Hearing Representative – Division of Adjudications

About the Agency: The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) oversees housing standards across all 3.7 million homes in New York City.

As the nation’s largest municipal housing agency, HPD is responsible for building and preserving affordable housing, protecting tenants from harassment and displacement, and holding landlords accountable across the five boroughs. Under Commissioner Dina Levy and the Mamdani Administration, HPD is pursuing an ambitious housing agenda focused on the needs of New York’s tenants. With a broad set of tools including standards enforcement, tenant resources, and the creation of new affordable housing, HPD is committed to making New York City a more affordable place for renters and homeowners alike.

Your Team The Community Coordinator, in the capacity of serving as Hearing Representative, will be a key member of the Division of Adjudications (Division), within the newly centralized Office of Compliance & Risk Management (CRM). The Division consists of the Appeals and the Mitchell-Lama Hearings Units.

The Office of Housing Access and Stability (“HAS”) consists of the divisions of Housing Opportunity, Tenant and Owner Resources, Housing Stability, Budget and Program Operations, and Program Policy and Innovation. The mission of the office is to ensure fair, efficient, and transparent access to affordable housing. The Office provides subsidies, placement services, and tools that connect New Yorkers to affordable housing and ensures vulnerable households in subsidized housing have the support they need to be safely housed. Housing Access is committed to expanding housing choices, affirmatively furthering fair housing, and stabilizing the financial health of buildings.

The Division of Tenant and Owner Resources (DTOR), within HAS, is responsible for the administration of rental subsidy programs that serves over 45,000 households and 9,000 landlords in all five boroughs. These programs include the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV), Project Based Voucher (PBV), Moderate Rehab Section 8, Moderate Rehab Single Room Occupancy (SRO), and Continuum of Care (CoC)/Shelter Plus Care (SPC), NYC 15/15, Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP), City HAP and HOME Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (HOME TBRA).

The largest program administered is the federal Section 8 or HCV program, which provides funding to eligible low-income families for rental assistance toward decent, safe, and affordable housing in a neighborhood of their choice. Families pay approximately 30% of their income toward rent, and the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) pays the difference, directly to the owner. The unit must have a rent that is determined reasonable and affordable by HPD and must meet federal Housing Quality Standards (HQS) to be approved.

The Section 8 rent subsidy program funded and monitored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is the primary rental subsidy program administered by HPD. The Appeals Unit conducts federally mandated informal hearings and reviews, which are the mechanisms through which Section 8 and other HPD administrated rental subsidy program participants and applicants may appeal decisions made by HAS in relation to their participation or application for assistance in the respective rental subsidy program. The Mitchell-Lama Hearings Unit tries and settles cases arising from matters lodged by managing agents of housing complexes governed by Mitchell-Lama rules and regulations and helps ensure that building owners and managing agents uphold their obligations under the program. The Division of Housing Supervision, within HPD’s Office of Asset & Property Management (APM), oversees the Mitchell-Lama program, which includes approximately 45,000 units that provide affordable rental and cooperative homeownership opportunities to families with moderate and middle incomes.

Your Impact As a Hearing Representative for the Division, you will bolster effective workflow and communications for the Appeals Unit, prepare documents and exhibits to be presented at informal hearings and informal reviews concerning terminations and denials of assistance, requests for reasonable accommodations, and other petitions arising from the various rent subsidy programs administered by HPD.

As a Hearing Representative, you will be part of a talented team of other hearing representatives, attorneys and administrative support staff who provide critical legal services to the Agency as it executes the agency’s affordable housing responsibilities.

Your Role: Under the Deputy Director and Director’s supervision, the selected candidate’s responsibilities will include representing HPD at informal hearings/reviews held at HPD’s Appeals unit.

Your Responsibilities:

• Handling appeals from receipt to completion, including working with appellants and the various agency units, appellants and representatives to request and review all relevant documents. Taking timely steps to pre-resolve appeals or assign appeals independently as needed.
• Reviewing casefiles and determining potential procedural and mailing issues, proper standing and timeliness of cases. Alerting supervisors of lateness for untimely cases or requesting supporting documentation, making income and other calculations as needed.
• Independently reviewing case files for relevant evidence pertaining to HPD's actions and creating a timeline of events to clearly demonstrate the facts and events leading to HPD's decision, assessing the decision and its compliance with rules, policies and HPD’s Administrative Plan.
• Ensuring timely preparation of cases for hearing/review and presenting exhibits and arguing in support of the agency's decision or action at the informal hearings/reviews and explaining those steps and documents in a clear fashion at informal hearings/reviews.
• Working with Unit staff to ensure cases are calendared, scheduled and entered correctly in the Appeal Tracking Database. Working with staff to ensure correct and timely mailing of correspondence and decisions.
• Responding to inquiries from participants/applicants and their representatives, agency staff and the general public via phone and written corresponndence. Reviewing, entering and/or updating information related to the appeallants’ cases in the Appeals Tracking Database and other programs and databases such as Elite, Outlook and Expertly.
• Presenting cases to the Appeals Unit as needed for internal discussions and to HAS for review and discussion.
• Sending pre-resolve or reinstatement e-mails to senior staff within HAS for cases that may be able to be resolved without a hearing or review
• Responding to inquiries that are received via mail, fax, or e-mail from staff within HAS as well as external parties such as attorneys, POA, case workers, etc.
• Serving as a liasion between the Program, the Appeals Unit and other relevant internal or external parties on hearing logistics and relevant issues.
• Independently managing own caseload and assignment of cases to other team members as needed. Assisting with training and mock hearings/second seating of current and incoming Appeals staff if needed or due to staff shortages.
• Making recommendations to supervisors and leadership on ways to improve Appeals unit functions and case management.
• Working on special projects, as needed, which may working on initiatives that result from Agency or Division priorities and strategic plans.

Preferred Skills The ideal candidate has a proven interest in affordable housing and will be an inquisitive problem-solver who is eager to grow into new responsibilities, can understand multiple affordable housing domains, and quickly gain a broad understanding of relevant HPD Divisions, with the following skills:

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills; ability to convey data analysis or other complex concepts to colleagues with a variety of skillsets, strengths, and perspectives
• Ability to multi-task with high volume workload
• Data enthusiast with a passion for using data to improve government processes and services
• Collaborative team player with the ability to also drive things forward independently
• Exceptional project management, organizational, analytical, quantitative and qualitative skills
• Strong attention to detail Please submit a cover letter as part of your application.

Additional Information The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.

Note: This position is eligible for remote work up to two days per week, pursuant to the Remote Work Pilot Program agreed to between the City and DC37.

Minimum Qualifications

• A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and two years of experience in community work or community centered activities in an area related to the duties described above; or
• High school graduation or equivalent and six years of experience in community work or community centered activities in an area related to the duties as described above; or
• Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. However, all candidates must have at least one year of experience as described in "1" above.

Residency Requirement

New York City residency is generally required within 90 days of appointment. However, City Employees in certain titles who have worked for the City for 2 continuous years may also be eligible to reside in Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Westchester, Rockland, or Orange County. To determine if the residency requirement applies to you, please discuss with the agency representative at the time of interview.