01/08/2018

National Housing Leader with Local Grounding Joins CSH

Ann Oliva Praised for Leadership at HUD and in Washington, DC

Former U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Deputy Assistant Secretary Ann Oliva has been named Senior Policy Advisor to the President and CEO of CSH. As a strategic player making profound contributions in local and national policies, Ms. Oliva brings a unique and invaluable combination of real-world experience and data application expertise to her new role as a key CSH team member.

“Ann has been uniformly praised for her leadership in improving our nation’s response to the affordable housing crisis by instituting innovative management systems that expedite resources to communities, permit better analysis of program effectiveness, and promote the open exchange of community-based information to ensure the best outcomes,” said CSH President and CEO Deborah De Santis.

At CSH, Ms. Oliva will assist in the development of strategic goals and policies that facilitate integration between homeless systems and affordable housing resources, increase local capacity to implement comprehensive strategies that encourage collaboration among systems, and institutionalize opportunities for persons with lived experience in homelessness and supportive housing to provide meaningful input in planning efforts in communities throughout the country.

While at HUD, Ms. Oliva served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Special Needs, which oversaw the Office of HIV/AIDS Housing and the Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs (SNAPS), the unit that manages HUD's homeless programs. Ms. Oliva was also the Director of SNAPS, where she managed over 8,000 competitive and formula grants with an annual budget of over $2
billion. During her tenure at HUD, Ms. Oliva designed and implemented a $1.5 billion Recovery Act Program and overhauled HUD's homeless and regulatory portfolio.

Ms. Oliva implemented systems to increase administrative and program-level efficiencies, thereby increasing the impact of federal funds. Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle agreed that Ms. Oliva’s initiatives to cut back on the time and effort needed for administrative tasks allowed local communities, providers and HUD officials to focus more energy on creating affordable housing and serving people who are experiencing homelessness.

Prior to her tenure at HUD, Ms. Oliva was an independent human services consultant and technical assistance provider, and spent more than 9 years at the Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, the organization responsible for administration of public homeless services in the District of Columbia.

“Ann is able to draw on her vast experience to help others because she understands how a policy decision made at the national level can impact programs and systems at the local level, and why such work truly matters,” said Ms. De Santis. “Two former HUD Secretaries described her best when they said Ann ‘walks the walk’ and has earned the respect and reputation to move mountains.”

Media Contact:
Robert Friant
CSH Communications
robert.friant@csh.org
1-212-986-2966, x245
1-347-931-2306 (Mobile)

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