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Creating Jobs for Public Housing Residents
Section 3 Enforcement in Public Housing
Panelists:
Victor Bach
Senior Housing Policy Analyst
Community Service Society
Victor Bach has served as Senior Housing Policy Analyst in the Public Policy Department at the Community Service Society (CSS) since 1983. At CSS, Dr. Bach has focused largely on issues related to the preservation of low-income housing resources in New York City. Prior to joining CSS, Dr. Bach was a faculty member at the Graduate School of Urban Policy and Management at the New School and at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He was also a consultant and Research Associate at the Brookings Institution, where he monitored the implementation of federal housing and community development programs. Dr. Bach holds a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from M.I.T., an M.A. in Mathematics from Yale University, and a B.S. from Brooklyn College. He is an Associate member of the Board of the New York City Public Housing Resident Alliance, a citywide resident organization he helped form.
Aixa Alemán-Díaz, MPP
Senior Legislative Assistant
Office of Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY)
Aixa Alemán-Díaz is a senior legislative assistant to U.S. Representative Nydia M. Velázquez, who represents the 12th district of New York, which includes the Lower East Side and parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Ms. Alemán-Díaz specializes in housing and community development issues. Prior to her current role, she was a Presidential Management Fellow with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), for which she worked both in Washington, DC, and in the New York Office of Public Housing. She has also consulted for the Mexican government on transparency issues and worked for the Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico on the development of a comprehensive long-term vision for the island.
Special Guest:
Hon. John Trasviña
Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
John Trasviña was nominated by President Obama to be Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity on April 20, 2009, and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on May 1, 2009. The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) administers and enforces federal laws and establishes policies that make sure all Americans have equal access to the housing of their choice.
Before joining the Obama Administration, Assistant Secretary Trasviña served as President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). There he led the "law firm for the Latino community" by advancing litigation and public policy in the areas of civil rights, immigration, education and related issues. Assistant Secretary Trasviña began his career at MALDEF in Washington, D.C., as a legislative attorney in 1985. He later worked for U.S. Senator Paul Simon as General Counsel and Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution. In 1997, President Clinton appointed Mr. Trasviña as Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices. As Special Counsel until 2001, he led the only federal government office devoted solely to immigrant workplace rights and was the highest ranking Latino attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice.
After returning to California, Assistant Secretary Trasviña taught immigration law at Stanford Law School and was Director of the Discrimination Research Center in Berkeley. Previously, he was a member of the San Francisco Elections Commission, president of the Harvard Club of San Francisco, and a board member of the La Raza Lawyers Association, Latino Issues Forum, Campaign for College Opportunity, Lowell High School Alumni Association, and Pacific Coast Immigration Museum.
Assistant Secretary Trasviña, a native of San Francisco, California, is a graduate of Harvard University and Stanford Law School.
The Working for Change Forum is a monthly public policy roundtable held in the U.S. Capitol and sponsored by the Community Service Society in collaboration with the Coalition on Human Needs. The forum is held with the support of Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) and is a bipartisan discussion that is open to Congressional staff and policy advocates. For information on the forum and to be placed on our mailing list, contact CSS Director of Government Relations, Janeene Freeman, at jfreeman@cssny.org.
Program - October 9, 2009