Affordable housing industry veteran Robin Hughes has been named the next president and CEO of Housing Partnership Network (HPN), effective July 1.
The organization’s board of directors unanimously appointed Hughes to take the helm from Tom Bledsoe, who recently announced his plans to retire after 25 years of leading HPN, an award-winning national business collaborative of more than 100 leading affordable housing and community development member organizations. In addition, HPN is an Aeris-rated Community Development Financial Institution and a Department of Housing and Urban Development-certified housing counseling intermediary.
“Robin brings a wealth of expertise and passion for innovation and positive change,” says John O’Callaghan, board vice chair and CEO of the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership. “Her unique experiences and leadership will help HPN’s members serve more families with deeper impacts."
Hughes has been the longtime president and CEO of Abode Communities, a leading affordable housing nonprofit based in Los Angeles and a member of HPN’s network since 2010. She has also served on HPN’s board for 11 years, five of them as board chair, positions she relinquished effective immediately.
Under her leadership, Abode Communities became a nationally recognized affordable housing developer, a premier provider of environmentally sustainable housing in California, and a front-runner in making the high-cost Southern California market affordable to low-income working families. Projects range from supportive housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness, workforce housing for teachers, housing for seniors and low-income individuals and families, and joint ventures with for-profit developers on mixed-use, market-rate, and civic-use developments.
“I am thrilled with this opportunity to lead and advance the work of HPN and its members,” says Hughes. “My goal is to build on the legacy of the first 30 years and bring bold, innovative, and transformative solutions to addressing the nation’s housing crisis and scaling the impact of HPN’s members.”
Her reach has extended far beyond Abode Communities. She currently serves on the boards of California Community Reinvestment Corp., and The Community Development Trust, and she is vice chair of the California Housing Consortium.
Earlier in her career, she held positions in the private and public sectors, including at The Richman Group of Companies, Citibank, the Community Development Commission of Los Angeles County, and the Office of the Mayor of the city of Los Angeles.
She has received numerous honors and recognition for her contributions, including being named one of AHF’s influential woman in affordable housing and featured as a “Champion of Affordable Housing” on the cover of National Real Estate Investor (now Wealth Management Real Estate) magazine. In addition to winning the Black Business Association’s Executive Leadership Award, Hughes has been named Outstanding Nonprofit Director by Women in Business and named No. 1 on the Commercial Observer’s “LA Power list” of top real estate leaders in Los Angeles.
HPN hopes to safely celebrate this leadership transition in-person at the next biannual meeting of its membership scheduled for June 8 to 10 in Pittsburgh.
