Tom Davis

Tom Davis is the Director of the Office of Recapitalization, within HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs. The Office of Recapitalization oversees the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, the Mark to Market (M2M) program, the Post-Mark to Market program (PM2M), the Senior Preservation Rental Assistance Contracts (SPRAC) program and other housing preservation programs as needed. The RAD program, the largest program in the Office of Recapitalization portfolio, is a demonstration of how a change in a property’s regulatory platform can open the door to recapitalization or preservation of at-risk affordable housing properties. The focus of the demonstration is on conversions of public housing properties and of legacy housing program properties (currently Rent Supp, RAP, Mod Rehab and McKinney Vento Mod Rehab SRO properties). As of early 2018, the budget neutral RAD public housing conversions have stimulated capital investment of over $5 billion in the public housing portfolio. In 2017, Tom and the RAD Team were selected as a finalist for the prestigious Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (“Sammies”) in the Management Excellence category. Tom joined HUD in 2015.

Immediately prior to joining HUD, Tom was Senior Vice President of Recap Real Estate Advisors, a Boston-based affordable housing consulting firm, where he led the firm’s affordable housing consulting practice, focused on the recapitalization and preservation of existing affordable housing through transactional, strategy and policy engagements. At Recap, Tom’s work on behalf of public, private and non-profit clients included structuring and project managing recapitalization transactions and strategic business planning. Tom focused heavily on public housing recapitalization transactions, particularly under HUD’s RAD program. Tom served as a consultant to Enterprise/HUD on RAD and worked with housing authority clients to develop repositioning and recapitalization strategies for their portfolios, in each case structuring and financing the transactions to preserve affordability and maximize opportunities for residents. Tom also developed recapitalization strategies for state-financed public housing, including a major capital planning initiative for the Connecticut Housing Finance Agency which relied on accessing private capital to leverage state funds. Examples of his business strategy engagements include the development of a model to use “social impact bonds” to finance service enriched housing for elders, design of a credit enhancement product to benefit public housing authorities seeking to participate in the low income housing tax credit (LIHTC) market and development of a pilot program to reduce LIHTC transaction costs for small properties.

Tom began his career in private practice as an attorney at Morrison & Foerster, specializing in affordable housing, LIHTC, real estate and environmental issues. He subsequently joined the Office of General Counsel at The Community Builders, Inc., a multi-state affordable housing owner and developer. At The Community Builders, Tom broadened his expertise and shifted into a project management role. He managed large multi-phase HOPE VI neighborhood revitalization efforts and spearheaded a strategic redesign of The Community Builders’ resident services and economic development programs to focus on financial counseling, asset building, employment and youth. Subsequent to The Community Builders, Tom joined Preservation of Affordable Housing, Inc. (POAH), another multi-state developer and owner. At POAH, Tom built the organization’s asset management systems to appropriately steward a multi-jurisdiction real estate portfolio including federally assisted, tax credit and market-rate units, supervised implementation of green retrofit, utility data system and energy initiatives and designed resident service efforts focused on health services and financial counseling.

Throughout his career, Tom has integrated his experience in transactional legal work, development project management, affordable housing finance, asset management, resident services and property operations in an effort to maximize the value of affordable housing – as homes and as a platform from which to offer resources which families can access to achieve their own success.

Tom moved to Washington, DC, to assume the position at HUD. Prior to his move, Tom lived in Boston MA. He served as Chair of the Board of Directors of Urban Edge Housing Corporation, a NeighborWorks community development corporation serving the neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury. He also served on the Board of the Boston Public Market Association, promoting small, local-food industries as an economic driver for both urban and rural communities. Tom received his undergraduate degree from Brown University, his Masters in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and his JD from the New York University School of Law.