About Hispanic Housing Development Corporation
Brick by brick, Hispanic Housing Development Corporation transforms communities—and lives. Founded in 1975 as a non-for-profit organization to help create affordable housing in Chicago’s Latino neighborhoods, the Hispanic Housing Development Corporation (“Hispanic Housing” or “HHDC”) now helps people across Chicagoland, a number of Midwest states, and Puerto Rico improve their lives—and achieve the American dream. HHDC builds comfortable, affordable, and sustainable housing that people are proud to call home, which becomes a catalyst for economic prosperity and community growth. They build—and revitalize—neighborhoods, to provide a place for people of all ages. HHDC creates new housing, employment, and business opportunities that help stabilize communities. Hispanic Housing's uniquely comprehensive approach helps to create and maintain healthy communities and has made them one of the largest and most effective community development organizations in the nation. Yet while HHDC has grown, their mission has always remained the same: to help people make a better life for themselves, their families, and their community. That is where HHDC begins.
How HHDC Works
Housing Development
HHDC builds homes people want to live in—with innovative designs and quality construction. They are an asset to their neighborhoods and an engine for community revitalization. Since 1976 HHDC has built, renovated, or preserved more than 4,600 homes—apartments, condominiums, and single-family housing.
Hispanic Housing invests in neighborhoods where there is opportunity for growth and prosperity by developing housing that remains affordable.
- For Families. Hispanic Housing develops rental and for-sale housing near transportation and employment opportunities.
- For Elderly. The organization’s 13 apartment complexes for elderly and near-elderly residents are all located near the support services and social activities that help add years to residents’ lives.
Commercial Development
In addition to affordable housing, healthy communities require jobs, capital, and services. HHDC’s commercial development programs work to create all three.
Using the best practices of private sector developers, HHDC has built more than 85,000 square feet of commercial space, including offices, health centers, stores, and three Social Security office buildings for the General Services Administration.
Preservation
In response to a national crisis, Hispanic Housing created a separate division to acquire, rehab, and preserve affordable housing communities in the Midwest.
There are 2.5 million affordable housing units in the United States that have been developed over the past 40 years, under a number of government financing programs. Many are located in relatively strong market areas; most are well-constructed, and many have been very well-maintained.
About ten years ago, the preservation of these affordable units became an important social issue, as many affordable developments were converted to market-rate, displacing low-income residents. In the 1990's, HHDC acquired four HUD-financed properties in suburban Chicago. In 2003, the Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation provided a grant to Hispanic Housing to expand its preservation/acquisition activities. HHDC now owns and manages over 8,200 units of housing throughout the state of Illinois, as well as Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Puerto Rico. These acquisitions achieved the social purpose of preserving and improving scarce affordable residences through strategic acquisition, renovation, and management.
Tropic Construction Corporation
Established in 1993 as a subsidiary of HHDC, Tropic Construction uses superior products to build communities and strengthen human capital. Their work supports the development of an economic environment that helps communities to flourish. Tropic Construction has proven experience building a wide range of projects, including rental housing, condominiums, single-family homes, specialized medical facilities, schools, offices, commercial space, and solar panel systems.
Tropic Construction delivers greater control over the construction process, providing a vehicle to increase the business of minority contractors, and creating employment and training opportunities for neighborhood residents. This is achieved by:
- Meeting affordability goals while ensuring projects are completed on time and on budget.
- Hiring workforce from the communities where its projects are located.
- Creating business opportunities for minority and women-owned subcontractors.
Property Management
Unlike many developers, HHDC doesn't build to sell. They build to stay. HHDC’s in-house property management division helps them maintain high-quality assets and enhances the quality of life for residents. Today, Hispanic Housing’s property management team manages more than 8,200 residential units and 47,000 square feet of commercial space at more than 261 buildings across the region.
HHDC’s experience is in public and private property management. They manage properties for third-party owners, including properties regulated by HUD, IHDA, and other federal, state, and public entities. Learn more about HHDC’s partners here.
Affordable Community Energy, Inc. (ACE)
Established in 2012 as a subsidiary of HHDC, ACE provides comprehensive energy efficiency, water conservation and on-site electricity production (renewables and cogeneration) retrofits to multi-family affordable housing owners.
ACE has designed its services to overcome the usual barriers that prevent affordable housing owners from implementing valuable energy improvements. ACE provides the resources and expertise to determine what improvements should be made and provides 100% of the costs to minimize the financial burden to the property owner.
ACE has tested its processes and confirmed the levels of savings and production that its menu of improvements can produce, primarily at Hispanic Housing properties. ACE has now begun to offer its services to third-party customers nationally.
Impact
- 4,633 - number of homes HHDC developed or acquired since 1976.
- 8,200 - residential units managed by the HHDC property management team.
- 1,700 - units of affordable housing preserved by HHDC.
- 18,000+ - number of tenants served.
Return on Investment
Hispanic Housing’s history of over $592 million in development in 59 distinct projects across Illinois, neighboring states and Puerto Rico attracts financing from a variety of sources, including local, state, and federal government programs, foundations, banks, and private investors.
Learn more about Hispanic Housing Development Corporation on their website.
The Opportunity
Upon the retirement of its highly successful, long-time leader, Hispanic Housing and Development Corporation is seeking a President & CEO who is excited about building on Hispanic Housing’s incredible legacy and leading the organization to its next phase of impact. This is an exciting opportunity to take the helm of a well-regarded organization devoted to improving underserved Latino communities through the creation and preservation of housing and commercial buildings.
The President & CEO is responsible for the achievement of all operational and strategic goals, including capital raising, strategic planning, fiscal management, programming and product development, board relations, leadership of a staff of 269, and community relations and engagement. This leader will work in a collaborative manner with a highly experienced and capable team to assess the constantly changing landscape and adjust HHDC’s products and approach to ensure the organization continues to meet community needs.
The ideal candidate will be a proven and respected leader with the skills to maintain excellence in the content and delivery of HHDC’s existing products and the creativity and entrepreneurialism to continually innovate to drive growth. This is an exceptional opportunity for a visionary leader, with a deep commitment to improving communities, to continue to grow and expand HHDC’s impact in the future.
Candidate Profile
We recognize that there is a spectrum of lived and professional experience that will set candidates up for success in this role. While no one candidate will have every experience outlined in the position description, ideal candidates will display the following professional and personal qualities, skills, and characteristics:
Passion for the Mission
With a deep belief in the power of community-led development and capital to transform neighborhoods and lives, the President & CEO will embrace Hispanic Housing’s history of revitalizing neighborhoods in Chicago and beyond. They will be an inspiring and genuine leader with the ability to earn the respect of and inspire a variety of stakeholders including residents, employees, community partners, financial institutions, philanthropies, and other investors. This leader will have the heart of a servant, will demonstrate humility and courage, and will be a person of high integrity and character. With a deep respect for Latino culture, the President & CEO will model a deep commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and will advocate for the importance of these values throughout the organization and in HHDC’s external work.
Strategic and Visionary Leader
The President & CEO will be a strategic thinker with a demonstrated ability to work with a Board of Directors and the team to establish a vision and execute on it in a continuously changing landscape. Experienced in collaborative strategic planning efforts, they will be excited to explore opportunities for increased impact and demonstrate a track record of thinking creatively to grow organizations. The President & CEO will adopt an entrepreneurial approach to expanding and deepening new and existing support from funders both locally and nationally to support the planned growth. They will have a record of raising substantial capital and sustaining relationships with sources of funding. With experience leading complex, multi-faceted organizations through change, the President & CEO will be forward-looking, willing to take responsible risks and continually looking for opportunities to expand organizational impact.
Real Estate, Business and Management Acumen
The President & CEO will possess significant real estate experience and financial acumen and the ability to set priorities decisively, delegate responsibilities, assure accountability, and allocate resources to ensure results. This individual will offer a knowledge base in lending, investing, and/or property management and demonstrate the ability to build pipelines for existing products, develop new offerings, and expand to new markets all while balancing financial performance with positive community outcomes. The President & CEO will have a track record of motivating, developing, and retaining a strong team to achieve impact through creativity and teamwork and by leveraging individuals’ strengths to meet overall goals. A seasoned leader, the successful candidate will have a strong business orientation with an ability to use metrics, analysis, and problem-solving to drive key decisions and achieve strategic objectives.
External Presence and Capital Raiser for HHDC
An articulate and inspirational public speaker, the President & CEO will have the ability to effectively convey HHDC’s mission to a diverse range of constituents to generate support and inspire action. Dynamic, optimistic, and trustworthy, this leader will inspire confidence in investors, donors, partners, and other constituents, and will be able to establish mutually beneficial partnerships that further HHDC’s mission. The President & CEO will bring an established network in the industry and be skilled at diversifying revenue for an organization and advocating for policy change that will positively impact HHDC and the neighborhoods it serves.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. The salary is a mixture of base and bonus. The base range for this role is $250,000 - $300,000 with a significant bonus based on the achievement of mutually agreed performance goals. The compensation also includes generous benefits package. The exact salary that will be offered to the President & CEO will be determined based on a consideration of the successful candidate’s skills and experience and aligned with HHDC’s compensation policies.
Contact
Koya Partners l Diversified Search Group has been exclusively retained for this engagement, which is being led by Erin Reedy, Marissa Delgado, and Victor Arias. Submit a compelling cover letter and resume by filling out our Talent Profile or email HHDCCEO@koyapartners.com. All inquiries and discussions will be considered strictly confidential.
Koya Partners is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals living with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual living with a disability and need assistance expressing interest online, please email NonprofitSearchOps@divsearch.com. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.