservation to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory obligations. The Office of Enforcement of Neighborhood Services is composed of seven divisions: Data Management & Technology (DMT), Division of Neighborhood Preservation (DNP), Administration & Internal Compliance (AIC), Housing Litigation Division (HLD), Division of Code Enforcement (DCE), Emergency Operations and Enhanced Enforcement Division (EOD) and Division of Emergency Housing Services (EHS).

Your Impact: Fix the City is a strategic effort to hold landlords accountable for long histories of persistent noncompliance and egregious violations of the Housing Maintenance Code. The goal is to compel these landlords into meaningful long-term compliance or transition ownership to responsible entities who will repair and maintain the buildings. To achieve this, the initiative will deploy several coordinated measures:
- Layering of HPD enforcement tools including anti-harassment cases, the Alternative Enforcement Program (AEP), the Emergency Repair Program (ERP) and 7A
- Expanding civil litigation in coordination with the Department of Buildings (DOB) and the Law Department
- Seeking criminal charges, where appropriate, in coordination with the Attorney General (AG) and local District Attorneys (DAs)
- Coordinating inspections with organized tenant associations and legal service providers to ensure tenants are fully engaged in these efforts
- Engaging lenders and mortgage holders to leverage loan agreements and exert financial pressure for
- Connecting HPD preservation purchasers with properties when owners are in a position to sell
- Exploring the development of new interim ownership models to stabilize failing properties
- Developing new legislative solutions to close regulatory loopholes
- Utilizing underused legal tools to seek compliance

Requirements

• Five years of full-time paid experience in the inspection of buildings for compliance with the New York City Multiple Dwelling Law, Housing Maintenance Code, Building Code, Zoning Regulations and other pertinent laws, rules and regulations; or
• An associate degree from an accredited college in civil or mechanical engineering technology, architectural technology, or a related field and three years of full-time paid experience in building design or the engineering and/or architectural aspects related to building design and/or construction; or
• Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2".

Nice To Haves

• Experience and knowledge in New York City housing dynamics, with a strong background in housing enforcement mechanisms and/or preservation programs
• Strong analytical skills, with an ability to use multiple data streams to identify strategic intervention opportunities
• Strong project management skills, with an ability to coordinate multiple functional areas of an organization towards a focused outcome
• Experience in engaging with financial institutions and non-profit lenders

Responsibilities

• Coordinate with Assistant Commissioners and staff in the Division of Data Management and Technology (DMT) to identify portfolios for the initiative.
• Conduct comprehensive research and investigation into the financial aspects of target portfolios to inform next steps.
• Recommend tailored enforcement or preservation next steps based on the unique facts of each portfolio.
• Coordinate with the Office of Enforcement and Neighborhood Services teams (Division of Code Enforcement (DCE), Housing Litigation Division (HLD) and Emergency Operations and Enhanced Enforcement Division (EOD)) to direct and track focused oversight of outcomes and activities.
• Partner with the Office of Development to identify and support portfolio preservation purchases.
• Coordinate with the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants and the HPD’s Office of Neighborhood Strategies to ensure positive tenant participation in the program.
• Regularly assess and track progress towards program goals across HPD operational areas, including recommending changes to strategy or next steps based on changes to facts involving individual portfolios.
• Provide regular progress updates to the HPD’s Commissioner’s Office, MOPT, and the Deputy Commissioners of Enforcement and Neighborhood Services, Development and Neighborhood Strategies.
• Directly manage one staff member

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: Associate degree