On this episode of the Impact Real Estate Podcast with Chris Papa, we had an amazing and uplifting story of triumph. We welcome Douglaston Development's Executive Vice President of Affordable Housing, Arden Sokolow, who tells us her story of overcoming homelessness as a child to lead an affordable housing portfolio of more than 7,500 units. She also guides us through the competitive world of affordable housing in New York. It's an episode you do not want to miss.

EPISODE NOTES:

02:10 - What is Douglaston Development?

05:03 - Building partnerships

07:03 - New York Affordable Housing is the strongest

09:33 - Leaving no resources on the table; Biden's focus on public housing

11:48 - Getting an affordable deal done in New York

14:20 - Born for affordable housing

18:55 - Deep connections at HUD

21:13 - Skillsets: Understanding of policy but a knowledge of how things work

23:05 - The future of affordable housing in New York

25:56 - Homelessness and its causes

27:01 - Responding to the pipeline

28:31 - The Hot Seat presented by KK Reset

Arden joined Douglaston Development as the Executive Vice President, Affordable Housing. Prior to joining the company, Arden was the Chief of Staff at The New York City Housing Authority from May 2018 to 2019. During that time, she was in charge of negotiating agreements with the United States Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development regarding NYCHA compliance issues, as well as leading the creation of the NYCHA 2.0 plan to raise $24B for the authority. Arden has held diverse roles at the City, State and Federal level.

Arden served as the Regional Director for Multifamily Housing at HUD, Managing Director for Housing Programs at the NYS Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery and held a wide variety of positions at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. There, she lead the Inclusionary and Tax Incentive Programs and created the Distressed Assets Program to address the housing impact of the 2008 financial crisis.