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Clara Fox, Champion of Affordable Housing, Dead at 90

Clara Fox, advocate for affordable housing and the founder of Settlement Housing Fund, died Nov. 9 in New York City.

“Clara originated the idea of combining low- and moderate-income housing with social programs,” said Conrad Egan, executive director of the National Housing Conference.

In 1969, she founded the Settlement Housing Fund, one of the first private nonprofit housing developers. The organization has created about 8,600 affordable apartments at more than 55 developments.

Fox also ran the first programs to train former New York City renters to become homeowners and managers after their buildings converted to middle-income cooperative housing through the Mitchell-Lama program, said Egan.

Born in the Bronx in 1917, Fox worked as the director of a private nursery school and as the first coordinator of New York City’s Head Start pre-kindergarten education program prior to founding Settlement Housing Fund.

Most recently, Fox served as co-chair of the New York Housing Conference, a regional affiliate of the National Housing Conference. At the time of her death, she was busy planning and organizing the annual awards luncheon in New York for these organizations, as she has done for the past several years.

“She was generous with her time, and mentored her successors,” said Egan. “Without question, Clara was always the brightest bulb in the room.”

Fox is survived by her daughter, Roberta Fox, of Manhattan, and a sister, Florence Blank, of the Bronx.