Job Description

About the Agency:

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

The Division of Portfolio Management & Conversions manages development projects after closing with an initial loan to ensure adherence to program and accounting requirements, conversion of construction loans to permanent financing, deployment of rental assistance to tenants prior to project stabilization, and timely completion of these HPD-assisted projects. The division administers multiple programs including Conversions & Rental Assistance, Requisitions, and Construction Monitoring & Completions. These programs facilitate the financial and physical viability, as well as affordability of privately-owned residential buildings throughout New York City. The Division plays a key role in implementation and successful completion housing projects originating from loan programs throughout HPD’s Office of Development.

Your Impact:

The Construction & Completions unit is responsible for monitoring the construction of HPD funded affordable housing projects to track and report on construction progress, and to identify, troubleshoot, and resolve significant construction and completion issues that could adversely impact the project, project stakeholders and residents, and/or HPD’s ability to achieve its mission or meet its targets. The unit also assists the Requisions unit to resolve delays and processing issues that could delay the processing of construction requisitions and change orders in a timely manner. In addition, it assists the Conversions program in supporting the timely resolution of issues that might hinder projects’ ability to convert to permanent financing under budget. Finally, the unit actively manages and updates trackers with data regarding all HPD projects between the stages of origination and transition to Asset Management in order to assist leadership in setting targets for completions, in tracking agency progress toward those targets, and in identifying and problem-solving common issues that challenge projects’ ability to complete on time and under budget.

Your Role:

As a Project Manager, you will have a portfolio of affordable housing construction and conversion projects you will monitor. For those projects, you will identify construction and completion-related problems that could adversely affect the project’s successful and timely completion by working with: the building engineers, architects and inspectors in BLDS, HPD loan program teams, owners and owner agents; contractors; lenders; and other external and internal partners as required. You will track and report on your findings to the Division and to Office. You will send correspondence and/or communicate with project partners at specific construction milestones to remind partners of current and upcoming obligations. You will also assist with requisitions and construction completion tracking, as well as with tracking and ensuring a subset of projects’ achievement of required milestones for their conversion from construction loans to permanent financing.

Your Responsibilities:

The Project Manager will identify construction related problems that could adversely affect project stakeholders, or delay construction and completion, and then creatively problem-solve and resolve those issues within the unique constraints of each project. You will track and report findings to the Division, and lead recurring and ad-hoc meetings with a variety of internal and external stakeholders.

Other duties include, but are not limited to:

• Report on and track the progress of construction projects versus expected progress, identify projects that are expected to complete on time as well as those that are behind, and identify and document causes for the delays; as needed, manage and update office wide completions Excel tracking spreadsheet, including combining data sources, updating formulas and making project-specific updates
• Working with the technical assistance team in BLDS, recommend solutions to owners, the Office of Development, and other stakeholders; facilitate coordination and implementation of resolution
• Troubleshoot significant construction-phase project issues in collaboration with the technical experts in BLDS, other construction monitors, lenders, project managers and coordinators in other HPD programs and units, and contractors to keep projects on track; get projects to construction completion, and obtain completion documents; liaise with program teams to ensure completions are entered into HPD’s internal data system
• Communicate and as needed, facilitate meetings with owners, sponsors, owner/sponsor agents, lenders and others regarding construction-phase issues that may increase costs or have an adverse impact on construction projects, residents, and HPD’s budget priorities, including significant scope changes and change orders;
• With others in the Division, send correspondence and/or communicate with owners/sponsors regarding their obligations to complete specific tasks associated with construction, marketing, conversions, or other related commitments;
• Work with the Requisitions unit to resolve construction requisition- and change order-related payment issues and provide guidance to owners and owner agents regarding such issues, including the identification and troubleshooting of issues delaying the approval of project payments in a timely manner; and
• As needed, prepare projects for successful conversion to permanent financing by analyzing project documentation to ensure that development teams complete all required prerequisites for permanent loan conversion manage internal hand-off of projects to a Conversions Project Manager or oversee and project manage the conversion transaction yourself, depending
• Other construction related assignments as needed.

Preferred Skills

• Candidates must have excellent written and verbal communication skills; knowledge of common affordable housing construction lending requirements;
• Strong analytic and problem-solving ability and the ability to successfully manage and prioritize a portfolio of projects; demonstrated experience tracking project milestones
• Attention to detail and accuracy
• Ability to exercise sound judgement
• Advanced computer skills including with the full Microsoft Office suite, especially Excel
• Excellent customer service to both internal and external customers, and a high ability to work effectively with and motivate a multitude of partners with diverse incentives, roles, and personalities.
• Candidates with a background in Architecture, Construction, Project Management, Urban Planning, Real Estate Finance, Financial Analysis, and/or Affordable Housing or related fields are encouraged to apply
• Knowledge of NYC Department of Buildings planning examination, procedures and permit filing requirements and familiarity with DOBNOW, BIS and DOBNOW Inspections

COMMUNITY COORDINATOR - 56058

Qualifications

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.

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.