By NAN STAFF WRITER
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. Jan. 31, 2022: New York City Mayor Eric Adams has added another Caribbean American to his team.
Just weeks after Adams named the city’s first Caribbean First Caribbean Born Corporation Counsel, he has named a Caribbean American commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).
Adolfo Carrión Jr., who was born to Puerto Rican parents, will serve as HPD commissioner.
“Thank you, Mayor Adams, for the opportunity to return to public service and work with you, the great team you have assembled, and the dedicated public servants at HPD, so we can build a city that works for everyone. There is no greater responsibility we share than to build nurturing communities that provide families an affordable and safe place to live and an opportunity to move up the economic ladder,” said incoming HPD Commissioner Carrión Jr.
He noted that his “parents came from Puerto Rico in the 1950s and moved into a tenement basement apartment in Williamsburg, then into NYCHA’s Jacob Riis Houses and HUD-assisted Haven Plaza on the Lower East Side, and then, with the help of an FHA mortgage, to our first home in the North Bronx.”
“This was all possible because our city and country invested in us,” he said. “Now we must do the same for this generation. We’re going to work hard to create neighborhoods of opportunity, where families have a chance to get ahead.”
Carrión Jr. is the CEO and founder of Metro Futures LLC, a real estate development and consulting firm, whose focus is the development of affordable housing, mixed-use and economic development projects, and strategic planning in the New York City Metro Area.
He has spent his professional career working to build and improve historically marginalized communities in the Bronx, in other areas of New York City, and around the country. Before starting Metro Futures, Carrión served as regional administrator for Region II of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, deputy assistant to President Barack Obama, and director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs. Carrión’s work resulted in the establishment of a White House Urban Policy Working Group and the first interagency review in 30 years of federal government policy and funding in U.S. urban and metropolitan areas.
Prior to his tenure in the federal government, Carrión served as Bronx Borough President and as a member of the New York City Council. His work as Borough President ushered in a new era of building and growth in the Bronx that increased investment in housing, schools, millions of square feet of commercial space, the new Yankee Stadium, and new businesses. Carrión also served as president of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO), is an Aspen Institute Rodel Fellows alumnus, and has served on numerous boards for non-profit and government entities.
He also served as executive vice president of Stagg Group, a housing development and management firm, and senior advisor for Corporate Development to the CSA Group, the largest Hispanic-owned architecture and engineering firm in the U.S.
Carrión received his Bachelor of Arts from the King’s College and a Master’s in Urban Planning from Hunter College.
