Curator of the Loeb Fellowship, Jim Stockard (MCP ’68, LF ’78) has been appointed to the Governor’s Commission for Public Housing Sustainability and Reform. The Commission has been established as a result of the Governor’s commitment to dramatically reform the outdated and inefficient system by which 242 local agencies manage a stock of 50,000 public housing units funded by the state and another 37,000 supported by the federal government. The purpose of the 23 member Commission is to “develop recommendations for the sustainability and reform of public housing authorities and the portfolio of state aided public housing that will ensure the long-term viability of public housing as an affordable housing resource, including the reform of the statutory governance structure with a goal of creating a practical, cost-effective and modern regional governance structure.”
Stockard has served as a member of the board of the Cambridge Housing Authority for over 35 years. He is the former Special Master for the District of Columbia Housing Authority and was the Principal Investigator for the GSD’s landmark Public Housing Operating Cost Study that resulted in the dramatic and ongoing reform of the financing and governance for the 1.2 million units of federal public housing. The GSD is the only academic institution represented on the Commission.