HPD Commissioner Been Steps Down

Torres-Springer: “I know first-hand that the work we do is a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of families.”

NEW YORK CITY—In a shake-up of two city agencies, Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development commissioner Vicki Been is stepping down and will be replaced by NYC Economic Development Corp. president and CEO Maria Torres-Springer, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office. At EDC, James Patchett, an advisor to the Mayor on housing issues and the current chief of staff for Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, will take the reins.

Under the leadership of Been—who is set to return to teaching at New York University as the Boxer Family Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Furman Center—the administration has secured affordable housing at a rate not seen since the Koch Administration in 1989, Mayor de Blasio’s office states. Her exit comes after overseeing the financing of a record 62,500 affordable homes—enough for 170,000 New Yorkers.