Affordable housing expert Neal Rackleff has rejoined Locke Lord after serving the past year as the assistant secretary for community planning and development in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In that role, Rackleff oversaw approximately $7.9 billion in funding for affordable housing, economic development, revitalization and serving the nation’s homeless population and managed $35 billion in long-term disaster recovery funding following the devastation caused by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
“Serving the American people and their communities has been incredibly rewarding. Having laid the foundation for effective long-term disaster recovery and safeguarding key programs that provide relief to more than 500,000 homeless individuals served by HUD, I am ready to return to my roots and extraordinary colleagues at Locke Lord,” Rackleff said in a statement.
Rackleff adds that he has “never practiced law in a more supportive and congenial environment” than at Locke Lord. He will split time between Austin and Houston advising clients on community and economic development, affordable housing, municipal and public law.
While at HUD, Rackleff managed the Community Development Block Grant and the HOME Investment Partnerships Program and served as an advisory CDFI board member at Treasury. He says the experience was “invaluable” and provided him with unique insights for clients navigating the complexities of the primary affordable housing programs at HUD and Treasury.
“I now very clearly understand how both Congress and HUD intend for long-term recovery to unfold, which will be of great benefit in helping clients to put deals together,” he says.
“I really care deeply about helping areas hit by recent disasters to recover and believe I may be able to do more to help these communities from the private sector side than I could have achieved if I’d stayed in the public sector.”
Rackleff – who served as the director of the Housing and Community Development Department for the City of Houston from 2012 to 2016 – says that while he understood the municipal and state dynamics of public/private partnerships to develop affordable housing, he now has a better grasp of the federal level after his time at HUD.
One initiative he expects HUD to continue building on is increasing transparency in all Community Planning and Development programs such as CDBG, HOME, Housing Trust Fund and HOPWA. HUD has developed a data correlation system which brings data from many “antiquated and disparate systems” into one dashboard system showing where all the CPD resources have been utilized from the mid-1970s until the present.
“HUD has never had this ability before and we generated this new system for almost zero cost to the taxpayers,” Rackleff says. “This will allow us to be far more effective and strategic going forward.”