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Registration is required: https://host.nxt.blackbaud.com/registration-form/?formId=4837957b-fc56-4a68-8b82-afbbb06c1205&envId=p-rzKFBb2xVk253Ulcjd_x1w&zone=usaRoosevelt House is pleased to present an urgent, and yet historical, discussion about public housing—spanning its past, present, and future. Convening leading policymakers, scholars, and historians, this event will mark—albeit belatedly—the 90th anniversary of the dedication of the nation’s first public housing, the New York City Housing Authority’s “First Houses” project on the Lower East Side, which opened in December of 1935.
Featuring Hunter College Professor of Urban Policy and Planning Nicholas Dagen Bloom as moderator, panelists will include: Betty Boyd Caroli, biographer of the “mother of public housing” Mary K. Simkhovitch, on the past and origins of public housing; Brodie Hefner, former longtime Senior Project Manager at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), addressing vital aspects of the current development of public housing, particularly in Brooklyn; and, to discuss the challenges and hopes for the future of public housing, New York City Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning Leila Bozorg.
Please note: copies of Betty Boyd Caroli’s A Slumless America: Mary K. Simkhovitch and the Dream of Affordable Housing will be available for purchase and signing at a reception following the program.
Nicholas Dagen Bloom, moderator, is a Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College and Acting Department Chair. His research analyzes long-term planning outcomes in essential urban systems such as subsidized housing and mass transportation. He is the author of Suburban Alchemy; Merchant of Illusion; Public Housing That Worked; The Metropolitan Airport; How States Shaped Postwar America; and The Great American Transit Disaster. He is also co-editor of the prize-winning Public Housing Myths and Affordable Housing in New York. He has been quoted extensively in media outlets on housing, transit, and other topics, including CityLab, WNYC, the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post. His editorials have appeared in Newsday, the New York Daily News, Crain’s Business, and City Limits. He served on Mayor Mamdani’s Transition Team as an advisor on housing.
Leila Bozorg is the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning in New York City, where she leads citywide housing and land use strategies that guide the city’s growth and affordability agenda. She is a housing and urban policy leader with more than 15 years of experience shaping policy, land use, and housing finance strategies to deliver large-scale, equity-driven outcomes. Throughout her tenure in public service, Bozorg has played a central role in landmark initiatives including the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning reform, public housing preservation efforts leveraging billions in public and private investment, creating the city’s first comprehensive fair housing plan, and designing innovative housing finance and development programs. Her career spans senior roles at NYC Housing Preservation and Development, the City Planning Commission, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and NYC Kids RISE.
Betty Boyd Caroli is an historian, author, and educator who had a long career teaching history at the City University of New York, where she is now Professor Emeritus. Her early publications include studies of Italian immigrants to the US, before she pivoted to presidential histories, which include: The Roosevelt Women: A Portrait in Five Generations; Lady Bird Johnson and Lyndon: the Hidden Story of a Marriage that Made a President; Inside the White House: America’s Most Famous Home the First 200 Years; and the bestselling First Ladies: the Ever-Changing Role, from Martha Washington to Melania Trump, now in its fifth edition.
Brodie Hefner is a former longtime public housing revitalization professional at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where he managed major redevelopment initiatives under the HOPE VI program, supporting the renovation and replacement of distressed public housing nationwide. He also administered federal housing assistance programs, including Housing Choice Voucher (“Section 8”) programs, and oversaw HUD’s local review and approval of NYCHA’s Rental Assistance Demonstration projects, which resulted in more than $7 billion in public-private investments to modernize 25,000 aging public housing apartments. For several years, Hefner taught courses on housing and community development in Hunter College’s urban planning program. Together with his wife, Ann Rothstein-Segan, he also curates exhibits that promotes the legacy of his father-in-law, the renowned 20th century photojournalist and documentary photographer Arthur Rothstein.
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Event Venue
East 65th Street, Upper East Side, New York City, New York,NY,United States, Manhattan
Tickets
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