Project Manager, Climate and Social Resiliency Planning & Policy

About the Agency:

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is the nation’s largest municipal housing preservation and development agency. Its mission is to promote quality housing and diverse, thriving neighborhoods for New Yorkers through loan and development programs for new affordable housing, preservation of the affordability of the existing housing stock, enforcement of housing quality standards, rental subsidies, and educational programs for tenants and building owners. HPD is tasked with fulfilling Mayor Adams’s housing plan "Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness," a comprehensive framework which includes $5 billion in new capital funding, bringing the administration’s planned investment to $22 billion the largest in the city’s history. This investment, coupled with an aggressive effort to reduce administrative and regulatory barriers, is a multi-pronged strategy to tackle New York City’s affordable housing crisis and bolster access to opportunity, promote economic stability and mobility, improve health and safety, and increase racial equity.

HPD also implements housing recovery and resiliency programs as part of the City’s CDBG-DR Hurricane Ida Recovery. On the evening of Wednesday, September 1, 2021, the remnants of Hurricane Ida reached New York. Although the storm had been reclassified as a post-tropical cyclone by that point, it broke the City’s record for the most single-hour rainfall, caused widespread flooding and hundreds of millions of dollars of damage, and took the lives of 13 people within New York City. HPD’s programs support disaster relief, long-term recovery, restoration of infrastructure and housing, economic revitalization, and mitigation, in the most impacted and distressed areas following Hurricane Ida.



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 Deputy Commissioner:

- 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 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 Strategic Initiatives Unit leads special ONS initiatives and provides essential technical, planning, and policy support to staff and the Deputy Commissioner of Neighborhood Strategies.



The Unit
Climate and Social Resiliency Planning and Policy Unit (CSRPP): Sitting within the Division of Planning & Predevelopment, the mission of CSRPP is to ensure the agency’s planning and policy initiatives promote household and community access to safe, quality, and affordable housing, even in the face of current and future risks from climate change, and other physical, economic, and social shocks and stressors.

Your Impact:

As the Project Manager, reporting to the Director of Climate and Social Resiliency Planning and Policy, you will play a key role in supporting the Agency’s implementation of its post-Ida CDBG-DR funded work program, including providing key programmatic and contract support for the FloodHelpNY program managed by the Center for New York City Neighborhoods (the “Center”), as well as other flood recovery and mitigation studies. You will also be part of a team that helps set agency policy and procedures for development and preservation efforts that respond to climate-related hazards and risks and other social resiliency challenges.

Your Role:

Your role will support the Director in a number of ways including project management, administrative support, policy development, research and analyses, and coordination with internal and external entities to inform the broader work of the Climate and Social Resiliency Planning and Policy unit.

This position will primarily support various post-Ida planning and recovery efforts at HPD including the FloodHelpNY program in coordination with the Center, Agency resiliency and mitigation studies, and neighborhood planning efforts aimed at responding to stormwater flooding.

The Project Manager will play an instrumental role in the implementation of the citywide Homeowner Help Desk, a partnership between HPD, the Center, and local community organizations. The Homeowner Helpdesk provides a one-stop shop for 1-4 family homeowners to receive outreach and direct assistance support on foreclosure prevention, flood resiliency, and estate planning deed theft scams resulting in the loss of equity and high rates of displacement in communities of color. FloodHelpNY is a part of the Center’s Homeowner Help Desk program and supports outreach and assistance services for homeowners on flood risks, flood insurance, and resiliency retrofits. This role will entail close coordination with the Senior Project Manager of the Homeowner Help Desk.

Additionally, this position will entail analyzing climate, housing, environmental, and social and demographic data to inform projects and policy development. This would include ensuring HPD-funded housing not only meets climate resiliency guidelines but exceeds them where possible and that HPD’s housing efforts broadly are achieving climate and social resiliency goals for neighborhoods and the city as a whole.

This role will require coordinating policy and program implementation with the HPD’s Office of Development, Office of Policy and Strategy, the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOCEJ), the Mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery Operations (HRO), and other City agencies. It will also involve close cooperation with the Center and a network of community service providers associated with the FloodHelpNY resiliency work program. This position is funded by a Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) grant provided by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Your Responsibilities:

Reporting to the Director of CSRPP, the Project Manager’s responsibilities would include, but not be limited to:

- Provide project management support for FloodHelpNY in close coordination with staff at the Office of Neighborhood Strategies and the Center for New York City Neighborhoods.
- Support other current and future post-Ida resiliency planning efforts at HPD funded through CDBG-DR Hurricane Ida Action Plan in close coordination with other teams in ONS, HPD’s Office of Development, and others.
- Support ongoing efforts to track resiliency measures and projects within HPD.
- Analyze existing and proposed resiliency policies and programs through the lens of HPD’s mission and ensure internal participation and compliance.
- Support climate and social resiliency research, knowledge sharing, and collaborative partnership efforts.
- Other responsibilities as needed.

Minimum Qual Requirements
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.

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.

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.