CONTACT
email: jweber@vivaconsult.com
EDUCATION
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
Masters in Business Administration (MBA), Concentration: Marketing
New York University, University College, Bronx, NY
BA, English
Certified Property Manager (CPM®)
The Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM), 1984
“If you don’t know where you are going,
you might wind up someplace else.”
Judy Weber’s practice spans a wide array of organizational, property and asset management initiatives, from helping organizations figure out their optimal operating strategies to conducting nationwide research and teaching best practices. She also counsels both federal and state sponsored initiatives seeking greater efficiencies and effectiveness in their affordable housing policies and/or legislation. Most recently, she led a study of the current staffing patterns and structure of the Housing and Community Services (HCS) Division of the City of Berkeley, CA’s Health, Housing and Community Services (HHCS) Department. Two of the City’s highest priorities – affordable housing and homelessness – had been and continue to be receiving unprecedented City-directed funding that HCS administers. HCS’ chronic staffing vacancies contributed to a pressing need for an organizational design overhaul to meet these highly critical demands. The study’s findings and recommendations supported just such a revision.
Judy seeks opportunities where her zeal for exploring the best available options matches her clients’ determination to move forward using the tools of analysis, experience, collaboration, good sense and a dash of humor. She is particularly adept in assignments that involve identifying the key determinants necessary for improvement or change and then plotting a course to carry them out.
Provided transitional leadership as interim senior vice president for property management for a large nonprofit affordable housing developer/property manager and as the temporary receiver of the Chelsea Housing Authority. (The Community Builders, Boston, MA; Supreme Judicial Court for the Country of Suffolk, Massachusetts)
Counseled a state-wide commission appointed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick in recommending legislation that was enacted into law to improve the state’s 45,000 units of public housing, including drafting various regionalization models. (Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, Boston, MA)
Created and delivered a mixed-income property and asset management housing curriculum for masters of social work (MSW) students at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work. The goal of this curriculum is to introduce social work students to the professional roles available in these areas of affordable housing that are particularly well suited to the skills and interests of MWS. (NeighborWorks America, Washington, DC and George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St Louis, MO)
Provided project management services with VIVA Principal Laurie Gould for MassHousing and Massachusetts Housing Partnership, in collaboration with the state Department of Housing and Community Development, to develop a streamlined program to deliver pandemic-related emergency rental assistance to the residents of subsided housing by allowing property owners to apply for eligible residents in bulk. The program was up and running in just four months; in the twelve months in which it operated the Subsidized Housing Emergency Rental Assistance Program (SHERA) distributed $33 million in rental assistance to 11,500 households. (MassHousing and Masschusetts Housing Partnership, Boston, MA)
Led or collaborated in several strategic and/or business planning exercises/updates. (examples included: Develop Detroit; Gulf Coast Housing Partnership, New Orleans, LA; Cambridge Housing Authority, Cambridge, MA; Center City Housing, Duluth, MN; The Caleb Group, Swampscott, MA; Portland Housing Authority, Portland, ME; Preservation of Affordable Housing (national), Eden Housing, Eden, CA).
Assessed and made recommendations regarding NeighborWorks America’s Business Strengthening Pilot conducted with 14 of its member nonprofit community development organizations. NeighborWorks America subsequently continued to offer this program with some modifications. (NeighborWorks America, Washington, DC)
Led the creation of asset management operating plans for newly created asset management divisions in growing nonprofit community development organizations. Provided ongoing coaching to newly created director of asset management positions. (Community Frameworks, Spokane, WA; Mountain Housing Opportunities, Asheville, NC)
VIVA Consulting / Private Consultant, Newton, MA
Principal, 2000-present
Individually and as part of the joint venture VIVA Consulting (since 2002), provide affordable property management, organizational design and capacity building services to nonprofit, public and for profit organizations. Services also include property and asset management training, coaching, policy development, strategic and business planning/facilitation, technical assistance and field research in affordable housing operating costs, organizational design and practices. Roles have included interim leadership as a court-appointed public housing receiver and a senior vice president of property management for a large regional affordable housing nonprofit.
The Community Builders, Inc., Boston, MA
Senior Vice President, 1999-2000
Deputy Director, 1996-1999
Director of Property Management, 1988-1996
Led the property management division of this nationally recognized non-profit real estate corporation that has raised over $1 billion in project financing and completed over 14,000 units of affordable, mixed-income housing in cities throughout the Northeast and Middle Atlantic states.
Directed growth of TCB’s managed properties from 26 sites and 1,629 units to 63 sites and nearly 6,000 units and 150,000 sq. ft. of commercial space with an administrative and site staff of 250 in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Kentucky.
Reorganized division’s staffing and practices to align with corporate strategic growth plan.
Led the initiation of innovative process and programmatic changes including computerizing site operating and monitoring tools, establishing a cost effective master property insurance program, standardizing procedures through staff training and written manuals.
The Shoreline Corporation, Cambridge, MA
Chief Operating Officer, 1980-1988
Directed the property management subsidiary of Bruner, Cott & Associates, an architectural and development firm specializing in rehabilitating industrial properties into residential and other uses.
Directed growth of Bruner/Cott’s managed properties from 174 rental units to 1,100 units and 40,000 commercial square feet in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and Michigan. Properties had both subsidized and conventionally financed market rate units
Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency, Boston, MA
Management Officer, 1978-1980
Management Analyst, then Senior Management Analyst, 1977-1978
CBI Corporation, Boston, MA
Assistant Marketing Manager, 1971-1974
Administrative Assistant, 1970-1971
United States Peace Corps, Sierra Leone, West Africa
Elementary School Teacher, 1969-1970
Office of State Senator John Joseph Moakley, Boston, MA
Research and Administrative Assistant, 1968-1969
Community Service
YWCA Boston
Director, various offices, 1996 – 2007
Newton Community Development Foundation
Director and Vice President, 1996 – present
Newton Housing Authority
Commissioner (Governor’s appointee), 2020 – present
Newton Community Preservation Commission
Commissioner, 2021 – present
Newton Affordable Housing Trust
Commissioner, 2022 – present
Teaching, Training and Lectures
Guest lecturer on affordable property management at Harvard, MIT, Tufts.
Instructor, trainer or seminar/workshop leader at multi-day professional asset and property management courses/conferences sponsored by George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University, Tufts Management and Community Development Institute, MIT Center for Real Estate Management, Ohio Capital Corporation, LISC, Enterprise University, NeighborWorks® America, Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM), Consortium for Housing and Asset Management (CHAM) and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Publications and Awards
Seven Strategies for Successfully Marketing and Stabilizing the Occupancy of Mixed-Income/Mixed Race Properties, June 2006
Against All Odds: The Business of Managing Affordable Housing, 2006
Supportive Housing Property Management: Business Practices and Resident Employment, 2009
The Kenneth Jones/Tony Austin Excellence in Training Award – NeighborWorks America, 2011
Lower Cape Cod Management Study, 2014
Instructor Emeritus, Institute of Real Estate Management, 2019