Shola olatoye biography of mahatma

We have people on the waitlist and in the last year, we helped one homeowner. The year before I believe it was If voters approve the [affordable housing] bond in November, I think a significant portion of those funds should go towards homeownership. How do we keep the people who are here? It was not lost on me that the housing director had a hard time finding housing in the city of Oakland when we got here.

Your departure is part of a larger pattern of turnover among top housing and homelessness officials in Oakland. Why are people working in this field leaving, or is it a coincidence? All of those folks have been there for a very long time.

Shola olatoye biography of mahatma: lasting legacy,” said Shola Olatoye,

I wanted to do five things when I got here, though clearly, those things changed with the pandemic. I knew the department needed a plan to both spend down the resources it had—the Measure KK bond—and to lay out a capital plan going forward. The next piece was using that data to usher in an era of transparency. Fourth was we just needed to hire people.

We had a tremendous number of vacancies, particularly in the unit that closes real estate deals. There were six or seven people in that department and now there are Yes, and we can be more intentional to make sure our resources are targeting the people most affected. I think about the emergency rental assistance program. One of the challenges for any city, but certainly in the city of Oakland, is our contracting process.

There are some cities across the state that also chose to accept their own allocations [instead of having the state administer the program], but just had a bit more nimble ways to get the money out. We should have tried to be a little bit more creative. When you have a council during an election season, everybody wants to have the great idea of the next program, and the administration is constantly being pulled in different directions.

My hope is that—and I think this comes with good data and transparency and relationship-building—council and the administration can be a bit more aligned with the priorities.

Shola olatoye biography of mahatma: New York City Hous-

So hopefully you get through the election period, and then you can have a bit more of a plan and a vision, and part of that is being able to articulate what you support. Olatoye filed one of those false certifications herself in despite knowing the inspections had not been performed. More scrutiny came this winter, when more than 80 percent of NYCHA tenants lost heat or hot water at some point from October to January as their complexes' aging boilers struggled against especially cold temperatures.

Olatoye said she was "unnerve d " by those "unacceptable shortcomings," but defended the steps NYCHA has taken during her tenure to improve conditions for itstenants. Olatoye said she had committed to serving for de Blasio's first term, which ended last year.

Shola olatoye biography of mahatma: THE COURIER LIFE INTERVIEW: SHOLA

The Democratic mayor has vigorously defended her in recent months, rejecting any suggestion that the recent scandals outweighed the good she had done in her tenure. De Blasio credited Olatoye with bringing the housing authority back from the brink of bankruptcy, cutting repair times by nearly 70 percent and driving down crime in public housing by 7 percent last year.

Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item. Career [ edit ]. New York City Housing Authority [ edit ]. Awards [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. The New York Times. ISSN Retrieved May 22, Eden Housing. Retrieved December 27, News Wesleyan.