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NYCHA Now
December 2022 Exceptional Colleagues NYCHA Leadership 

Meet Alex Zablocki, Executive Director of the Fund for Public Housing

Nii Akrofi Smart-Abbey

Until September 11, 2001, Alex Zablocki was sure he wanted to work on Wall Street. At the time, he was a student at Baruch College studying for a degree in finance and investment. He had worked for a stockbroker while in high school and was on a path to obtaining the licenses required to work in the field. Then the terror attacks of September 11 happened and his anticipated career on Wall Street came to a halt. 

“I still got my degree in finance but decided to get an internship at my local Council Member’s office in 2003,” said Mr. Zablocki, who also holds a master’s degree in community and economic development from SUNY Empire State. That internship marked the beginning of his nearly two-decade career in the nonprofit and public service spaces.  

This June, Mr. Zablocki was named Executive Director of the Fund for Public Housing, an independent nonprofit that has supported public housing residents across the five boroughs since 2016.  

“We focus our investments on four key areas: leadership development, community health, financial empowerment, and work force training and economic mobility,” said Mr. Zablocki.  

Since taking over as head of the Fund, Mr. Zablocki said his “small but mighty team,” which includes Deputy Director Claire McLeveighn, has had a lot of successes around fundraising. 

Since June, they have raised $4.5 million for their programs. For instance, in late November the Fund received a $50,000 donation from Goldman Sachs for NYCHA’s Family Self- Sufficiency program. In the summer, it was awarded a $3.2-million grant by the Helmsley Charitable Trust for a resident-led project: residents of Roosevelt and Marlboro Houses in Brooklyn and Patterson and Castle Hill Houses in the Bronx will design the green spaces they want for their communities in collaboration with experts (for example, community gardens, a trail, or tree planting).  

One of the Fund’s resident-focused initiatives is the Clean Energy Academy, which complements NYCHA’s decarbonization goals across the five boroughs. Its youth programs like ARCscholars and Real Estate Scholars expose young people to careers in architecture and real estate in partnership with City Tech and NYU School of Professional Studies, respectively. Participants in the Youth Media Project recently shared their work, and the NYCHA-CUNY Scholarship Program recently awarded scholarships to 71 students from public housing attending CUNY colleges. Public housing residents who are entrepreneurs can also benefit from business pathways programs, which the Fund has been investing in for the past two years. The latest addition to the pathways program – Construction Pathways – is funded by the JPMorgan Chase foundation. 

Alex Zablocki, Executive Director of the Fund for Public Housing speaks at the youth Media Program Awards at Lincoln Center

The Fund for Public Housing’s activities go beyond skill development for residents. This Thanksgiving, the Fund secured 1,400 donated meals for residents and helped NYCHA with the volunteer drive to get a total of 9,000 meals out to residents across the five boroughs.      

With the holiday season coming up, the Fund is on a mission to get tickets for residents to attend events and shows across the city. “We’ve asked for donations from event venues to provide tickets and experiences to public housing residents which will then be distributed this holiday season,” said Mr. Zablocki. “We’ve already distributed 400 tickets this weekend in Staten Island, for example, for a Christmas show at the St. George Theatre.”  

While public housing residents are central to the work of the Fund for Public Housing, Mr. Zablocki said the Fund serves as a resource to NYCHA as well. 

“As a nonprofit organization, we can do things differently than the Authority,” he said. “Sometimes you can’t donate to a government authority [directly], but you can donate to a nonprofit in order for us to then execute whatever the donor wants.”  

For instance, Fund is working with the Healthy Start at NYCHA program to secure in-kind donations for expectant mothers and is managing a grant secured by the NYCHA team to support the program. 

Mr. Zablocki said he’s excited about his new role because it affords him the chance to provide opportunities that will ensure public housing residents “thrive and grow with us, and for us to raise the funds necessary to invest in them [so they can] achieve their goals and dreams.” 

Before his appointment to the Fund for Public Housing, Mr. Zablocki was the Executive Director of the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy. He previously worked in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration overseeing recovery efforts after Superstorm Sandy. He also served as Director of Community Relations for the NYC Department of Homeless Services under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and was in charge of HOPE Count, the annual survey of the city’s homeless population. Mr. Zablocki has held various roles in the City Council and State Senate, including Director of Land Use and Chief of Staff.