October 28 – 30, 2024
Resorts World Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES
October 28 – 30, 2024
Resorts World Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES
Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Gustavo Velasquez to serve as Director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) in May of 2020. He oversees 10 divisions and over 1,100 employees responsible for the funding, production, and preservation of affordable housing to promote safe, inclusive, and sustainable communities for all Californians.
In this role, Velasquez leads California’s statewide department that administers state and federal funding for the development of affordable housing and infrastructure, develops housing and community development policies and research, produces the California Statewide Housing Plan, enforces housing element compliance with state law, upholds standards for housing construction, and manages titling and registration for mobile homes.
Velasquez directed the Department through an organizational restructure while it doubled in size, effectively managing an unprecedented budget of $25.1 billion over two fiscal years. Under his leadership, HCD launched programs such as Homekey and CA COVID-19 Rent Relief, now deemed national models for rapidly deploying billions of dollars to communities in need and securing housing for thousands of Californians experiencing or at-risk of homelessness.
He also oversaw the implementation of inaugural policy solutions, such as the establishment of the Housing Accountability Unit, to strengthen enforcement of housing element compliance, the launch of the California Housing Accelerator, to close funding gaps and jumpstart the construction of affordable homes, and the Multifamily Finance Super NOFA, to streamline the application and release of millions of dollars in state affordable housing funding resources.
Director Velasquez currently serves on the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee, the California Housing Finance Agency Board, the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, and UC Berkeley’s Terner Center Advisory Board.
Velasquez has held notable and prominent positions, including the appointment by President Barack Obama to lead the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, Director of the District of Columbia Office of Latino Affairs and the Office of Human Rights, Executive Director of the D.C. Latino Economic Development Center, and Senior Director at the Urban Institute, a renowned national economic and social policy research organization.
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a master’s degree in public administration.
Wednesday, November 1, 2023
2:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Los Angeles Convention Center - West Hall, 403A
Join us at the ULI 2023 Fall Meeting for the inaugural ULI Homeless to Housed Symposium, a 90-minute program that will explore the role of ULI and the private sector in addressing homelessness, a growing economic and humanitarian crisis. Meet experts in the field, including Director Gustavo Velasquez, California Department of Housing & Community Development; Marc Eichenbaum, Special Assistant to Mayor for Homeless Initiatives for City of Houston; Preston Butcher, Chairman of Legacy Partners and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Legacy Partners Commercial, philanthropist, and funder of ULI Homeless to Housed (H2H) Initiative; Leigh Ferguson, LMF Holdings and […]