Josh McKinney
Josh McKinney engages communities and vital stakeholders in addressing issues surrounding housing and financial stability and has helped thousands of individuals achieve, sustain, and succeed at safe, sound, and affordable housing. He serves Tennessee Housing Development Agency as the Real Estate Industry Advisor for East Tennessee.
Josh started his career at Eastern Eight Community Development Corporation as a Program Coordinator where he developed Tennessee’s first post-purchase housing education program. He went on to manage all housing education services and eventually served as a foreclosure intervention counselor while being recognized by USDA Rural Development as a Valued Partner in 2012. Josh also spent a year at United Way of Elizabethton/Carter County where he served as the Director, leading the organization to a successful 2016-2017 Fundraising Campaign and engineering a partnership to create a Community Resource Center for the city’s public housing communities.
When Josh came to THDA in 2017 to serve as a HUD Housing Counseling Coordinator for East TN, he helped develop and launch the Good Tenant Training program focused on helping ex-offenders become successful renters; in 2019 this program was selected as a finalist for the National Council of State Housing Agencies awards. Josh was one of the first HUD-certified housing counselors in the country which led to HUD choosing him to serve on a panel of industry experts to help design study materials for the HUD Housing Counselor Certification Exam. He is an inaugural graduate of the State of Tennessee’s Criminal Justice Leadership Academy and in 2020 Josh graduated from LEAD TN. In his current role East TN Realtors chose Josh as their 2021 Affiliate of the Year and asked him to chair their Affiliate Committee in 2022. In that same year a Realtor training curriculum called “Increasing Minority Homeownership” that Josh helped develop won a Fair Housing Award from the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials. Josh graduated from THDA’s in-house leadership academy in 2023.
Josh brings tremendous passion to his work in the housing industry because he grew up out of poverty, where his mother discovered affordable housing resources that led them to a better life. To Josh, passion is the most important piece of the puzzle; it is the compass for the mission, the glue that holds everyone together, and the heart that connects the message to the audience. His life’s goal is to stoke up a passion for affordable housing in everyone he comes into contact with.
