Michael P. Kelly
Administrative Receiver/Executive Director
Michael P. Kelly has served more than 25 years as a leader and
advocate for affordable housing in major cities across the country.
He was recently named Executive Director of the Philadelphia
Housing Authority, where he is responsible for the development and
implementation of the agency's transition and recovery plan.
He is also continuing his role as PHA's Administrative Receiver,
a position he was appointed to by the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD). Prior to this appointment, he served
as PHA's Interim Executive Director since December 2010.
From 2009 to 2011, Mr. Kelly served as General Manager of the
New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) where he was responsible
for the day-to-day operations of the nation's largest public
housing agency with over 178,000 residential units and over 100,000
housing choice vouchers spread across the city.
Mr. Kelly is a licensed architect and certified urban planner
who began his career at the San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA)
in 1983. He went on to serve in a variety of positions, including
twice as Executive Director while becoming the first architect to
head a public housing authority in the United States.
After 11 years of service at SFHA, Mr. Kelly became a Troubled
Agency Recovery Specialist at HUD. There, he provided technical
assistance to the transition team at the Housing Authority of New
Orleans (HANO) and eventually was named HANO's Executive Director
in 1995. Under his leadership, HANO was successfully removed from
HUD's troubled agency list.
Mr. Kelly was asked to serve as the Chief Executive under the
Judicial Receivership at the District of Columbia Housing Authority
(DCHA) and became DCHA's Executive Director in 2000. Under his
watch, DCHA was engaged in seven HOPE VI grants for development of
mixed-income housing, the second most of any jurisdiction in the
nation. Also during his tenure, DCHA became the first housing
authority in the country to establish its own Energy Service
Company, providing energy services to all authority properties.
He is an active professional in the affordable housing industry.
He was the 2010 recipient of the M. Justin Herman Memorial
Award, the most prestigious honor from the National Association of
Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO). He is the President of
the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA), an
advocacy organization whose 60 members represent virtually every
major metropolitan area in the country. He is a Founding Board
Member of the National Organization of African Americans in
Housing, serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Housing
Conference, and is an advisory board member of the Building America
Community Development Entity, Inc.
Mr. Kelly is also passionate about the future of affordable
housing. He is an adjunct professor at New York University's Wagner
School of Public Policy and has taught at Howard University's
School of Architecture and Engineering in Washington, D.C. and at
the University of California-Berkeley. He is also the former
Harvey-Wadsworth Professor of Urban Affairs at Tulane University.
He received teaching credentials in New Jersey and California, and
graduated from Princeton's program in Teaching Preparation.
San Francisco native Michael P. Kelly holds a LEED Green
Associate Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. He
has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture and Urban Planning
from Princeton, a Master's degree in Architecture from the
University of California-Berkeley, and a Master of Arts in
Education from San Francisco State University.
Email Mr. Kelly at Michael.Kelly@pha.phila.gov
