Marvin Walton, New Operations VP, Brings Two Decades of Housing Authority Experience to NYCHA

Marvin Walton, the new NYCHA Vice President of Operations for Manhattan, certainly knows the ins and outs of managing public housing developments. For over two decades, Mr. Walton has played a critical role at four different housing authorities, helping to identify challenges and opportunities for improvements that directly benefit the residents of the communities he served.

Mr. Walton arrived at NYCHA with an already substantial knowledge of the Authority, its workings, and its policies: As a Senior Government Services Executive with the Chicago-based Bronner Group LLC, he was the housing functional lead and subject matter expert on the team assigned to assess NYCHA’s current state, policies, procedures, and structure.

“After assessing NYCHA, I learned that the general perception of NYCHA is the complete opposite of reality,” said Mr. Walton. “We are responsive and organized, but the reality is that we are working with buildings that are 50 to 80 years old that have been experiencing significant challenges for years.” We can make a difference, he said, by “taking a collaborative approach that includes listening to residents’ needs and requesting input from frontline staff.”

Previously, as Executive Director of the Jersey City Housing Authority, the second largest housing authority in New Jersey, Mr. Walton planned, administered, and led community and economic development programs and created affordable housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income residents, including people who were formerly homeless. He managed an annual budget of over $75 million and helped monitor the performance of nearly 200 agency employees across multiple locations.

In June 2009, Mr. Walton joined the Newark Housing Authority (NHA), the largest housing authority in New Jersey, as the Chief Financial Officer, and was soon promoted to Deputy Executive Director, where he assisted in managing NHA’s day-to-day general activities and operations. In addition, he served as President of the Board of Trustees for the Branch Brook Park Manor Housing Association, Inc., a 200-unit multifamily property owned by the NHA.

Before that, Mr. Walton was Chief of Staff/Deputy Executive Director at the Housing Authority of the County of Cook (in Chicago), and was the Director of the Office of Budget and Management as well as the Chief Information Officer at the Chicago Housing Authority. “Of all the housing authorities I have served, NYCHA has the best tools and resources by far,” he noted. “But it’s also the most complex because of the unique interplay between federal, State, and City governments that provide funding and provide some form of oversight to the operations.”

“I’m proud of my long career in public and affordable housing and grateful for the dedicated people who work throughout NYCHA,” he said. “It’s always exciting and challenging to begin a new undertaking, especially on such a vast scale, but NYCHA has a good foundation to build upon and the neighborhoods that we serve deserve our very best efforts.”