NYC Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer (left) at the Life Sciences Advisory Council and Real Estate Life Sciences Advisory Board joint meeting on April 28, 2023 | Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
NEW YORK – Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer has an expanded role in the Adams administration. In addition to serving as the deputy mayor for economic and workforce development, Mayor Eric Adams has appointed her to oversee the New York City Housing Authority, Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Housing Development Corporation, and Housing Recovery Office upon the departure of the Chief Housing Officer, Jessica Katz.
In her expanded role, she will drive the city’s efforts to preserve and improve the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), move New Yorkers experiencing homelessness into stable housing, and advance Adams’ moonshot goal of creating 500,000 new homes for New Yorkers over the next decade. Her title changed from deputy mayor of economic and workforce development to deputy mayor of housing, economic and workforce development as the city battles a crisis to house migrants and a growing homeless population,
According to the mayor’s office, Torres-Springer has helped lead the Adams administration’s work to accelerate the creation of much-needed housing in her oversight of the New York City Department of City Planning and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). She was one of the chief architects of Mayor Adams’ “Get Stuff Built” plan to speed up housing construction as a co-chair of the Building and Land Use Approval Streamlining Task Force; the “City of Yes” citywide zoning text amendments to support small businesses, create new housing, and promote sustainability; the transformation of Willets Point with 2,500 affordable homes; and the administration’s community planning efforts in the East Bronx, Central Brooklyn, the North Shore of Staten Island, Midtown South, and Jamaica.
“She is ready to take bold action to tackle the city’s affordable housing crisis,” says Adams
“In a year and half with this administration and throughout her career in public service, Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer has shown clearly that she is ready to take bold action to tackle the city’s affordable housing crisis,” said Adams. “She has a proven record of creating affordable housing and economic opportunity for New Yorkers, and her leadership of our economic recovery efforts has delivered real results. She is the right person at the right time to create and preserve the safe, high-quality, affordable housing New Yorkers so desperately need, and I congratulate her on this expanded role that will allow her to serve even more New Yorkers.”
“Having grown up in Section 8 housing, I know firsthand that safe and affordable housing is about more than mere brick and mortar — it’s about creating opportunity and improving lives,” said Torres-Springer. “Under Mayor Adams’ leadership, we came in with a bold agenda to change the paradigm for how we grow equitably as a city.”
She was humbled to serve New Yorkers further as the city strives to provide stable housing for their neighbors, protect existing affordable and public housing, and identify new ways to make housing affordable for all New Yorkers at this critical moment in the city’s history.
First deputy mayor Sheena Wright, whom she will be reporting to, noted that Torres-Springer had been one of the primary drivers of the administration’s efforts to build more of the housing New Yorkers needs and build it in every corner of the city.
“She has a long record of delivering results at the highest levels of city government and of partnering with impacted communities to ensure their voices are heard and their needs are being met,” said Wright. “There could not be a better choice to continue the work started by the chief housing officer and her team, and I am excited to continue working with Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer to keep this city affordable for working- and middle-class families in all five boroughs.”
Meanwhile, Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz, who Torres worked with for years, is excited to see her continue solving the city’s housing crisis in her expanded role. “Maria is committed to ensuring New Yorkers have safe, stable, and affordable homes, and she will keep tenants and our neighbors experiencing homelessness centered in these conversations at City Hall,” said Katz.
Maria Torres-Springer, one of the Filipina Americans at the helm of the Adams administration, has served as the deputy mayor for economic and workforce development since January 2022, spearheading the city’s efforts to strengthen and diversify the city’s economy, invest in emerging industries, bolster small businesses, connect New Yorkers to family-sustaining jobs, and expand access to arts and culture. As deputy mayor, she has overseen “Rebuild, Renew, Reinvent: A Blueprint for New York City’s Economic Recovery” and the city’s strong jobs recovery, efforts to support small businesses with the “Small Business Forward” executive order, commercial district recovery and the “New” New York panel’s “Making New York Work for Everyone” action plan, and transformational projects in Willets Point and on Governors Island.
A long record of public service
Torres-Springer has a long track record of public service in New York City, having led three city agencies with over 3,000 employees and approximately $2 billion in annual operating budgets, addressing some of the city’s most significant public policy challenges. She was commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, board chair of the New York City Housing Development Corporation, and a New York City Housing Authority board member.
As the first woman to serve as president of NYCEDC, she led the implementation of the citywide NYC Ferry service. She oversaw major investments in key sectors of the city’s economy.
As commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services, she prioritized efforts to raise wages and support women- and immigrant-owned businesses. She also launched Women Entrepreneurs NYC and worked to prepare New Yorkers for 21st-century jobs through the Tech to Talent Pipeline program.
Torres-Springer has a long track record of public service in New York City, having led three city agencies with over 3,000 employees and approximately $2 billion in annual operating budgets, addressing some of the city’s most significant public policy challenges. She was commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, board chair of the New York City Housing Development Corporation, and a New York City Housing Authority board member.
She was previously vice president of U.S. programs at the Ford Foundation. She oversaw the foundation’s domestic grantmaking and made historic investments supporting racial equity, workers’ rights, voting rights, and arts and culture across the country.
Torres-Springer earned a bachelor’s degree in ethics, politics, and economics from Yale University and a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
–With Ricky Rillera/PDM
