Deputy Director of Section 8 Operations for the Division of Tenant & Owner Resources

Job description

About HPD, the Office of Housing Access and Stability: 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 Housing Access and Stability (“HAS”) consists of the divisions of Housing Opportunity, Tenant and Owner Resources, Housing Stability, Budget and Program Operations, and Program Policy and Innovation. The mission of the office is to ensure fair, efficient, and transparent access to affordable housing. The Office provides subsidies, placement services, and tools that connect New Yorkers to affordable housing and ensures vulnerable households in subsidized housing have the support they need to be safely housed. Housing Access is committed to expanding housing choices, affirmatively furthering fair housing, and stabilizing the financial health of buildings. At HPD, rent subsidy programs are administered by the Division of Tenant & Owner Resources (DTOR). HPD’s rental subsidies, including the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, provide funding to eligible low-income families for rental assistance toward decent, safe, and affordable housing in a neighborhood of their choice. Families pay approximately 30% of their income toward rent, and the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) pays the difference, directly to the owner. The unit must have a rent that is determined reasonable and affordable by HPD and must meet federal Housing Quality Standards (HQS) to be approved. Your Impact: HPD's Division of Tenant & Owner Resources (DTOR) is responsible for the administration of rental subsidy programs that include Housing Choice Voucher (HCV), Project Based Voucher (PBV), Moderate Rehab Section 8, Moderate Rehab Single Room Occupancy (SRO), and Continuum of Care (CoC)-Shelter Plus Care (SPC), NYC 15/15 and HAVP . Through these programs, HPD serves over 40,000 households and 9,000 landlords in all five boroughs. DTOR is responsible for the initial application screening; confirming eligibility requirements; briefing applicants; and issuing vouchers. DTOR also monitors tenant and landlord compliance of their obligations under each program and continues to administer the ongoing subsidies throughout their participation. These continued activities include processing annual and interim recertifications to update family income/assets, household composition, and rent amounts; tenant moves and transfers; approved rent increases; Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) abatements and reinstatements to enforce Housing Quality. Your Role: Role Summary- The Deputy Director of Section 8 Operations provides strategic leadership, operational oversight, and day-to-day management of Section 8 program operations. The Deputy Director is responsible for supervising managers and staff, ensuring compliance with federal, state, and local regulations, and promoting consistent, efficient, and high-quality service delivery. Serving as a key member of the leadership team, the Deputy Director collaborates across divisions to develop and implement operational policies, improve business processes, and support agency initiatives. The role provides guidance on complex programmatic and operational issues, uses data to monitor performance and drive continuous improvement, and helps establish short- and long-term goals that strengthen organizational effectiveness. The Deputy Director fosters a culture of accountability, collaboration, and customer service while developing staff, enhancing operational efficiency, and ensuring the consistent administration of Section 8 programs in accordance with agency objectives and HUD requirements. Responsibilities: Policy, Procedure, and Technology Management: -Develop an expertise and deep knowledge of the unit’s rental subsidies, particularly the differences and similarities with Section 8 including regulations, internal policies and procedures, underlying missions, and relevant stakeholders -Represent the unit in internal division meetings and working groups; the Deputy Director must be able to provide input and feedback on broad agency or division policies or procedures to ensure that they are developed and rolled out in a way that fits with all subsidy programs -Represent the Director in meetings with other HPD divisions, particularly HPD Development, Asset Management, and Legal, on high-level matters including program changes, pipeline, and compliance monitoring or audits -Work with QA, Project Managers, and others to identify and implement policy or procedure changes for applications, annual or interim certifications. -Coordinate and oversee coordination with HPD divisions around the rollout of technology enhancements and changes, including digital recordkeeping, workflow management, and other systems. Supervision and Staff Development -Supervise and lead the unit’s Coordinators and their teams of Team Leaders and Case Managers, Administrative Support Specialists, and temporary staff, including hiring, onboarding, appraisals, coaching, growth and development, training, and discipline -Monitor unit workloads, accuracy, and performance to identify new training topics and new policy or procedure questions that may need to be reconciled within the Division -Lead the unit’s senior team to develop new trainings, demos, and guidance to maintain and build program knowledge across subsidy programs -Working with Coordinators and Team Leaders, identify technical skillset or knowledge gaps for individual staff or across the unit as the division’s technology evolves and its operations move to a paperless, workflow management and recordkeeping system -Manage unit performance, including by using workload analyses and other tools to either create or build plans to meet performance targets including external and pre-set standards like HUD’s SEMAP standards, contract utilization, or audit compliance; and HPD-driven service level expectations. -The Deputy Director will work closely with the Director to propose long-term goals for the unit, including setting priorities and expectations. Communications and Inquiry Management: -Receive and respond to inquiries from internal and external stakeholders. -Participate and present in trainings, forums, and presentations to landlords and other stakeholders, including as new policies are rolled out or for refreshers on application or recertification processes -Incorporate external communications into long-term planning and goal setting: identify knowledge gaps or potential training areas in service providers and work with Project Managers to develop email or communication templates to communicate and reinforce best practices for navigating HPD processes -Translate inquiries or complaints from tenants or feedback from staff into proposals for communications changes, including updates to forms and notices, staff training, and communication or conference templates Preferred skills: -Strong communication skills both oral and written -Ability to effectively multi-task -Strong computer knowledge (Word, Excel and Access) -Strong Organizational Skills -Exceptional project management, organizational, analytical, quantitative and qualitative skills. -Comfortable self-starting assigned projects -Knowledge of Rental Subsidies or Section 8 Subsidy Preferred -Bilingual a Plus COMMUNITY COORDINATOR - 56058 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.