Valerie Piper

2021-2022 | Washington D.C. - Office of Planning

VALERIE PIPER has 30 years of experience in initiating, developing, and operationalizing new collaborations in housing and community economic development. She served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Development in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where she led interagency efforts to improve results without new federal grants. Among many other roles, Valerie helped lead the Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation and initiated a process that delivered thousands of mixed income housing units with strong governance involving residents and neighbors. Valerie has a Master’s of Government Administration from the University of Pennsylvania and lives in Virginia with her son Mark.

Project

The growing demand for homes in Washington D.C. has made it difficult for low- and moderate-income households to afford to live in the district. To address the inequities in affordable housing, Mayor Bowser ordered a review of how existing affordable housing is concentrated in some parts of the city, threatened in others, and extremely limited in still others due to a legacy of exclusionary and discriminatory land use decisions. FUSE will partner with the district to expand the availability of affordable housing options in two target communities and identify ways to leverage the First Right Purchase Assistance Program to preserve existing affordable housing.