Visualize NYC 2021: Housing

*This event is occurring as a live webinar. Registrants will be emailed a link to access the program.*

This discussion will look at housing issues we believe will be relevant to the 2021 local elections in NYC. 

The next 12 months may be some of the most momentous in New York City’s history, with a confluence of events—including the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and an election with the potential to reshape the political landscape— creating major opportunities for change. The November 2021 election will lead to an unprecedented amount of turnover in city government: in addition to the mayor, 40 elected officials will reach term limits, including four borough presidents and 34 City Council members. The number of open positions creates a singular opportunity for change in the five boroughs, and incoming civic leaders will have the potential to remake the political landscape.    

In response to this unique moment, AIA New York has partnered with MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab to undertake a web project titled Visualize NYC 2021, which will explore issues in our city that we believe will be central in the 2021 local elections.  

This program, featuring Jessica Katz and Catherine Trapani, is presented with the first phase of Visualize NYC 2021, a website that invites you to share your vision for New York City in response to prompts from experts in the built environment. 

Katz and Trapani will discuss their prompts: 

“Housing can play a role in helping NYC recover from the pandemic and other disasters in the future by____” 

and

“To combat structural and systemic racism and undo the legacy of redlining, NYC must____”

To respond to these prompts and others please visit VisualizeNYC.net 

Speakers:
Jessica Katz, Executive Director, Citizens Housing and Planning Council
Catherine Trapani, Executive Director, Homeless Services United

Jessica Katz joins CHPC from the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, where she most recently served as the Associate Commissioner for New Construction. In that role she oversaw the creation of affordable and special needs housing—serving everyone from the formerly homeless to middle-income New Yorkers. Leading a team of more than 60 professionals, she has been responsible for an annual capital budget of more than $500 million and for creating thousands of much-needed units of housing. She has held a variety of roles at HPD, including as Assistant Commissioner of Special Needs Housing, Senior Advisor to the Commissioner, and Assistant Commissioner for Preservation Finance. Jessica began her career with HPD in 2003, and started as the Production Manager for Special Needs Housing, gaining in-depth experience in the creation of housing for our most vulnerable populations. She left HPD in 2009 to become the Executive Director of Lantern Community Services, a not-for-profit that operates social service programs in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan as well as operating 1,000 units of permanent supportive housing. 

Catherine Trapani has been working in the nonprofit sector for over 15 years. She has been a leader in various coalitions advocating on behalf of homeless New Yorkers and has played a key role in monitoring policy developments and their effects on constituents while advocating for improved policies for and greater access to housing assistance for survivors of domestic violence and homeless families. She was a founding member of United to End Homelessness and a co-author of the Roadmap to Ending Homelessness, a member of the Housing for Vulnerable Families Coalition, a member of the Steering Committee and Co-Chair of the Housing Committee for the Coalition of Domestic Violence Residential Providers and Co-Chair of the Domestic Violence and Economic Justice Taskforce.