Oakland's Housing & Community Development (HCD) Director Emily Weinstein today announced she has enhanced her leadership bench by hiring a Chief Housing Policy Officer focused on policy and legislative affairs. The appointment of Sasha Hauswald will continue efforts to move important housing policies and legislative priorities forward along the entire housing continuum from homeless prevention to affordable housing financing to market rate housing as a driver of the City’s economic recovery.
"Sasha Hauswald's appointment as the City of Oakland’s new Chief Housing Policy Officer is a significant step forward in our city's efforts to address homelessness and affordability challenges," said Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao. "With her wealth of experience and dedication to inclusive housing policies, I am confident Sasha will make valuable contributions to our administration's priorities. Her leadership will be instrumental in guiding our initiatives to provide shelter for homeless residents and create more affordable housing opportunities for all Oaklanders."
Sasha comes to the City of Oakland from the California State Housing and Community Development Department (CA HCD) where, as a Gubernatorial appointee, she oversaw loan and grant programs funding affordable housing development and homeless services throughout California. There she directed the work of large teams including hundreds of staff and was responsible for billions in financial resources. In her most recent role, as a Deputy Director for Federal Programs, she oversaw the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which prevented nearly 400,000 households from eviction. Her portfolio also included HOME, CDBG, ESG, National Housing Trust Fund, and Disaster Recovery Programs.
In her previous role with CA HCD, Sasha managed 16 California State-funded programs for affordable housing, services, and infrastructure. These included Homekey, the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program, No Place Like Home and the Multifamily Super NOFA.
Prior to joining CA HCD, Sasha led the policy consulting practice and place-based initiatives for Grounded Solutions Network. As Director of State and Local Policy she led research, technical assistance and consulting on housing and land use policies. Her clients included the cities of New York, New Orleans, San Antonio, San Jose, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and Detroit. In her last two years at Grounded Solutions, Sasha’s team was awarded a grant from the Ford Foundation to create and implement a cutting-edge initiative to prevent renter displacement in cities like Oakland.
Before entering into mission-driven consulting work, Sasha served under Mayors Newsom and Lee in the San Francisco Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development. There, she was responsible for housing legislation, program design and program evaluation on a broad range of topics - everything from homeownership to public housing revitalization.
Sasha has published a number of articles and is a producer of the film Home is a Hotel, a documentary about people who live in Single Room Occupancy Hotels (SROs) in San Francisco. She holds a Masters of Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University.
About Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department
Homelessness and housing affordability are top priorities for Oakland residents. To address these challenges, the City is carrying out a multi-pronged approach. The Housing and Community Development Department is addressing housing affordability issues through its “3P” framework: Protect Oaklanders from displacement; Preserve the existing affordable housing stock; and Produce new, deeply affordable housing units. Oakland HCD also aims to prevent homelessness for vulnerable residents through partnerships with and grants to community service organizations. Read more about Oakland HCD and its current priorities in the 2023-2027 Strategic Action Plan.
Part of the City’s approach is to leverage City dollars to maximize State and Federal investments. Since 2020 HCD has secured more than $109 million in State Homekey funds to house residents experiencing homelessness. The City’s nine awarded Homekey projects will provide a total of 467 deeply affordable units for the unhoused. The City has also been awarded a $40.7 million State of California Infill Infrastructure Grant Catalytic (IIGC) program award, a $2.39 million grant from the State’s Prohousing Incentive Pilot Program, and a $10 million Regional Early Action Planning (REAP) grant to support affordable housing development and Infrastructure improvements throughout Oakland.
