Eden Housing Welcomes Shola Olatoye as New Chief Operating Officer
August 29, 2022
Eden Housing is excited to announce the hiring of our new Chief Operating Officer, Shola Olatoye. Shola brings extensive experience in the housing and community development sector to Eden.
Prior to joining Eden Housing, Shola served as director of Housing and Community Development for the City of Oakland. As an appointed member of the city’s executive team, she led a team of 74 people and oversaw more than $100M of housing production and preservation capital.
Under her leadership, the Oakland’s City Council approved HCD’s two-year Strategic Action Plan, which focused the department’s resources on protecting, preserving and producing affordable housing.
During her tenure, the City of Oakland won six state Homekey awards resulting in more than 400 new permanent deeply affordable units. Shola also launched the city’s federal $48M Emergency Rental Assistance program and served more than 3000 Oaklanders who needed immediate rent relief. She also secured the department’s research relationship with Stanford University’s Impact Lab, resulting in new $50K impact grant to develop new technology for residents to access affordable rental housing.
Shola has also held executive and senior-level posts at Suffolk Construction, Enterprise Community Partners, HSBC Bank, and HR&A Advisors. In 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed her as Chair and CEO of the New York City Housing Authority, where she developed and launched a $10 billion, 10-year development plan, NextGeneration NYCHA. She conducts frequent speaking engagements, including as a panelist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and was selected as one of four national Fellows for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation in June 2021.
Shola will start work with Eden in October. We look forward to seeing the impact she will undoubtedly make on Eden Housing’s efforts to expand our impact on affordable housing throughout California. Welcome to the team Shola!