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Strategic Policy Advisor / Deputy Practice Group Leader, Affordable Housing & Real Estate
Deborah VanAmerongen is a strategic policy advisor in Nixon Peabody’s Affordable Housing practice group. She works with attorneys in the firm and clients, including developers, owners, managers, and funders to craft creative solutions to issues relative to affordable housing development and preservation.
I focus my practice on complex affordable housing transactions, including those that entail interaction with several governmental agencies and numerous funding sources. I also introduce clients to new opportunities and markets and build partnerships between clients and community groups where that partnership will facilitate the success of a transaction.
Our New York Affordable Housing team, representing both transactional and regulatory experience, has worked with developers who are partnering with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to redevelop its existing public housing and build new affordable housing on sites made available by NYCHA. This entails combining RAD, Section 18 and Section 22 disposition processes. The unique combination of our deep regulatory understanding (including HUD policies and programs) and years of experience closing complex affordable housing financial transactions has put us in the center of this growing part of the New York affordable housing industry.
Our firm has always placed a strong emphasis on staying ahead of developments in affordable housing policy at the city, state and federal levels. Through my role on the Executive Committee of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH) and on the Board of the Supportive Housing Network of NY (SHNNY), along with the roles that several of the other practitioners in our firm have with other national and local housing advocacy organizations, we are able to stay in the forefront of policy discussions with the various governmental agencies. This enables us to better advise our clients and spot opportunities and risks that may impact their business.
The extraordinary demand on the resources available from New York City and New York State housing agencies has forced ever more creative deal structuring, and these challenges will continue for the foreseeable future. I believe there will be a continued and enhanced emphasis on combining supportive services with affordable housing development. I also see HUD and NYCHA continuing its emphasis on the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD and PACT) program to revitalize public housing developments.
Affordable Housing & Real Estate deputy practice leader and strategic policy advisor Deborah VanAmerongen cowrote this op-ed discussing why it’s important for New York State lawmakers to approve Governor Kathy Hochul’s Housing Compact. The article notes Deborah’s previous role as Commissioner of the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal.
This article covers the grand opening of 425 Grand Concourse, a 26-story mixed-use high-rise in the Bronx and the largest passive house development in the US—making it 70% more energy efficient than standard high-rise new construction. The article mentions NP for the work of Affordable Housing & Real Estate deputy practice leader Deborah VanAmerongen and AHRE partner Joe Lynch, both of the New York City office.
State University of New York, Rockefeller College, M.P.A.
Syracuse University, Utica College, B.S.
Deborah is a member of the board of editors for Affordable Housing Finance magazine, and served as the co-chair of the National Council of State Housing Agencies’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Task Force. She serves on the boards of the Housing Advisory Group, the New York State Association for Affordable Housing, and the Supportive Housing Network of New York. She is also a participant in the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association and the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition.
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