VP, Affordable Housing & Consumer Empowerment

The Vice President, Affordable Housing and Consumer Empowerment  will lead his/her team and support HPN members in empowering individuals, families, and communities to create sustainable homes and neighborhoods that provide a wide variety of opportunities so that all people can thrive. This position will help members and the residents in their communities build pathways to opportunity through services, programs, products and business initiatives that put people first.
 
The Vice President will be responsible for administering programs and facilitating peer exchange activities among members in the homeownership, multifamily, economic and consumer empowerment space, in order to share innovative approaches and programs that provide a wellspring of ideas for advancing our members’ work and supporting new models within the sector. This position will lead or provide subject matter expertise in the areas of affordable housing, homeownership development and finance, housing counseling, and economic mobility.  
 
This position has overall management responsibility for the success of federal housing counseling contracts, including HUD HCP and Fee-for-Counseling Service contracts as well as other programs as applicable.  In addition, the incumbent will be a partner in the successful development and initial roll-out of Launchpad – our sector-wide partnership Client Management System (CMS) tool serving the housing counseling industry. They will also bring innovative ideas to the homeownership building and finance arena and will be responsible for existing and new programmatic activity in the affordable rental arena. The VP and their staff will lead HPN member communities of practice (COPs) in these subject areas.
 
The incumbent may also be asked to foster new ideas that arise out of peer exchange and help determine paths for enterprise development in these areas if warranted.
 
The Vice President will be a strong leader and a naturally empathetic, creative, and entrepreneurial person. The person should be oriented toward representing a human and humane perspective on effective business design and development, committed to building HPN’s knowledge base and innovation portfolio.
 
MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Business Model Innovations:
·         Develop and advance strategies for homeownership development, acquisition, finance and innovation
·         Track, learn and channel best practices in the multifamily arena and advance strategies to support members’ initiatives and to expand and/or enhance existing HPN enterprises work with our members
·         Support HPN’s policy efforts around homeownership and economic mobility
·         Lead team in efforts to develop, implement, and manage new business models and business opportunities for consumer empowerment among HPN’s membership
·         Visit members and spend time in the field in order to: craft strategies, support new business model development and adoption, peer learning across the network, as well as ideation and innovation within the sector
·         Oversee new project development and implementation as assigned

• Maintain subject matter expertise and understanding of major policy initiatives and industry advancements in the areas of consumer empowerment, economic mobility and homeownership and share key updates with HPN staff and members.

·         Work with the leader and staff of the counseling CMS Launchpad, its marketing and expansion, subject matter expertise and serve as HPN’s representative on the sector-wide counseling group
 
Peer-Exchange:
·         Plan and facilitate peer learning programming as a vehicle to achieve HPN’s strategic goals and encourage, stimulate and develop new business ideas. Specifically, this includes:
o   Oversee planning and execution of the annual Housing Counseling Program meeting;
o   Working with the Peer Learning team, facilitate and create content for related HPN Member Meeting sessions, COP activities and Member Exchange;
o   Support multifamily peer learning through facilitation and program development as assigned; and
o   Work across teams (Policy, Capital Markets, R&D etc.) to support development and implementation of HPN Homeownership Strategy.
 
Operations & Management:
·         Responsible for success of counseling contracts. This includes ensuring compliance with all federal contracts, developing systems and processes to meet grant and contract requirements, apply for funds, and direct supervisor responsibility for associates responsible for day to day operations of these programs: applications for funds, sub allocations to members, reporting and close out as well as compliance, training and technical assistance.
·         Develop and design new housing counseling programs to meet the changing needs of our members’ environments.
·         Facilitate linkages with Framework and HPN members. Framework is a 50%-owned ground-breaking Fin-Tech company focused on reaching consumers and strengthening their likelihood of financial success in homeownership and beyond. 
·         Advance operations across the affordable housing and community development team, engaging and supporting team members in cross functional data tracking, project management, and systems development.
·         Advance use of collaborative technology to enhance project management across the Housing Counseling and homeownership team as well as in advancing the work of our multifamily members.
·         Develop process and system across the affordable housing and community development team for collecting and integrating ideas and feedback from staff into program operations and implementation
·         Coordinate planning across programs, working with the EVP to build team meeting agendas, facilitate meetings and organize team building exercises
·         Draft communications to executive staff and/or boards of directors
·         Support EVP in budgeting process across counseling initiatives; develop and track housing counseling contract budgets.
·         Coordinate development of dashboards to track overall performance of housing counseling program and homeownership business lines
 
Communications & Development:
·         Enhance branding of housing counseling in collaboration with other HUD intermediaries
·         Draft communications and collaborate with Vice President, Philanthropy on fundraising efforts for affordable housing and community development projects
·         Lead internal staff and external partners to increase integration and efficiency of HCP systems and ensure best use of technology and social media across the business line
·         Represent HPN in external partnerships, collaborations and industry organizations such as the Coalition of HUD Housing Counseling Intermediaries
·         Performs all other duties as assigned and required
 
QUALIFICATIONS
·         BA required, Masters preferred
·         A minimum of 10 years of related experience, including knowledge of the housing and community development sector. Familiarity with homeownership and/or economic development is a must, some experience with multifamily housing and/or community development is a plus.
·         Ability to quickly learn new tools and technologies
·         Knowledge of federal housing counseling programs and residential mortgage industry
·         Strategic and critical thinker, and able to focus on operations, systems and procedures
·         Excellent written and verbal communication skills
·         Excellent project management skills
·         Passion for learning, synthesizing ideas and integrating ideas into practice
·         Willingness and interest in working both collaboratively and independently, with emphasis on team engagement in innovation and change
·         Experience with Design Thinking and other innovations frameworks a bonus
·         Interest and experience in cultivating collaborative processes, with emphasis on stakeholder engagement to inform and accelerate innovation and positive change
·         Superior facilitation skills with strong ability to listen and connect to a diverse set of stakeholders to extract, synthesize and communicate key insights
 
OTHER
·         Position is based in Boston, MA or Washington, DC
·         Some travel required
 
The position description is a guide to the critical duties and essential functions of the job, not an all-inclusive list of responsibilities, qualifications, physical demands and work environment conditions. Position descriptions are reviewed and revised to meet the Housing Partnership Network’s changing needs, at the sole discretion of management.