Vicki Been is leaving her leadership role at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development for a job at New York University.
"One week after Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration announced the city surpassed its latest affordable housing goal, the commissioner overseeing the plan said she will leave her job to resume teaching and running an academic research center," reports Sally Goldenberg.
Vicki Been will leave the Department of Housing Preservation and Development "by the end of the month to teach at New York University and serve as faculty director of the Furman Center," explains Goldenberg. Been's departure comes just weeks after Planning Commissioner Carl Weisbrod announced that he would be leaving the Department of City Planning. Been's departure sets off a chain reaction of personnel changes. First and foremost: "Maria Torres-Springer, currently president and CEO of the city's Economic Development Corporation, will replace Been."
Goldenberg's article provides a fairly comprehensive look at the life and career of Been. The affordable housing figures referenced in the lede follow:
Under Been, the housing agency closed financing on 20,854 new apartments and preserved another 41,652 over three years. That puts the mayor ahead of schedule for his goal of building and preserving 200,000 apartments for low- to moderate-income tenants.
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