Shola Olatoye
Starting her career as an educational program manager, Shola Olatoye had been fascinated with how schools can be indicators of healthy communities. But she soon realized it’s just one piece of the puzzle. “It’s really about home for people,” she says.
Shola Olatoye
After that realization, she moved into community development and housing, serving as vice president and senior community development manager at HSBC Bank and vice president and New York market leader for Enterprise Community Partners.
These days, Olatoye is in charge of protecting and improving homes for more than 600,000 residents as head of the nation’s largest public housing authority.
“The New York City Housing Authority [NYCHA] is truly a place where that concept of home is built in our DNA,” says Olatoye, who was appointed chair and CEO of the agency in February 2014 by Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Under her leadership, the housing authority announced in May its plan, called NextGeneration NYCHA, to protect and preserve public housing for current residents as well as the next generation.
“We’re just getting started. We’re starting from a place of 40 years of disinvestment,” she says. “I’m most proud of the fact that, with diligent work and intention, we’ve created a very pragmatic plan that really seeks to get the financial house in order so we can preserve the portfolio and the units that house half of the city’s low-income residents.”
Eight months into the plan, the NYCHA had secured forgiveness from the city for long-standing payment requirements exceeding $100 million annually. The agency has also released a Web app residents can use to make maintenance requests and has reduced repair times, increased emergency response times, and issued requests for proposals for 100% affordable new housing at three sites. Olatoye says even more plans are in the works, including selecting a developer for the first Rental Assistance Demonstration project in the Far Rockaways.
