Vicki L. Been will be stepping down as commissioner of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development this month. The housing agency closed financing on 20,854 new apartments and preserved 41,652 over the span of three years under Professor Been.
In an interview with POLITICO New York, Professor Been calls the decision to leave “very bittersweet.” She goes on to say, “I love the agency. I love what I do. There’s lots of things that I would still love to do, but I feel like you should leave before people want you to leave because if you want to leave, it signals that you got too burned out.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio said of Professor Been: “With her signature brand of grit and grace, Vicki created and implemented our ambitious affordable housing plan. She is a brilliant public servant and law professor, and her students are lucky to have her back."
Professor Been will be returning to NYU as the Boxer Family Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Furman Center.