Amy Schectman to lead Jewish Community Housing for Elderly
June 3, 2010 — Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly, a
Brighton-based nonprofit organization that develops and manages
affordable housing to low income seniors, recently announced that Amy
Schectman has been named president and chief executive officer.
Schectman, whose appointment is effective Aug. 16, will succeed Ellen
Feingold, a nationally recognized as an expert in the area of affordable
senior housing, who is retiring after 28 years as president.
"After conducting an extensive national search, Amy stood out because of
her unparalleled success working to increase affordable housing
opportunities for low-income residents over the course of her remarkable
career," said Merle Grandberg, board chair of Jewish Community Housing for
the Elderly
She added, "We are very excited to have someone as highly qualified as
Amy lead our organization. With nearly 1,000 seniors on our waiting
list, Amy's leadership, background and success in the housing industry
will ensure that we meet our goals and continue on our current growth
trajectory."
Schectman currently serves as the associate director for Public Housing
& Rental Assistance for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and
Community Development (DHCD). In that position she led the state's
effort to leverage and attract new funding to preserve and restore
public housing units for thousands of low-income families. She also
created a sustainability program to install renewable and high
efficiency energy systems and launched the first phase of a major water
conservation effort expected to save the state $2 million per year by
2012.
Earlier, Schectman served as vice president of real estate development
at Hebrew
SeniorLife where she managed the permitting and design processes
that paved the way for the development of NewBridge, a one million
square foot multi-generational mixed-use senior campus.
Previously, she was the economic development officer in the Town of
Brookline where she helped negotiate the town's first friendly 40B
affordable housing development to create 50 units of mixed-income
affordable housing. Her earlier experience included serving as the
director of program and administration at the Boston Housing Authority.
"I was drawn to this unique opportunity at JCHE to lead one of the
nation's most successful communities in providing quality housing
opportunities for low income seniors in a rich environment where
residents are actively engaged in programming as well as to ensure the
preservation of the properties in Brighton, Newton and soon Framingham,”
said Schectman.
"For the last 28 years, it has been my greatest honor to have helped
JCHE become one of the nation's largest providers of Jewish-sponsored,
non-sectarian housing for low-income seniors. I am so glad that the
organization will be led into the future by Amy Schectman, someone with
her mix of skills, talent and energy. Amy is the ideal person for this
mission," said Feingold.
