© 2016 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
(July 15) – Locke Lord announced this week that Neal Rackleff has rejoined the firm after serving the last five years in the City of Houston’s Housing and Community Development Department (HCDD).
Rackleff left private practice in 2011 to become the deputy director and general counsel of the City of Houston’s HCDD. In 2012, he became the director, where he oversaw the city’s community development projects and strategic planning for affordable housing and neighborhood revitalizations.
“It was a pretty cool opportunity to do a lot of good for a lot of people,” said Rackleff, who will work primarily out of Locke Lord’s Austin and Houston offices. “I now have the opportunity to be a part of the premiere affordable housing practice in Texas and, arguably, in the country.”
As director of the HCDD, Rackleff turned around the $109 million CDBG Disaster Recovery Round 1 program, which led to the allocation of an additional Disaster Recovery grant of $178 million in Round 2 of the program.
During his tenure, the HCDD produced 7,800 multifamily housing units (with another 2,700 in progress) and assisted 1,700 single-family homeowners with the reconstruction of hurricane damaged homes, financial assistance to low-income homebuyers and emergency home repairs to ameliorate health and safety issues, according to a press release.
“Neal has extraordinary experience with federal, state and local programs for affordable housing and community development, resulting in numerous innovative projects,” Cynthia Bast, chair of Locke Lord’s affordable housing and community development section, said in a statement. “Combining his governmental and legal perspective will allow us to give added value to our clients across the country.”
Rackleff will focus his practice at Locke Lord on community and economic development, affordable housing and municipal and public law. He says his time at the HCDD helped him gain a better understanding of the regulatory challenges facing public/private partnerships.
“It was a really valuable experience in the bulk of what I was doing was deal making,” he said. “It was very helpful to be on the business side of the transactions.”
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