After obtaining a masters’ degree in urban planning from MIT, Barbara Fields began her career at the Boston Redevelopment Authority. She soon moved from Boston to Rhode Island, where she spent 20 years as the leader of Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC), a nonprofit which helps community development organizations access below-market financing and technical expertise. During her tenure at LISC, she invested more than $280 million into $1 billion worth of projects.
Three months ago, she was named the regional administrator for New England at the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Barbara Fields
Title: Regional Administrator for New England, U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development
Age: 54
Experience: 20 years in urban development; three months at HUD
LISC seems a bit like a community development corporation for community development corporations. Is that how you saw your role?
LISC was started by the Ford Foundation in the late 1970s. [Unlike other LISC offices, which were focused on urban regions], we were asked to be statewide, and really focused on how to rebuild underserved communities. For about the first 10 or 12 years at LISC we were working with CDCs and doing that. As we saw that the housing market was stable, we began to expand our agenda, and our value-add was on real estate – child care facilities, mixed-use commercial facilities, charter schools. And we really began to think about the linkages to public safety…. I have a passion for this, I’ve lived it. The Providence police chief resigned suddenly, and he’s been a tremendous leader. So even though I’m here at HUD, I felt a need to call the lieutenant in the neighborhood that I worked in, because he needs to know that we’re still [committed to working with him].
Since 1991, you’ve worked primarily in Rhode Island. But your new role at HUD covers all of New England. As you get out to other parts of the region, do you see differences in communities’ needs?
I do think that New England is very rich in resources with community stakeholders and municipalities and state governments. I think all six states have implemented inter-agency councils on homelessness. So even at the state level, you have state agencies trying to bust silos and work together, which we’re trying to do at the federal level. …The foreclosure situation is driving a tremendous rental demand. And in order to be forward thinking, the mayors that I’m dealing with are really thinking very much about sustainable communities. I was down in Bridgeport [Conn.] last week; they’re right on that Amtrak/Metro-North rail line, and they’re thinking about, ‘How do we build that will meet the future?’ I was in Quincy, they have a very visionary plan for their future building off the end of the [MBTA’s] Red Line. I’m going to Vermont next month and hopefully to Maine by the end of the summer, but from what I’m hearing it’s a lot of the same at every level. …People are trying to think creatively about how to maximize limited resources.
What are you hoping to accomplish during your tenure at HUD?
For me, [my staff] knows now, already, ‘Barbara likes to meet with people, but she really likes to go out there and see what’s being done.’ Because we’re in a business that’s actually building something – we’re building communities, and you can actually meet the residents and see the buildings. It isn’t just the buildings, it’s also the people there, and the activities. … The thing that I would love to do during my time at HUD is [make it so that] when people think about housing, they don’t just conjure up post-World War II stockpiling of people in buildings. And that they really see the types and styles, and the range, and have a different image of what housing can be that really reflects the style in New England. That, to me, is an incredible opportunity for us, to really create an image that is broader, that ranges across the board from the terrific senior housing that we’re supporting, to single-family homes. We worked on that a lot in Rhode Island, so I guess it’s really near and dear. Because people really did have this image….It’s a question of letting people know, “What are we doing with the money?” and showing people what it looks like at the end of the day, and telling those stories.
You seem to be adjusting to your new role pretty quickly. But how do you keep track of all those acronyms?
[Laughs]. I remember I was in my third week here and I called up [my assistant] and said, ‘The DAS from FHEO at HQ just called to tell me….’ And they were like, ‘how did you get that so quickly?’ But that was the deputy assistant secretary at Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity was calling from headquarters…[HUD] is at a much larger scale [than LISC]. The secretary was saying he came from New York to HUD because he could touch so many lives and make a difference. That sounded great to me, but now I’m beginning to live it. In the partnership between HUD and EPA and DOT, each of us touches people’s daily lives, but in a different ways…we are dependent upon those partnerships, with public housing authorities, municipalities, private developers. We can’t just be HUD and do our job, at all. We have to do it with somebody, and somebodies, in this case, some different agencies. I think that’s really our challenge, and hopefully our opportunity as well.
Top 5 Things That Surprised Fields About HUD:
Passion. “[Our] people, by and large, believe that the work that they’re doing is making a difference in the community.”
Many headquarters staff haven’t had the opportunity to get into the field and see projects.
The enthusiasm of other federal agencies for working with HUD. “I’ve met with the Federal Transit Authority, the Federal Highway Authority, EPA, [even] the General Services Administration.”
The commitment within the agency to homeless issues, particularly homeless veterans.
The importance of fair housing. “We have a long history of working on that issue, and have a lot of skills in that area, but I didn’t realize how much they are called upon still.”
