Diana McIver
Diana McIver is one of a very small number of women in the nation who own and operate a for-profit firm dedicated to the creation of affordable housing.
Sabrina Nicole Photography
Diana McIver
More than 35 years ago, McIver, who got her start in the affordable housing industry working for the Senate Special Committee on Aging and developing training programs for the National Center for Housing Management, set up shop in Dallas.
She hoped to develop real estate through the old project-based Sec. 8 program. However, after she submitted three deals, the program was discontinued. But McIver didn’t quit. Instead, she became a consultant and assisted nonprofits with Sec. 202 development and, later, the acquisition of older, Sec. 236 deals. Through the years, her firm, DMA Cos., now based in Austin, has helped clients develop or preserve more than 13,000 units.
In 1998, McIver decided she wanted to become a developer herself to fill a need in rural communities in Texas. Her first few developments were done in those communities, after which she branched out into mid-sized and larger cities. With a staff of over 70, she now owns and operates 25 developments with 2,000-plus units, many of them in Texas and many serving low-income seniors.
“We’re more of a boutique affordable housing developer. We don’t do the same, cookie-cutter developments. We respond to the site, what a community needs, and what the ultimate customer needs,” she says. “Our model is much more so that communities know that when we come in, we’re going to do what’s best for that community and not just what’s best for us developers.”
DMA Cos. broke ground on Aldrich 51 Apartments in mid-January. The 240-unit mixed-income seniors development is part of the Robert Mueller Municipal Airport redevelopment, a master plan to create a mixed-use urban village in the heart of Austin. DMA also continues its work in rural communities and opened a 61-unit seniors housing development in Hutto, Texas, at the end of 2015.
In addition to blazing a trail on the development front, McIver is active on the policy side in her state, frequently testifying before the state legislature and helping educate state lawmakers on the importance of affordable housing. She’s a past president of the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers, where she remains active on a government relations committee, and sits on the board of the Texas Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies.
