December 12, 2023
Housing Authority Appoints Lisa Jones to Serve as San Diego Housing Commission President & CEO
With extensive experience in housing and homelessness solutions, she will lead SDHC, with 390 employees and an annual budget of $595 million
SAN DIEGO, CA — After a nationwide search, the Housing Authority of the City of San Diego has appointed San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) Executive Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Lisa Jones to be SDHC’s next President and Chief Executive Officer. She becomes SDHC’s sixth leader in the agency’s nearly 45-year history, excluding those who served as interim President and CEO.
“The greatest threats to the well-being and success of our community are the housing affordability and homelessness crises that continue to plague us. In other words, San Diego cannot succeed without the success of the San Diego Housing Commission. Doing so will require compassion, experience, savvy and expertise,” City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera said. “Having worked with Lisa Jones over the last few years, I’ve witnessed her demonstrate those attributes and do so while always prioritizing the people who most need our attention. With her guidance, we’re taking active steps toward ensuring everyone in San Diego can have a home they can afford.”
The San Diego City Council serves as the Housing Authority of the City of San Diego, which oversees SDHC. Council President Elo-Rivera appointed the Ad Hoc Working Group for the Recruitment of the San Diego Housing Commission President and Chief Executive Officer, which led the recruitment process.
“We need a leader who expands access to affordable housing, leverages external resources to help people get off the streets, reverses historical actions that have segregated communities, and invests in the hard-working staff at the Housing Commission. That leader is Lisa Jones,” said City Council President Pro Tem Joe LaCava, the Chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group. The group consisted of City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, former City Councilmember Chris Cate, SDHC Vice Chair Ryan Clumpner, SDHC Commissioner Johanna Hester, former SDHC Vice Chair Robert Spoon, former Community HousingWorks President and CEO Sue Reynolds, and Derrick Luckett, a longtime licensed real estate broker.
“I am honored and deeply humbled to be entrusted with the leadership of the San Diego Housing Commission at this pivotal time. As housing costs increase and resources continue to be limited, it will take innovative approaches and partnerships to make the progress that San Diegans need. Engaging with the community is one of my core values. I want to reach out to our community stakeholders, our community members and people across our city who don’t know we are there for them to better reach and serve those that need us the most. I look forward to working with our City Council, Mayor Todd Gloria, our Board of Commissioners, our community partners and our outstanding staff to develop more diverse, person-centered solutions to serve families facing housing instability or homelessness,” Jones said.
In her more than 20 years of service in the areas of affordable housing and homelessness, she has developed and implemented housing assistance approaches that focus on the unique needs of the people being served. She has adhered to the additional values of building relationships, collaborating with community organizations, promoting transparency in government, and fostering equity, diversity and inclusion.
She most recently served as SDHC’s Executive Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. In that position, she oversaw key strategic and policy initiatives across agency divisions, including SDHC’s Strategic Plan, SDHC’s Moving to Work designation, and homelessness initiatives.
“I am sincerely excited about Lisa being named as CEO. Her ability to couple strategic thinking and innovation when developing ways to help the organization achieve the mission is outstanding. She also has a deep commitment to using the lived experience of the people the San Diego Housing Commission serves as a guide when crafting support programs that are meaningful. These qualities are essential for the leader of this organization as we strive to address the housing and homelessness crisis in the city. I am confident she will have a profound and positive impact in her new role,” SDHC Board of Commissioners Chair Eugene “Mitch” Mitchell said.
Before joining SDHC in 2017, Ms. Jones worked for seven years for the Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino in the positions of Operations Manager, Director of Housing Administration, and Vice President of Housing Services. Concurrently, for several years, she also acted as Executive Director of Knowledge and Education for Your Success, a nonprofit affiliate of the Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino.
She holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Institute of Leadership and Management with the University of West Anglia, England. She also is an alumnus of the Impact Center’s Women’s Executive Leadership Program.
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Media Contact:
Scott Marshall
Vice President of Communications
San Diego Housing Commission
619-578-7138
scottm@sdhc.org
