
David Sobel
David has over 25 years of affordable housing and community development experience in San Francisco, his native city of New York, and nationally. Under David's leadership, SFHDC has grown from a staff of 4.5 FTE's in June 2013 to 40 today, with an exponential increase in impact in each of SFHDC's Four Core Programs: Added 1,200 units to SFHDC's complete Affordable Housing development portfolio; expanded Resident Services from one 30-unit site to 990 households across 8 properties; grew our Housing Counseling and Financial Empowerment program to serve over 1,000 clients annually; and launched a series of new Economic Development initiatives, including our In the Black retail store, and our Minding My Black-Owned Business technical assistance program for entrepreneurs.
Prior to joining SFHDC, David served as a principal for his national consultancy practice, where he provided technical assistance to nonprofit, for profit and public sector clients in the areas of homebuyer assistance programs, inclusionary housing, and project planning and development. Previously, while at the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, David managed the production of more than 1,000 affordable units, negotiated the affordable housing program for the Hunters Point Shipyard, launched six loan and asset building programs totaling $12 million, and oversaw the sale of more than 400 affordable homes to low- and moderate-income families. Prior to coming to the West Coast, David led the real estate development offices of two notable nonprofit organizations in New York--Westhab, Inc., and Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE). He began his career at the storied NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), where he managed new construction and rehabilitation programs in several neighborhoods, including East Harlem and the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
He has been a featured speaker or panelist in numerous local and national symposiums and conferences, and was featured in the Neighborworks/NCB Capital Impact film “A New Way Home: Taking Shared Equity to Scale.” David earned a BA from Columbia College, with a major in architecture and minor in film. He graduated from the NeighborWorks/Harvard Kennedy School “Achieving Excellence Program,” an executive leadership program serving approximately 50 select leaders from around the country in each cycle.