Two of New York’s top affordable housing officials have landed at private firms after announcing their resignations from public posts last month.
Deborah VanAmerongen, commissioner of the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, will join Nixon Peabody LLP as a strategic policy adviser on Feb. 1.
Priscilla Almodovar, former president and chief executive officer of the New York State Housing Finance Agency and the State of New York Mortgage Agency, will join JPMorgan’s community development banking business as chief operating officer on Jan. 18.
VanAmerongen, who is not a lawyer, will work with attorneys on affordable housing deals nationally out of Nixon Peabody’s New York City office.
“She has worked in areas that we’re very strong in and sometimes some of our clients want the perspective of a non-attorney,” said Stephen Wallace, a partner at Nixon Peabody and group leader of its affordable housing practice.
VanAmerongen will help clients find resources for their deals, including municipal bonds, tax credits, U.S. Department of Housing Urban Development programs, and tools that may come out of the Obama administration, Wallace said.
As DHCR commissioner, VanAmerongen oversaw the state’s use of low-income housing tax credits and affordable housing policies. Before that, she had served director of multifamily housing for HUD’s New York City region.
Almodovar will serve in a leadership role at JPMorgan’s community development and new markets tax-credit business. The group has been involved in more than 900 affordable housing and economic development projects nationally, financing $5 billion of projects, according to a press release.
Prior to serving at HFA and SONYMA, Almodovar was a senior policy adviser to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s gubernatorial campaign and was an attorney at White & Case LLP. Both Almodovar and VanAmerongen were Spitzer appointees. Gov. David Paterson has not announced replacements.
