Breakfast w/ Douglas Guthrie – President & CEO, Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA)

AIA|LA City Leaders Breakfast Reception w/ Douglas Guthrie – President & CEO, Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA)

2023 City Leaders Breakfast Series Presented By: Gannett Fleming

The 2023 AIA|LA City Leaders Breakfast Series serves as an opportunity for architects & designers and other community stakeholders to meet directly with key individuals transforming Los Angeles in a roundtable setting to discuss innovative ideas that will ensure a healthy, sustainable and economically competitive future.

Douglas Guthrie – President & CEO, Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA)

Mr. Guthrie was appointed President and CEO of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) in April 2012. In this capacity, he oversees one of the nation’s largest and leading public housing authorities responsible for nearly 6,500 public housing units and administering over 60,000 Section 8 vouchers. The Section 8 vouchers include over 27,000 housing units for the homeless, representing 44% of HACLA’s voucher and certificate allocations. HACLA also has an Asset Management department which has a portfolio of 103 properties, comprised of 2,893 units, which facilitates HACLA’s mission of preserving, enhancing, and expanding deeply affordable housing. HACLA has an annual budget of more than $1.84 billion and close to 1,000 employees.

Under Mr. Guthrie’s leadership, HACLA has begun redevelopment for five public housing sites: Jordan Downs, Rancho San Pedro, Rose Hill Courts, William Mead, and Pueblo Del Sol. In 2020, HACLA acquired 20 properties with 1,040 units in 11 of the City’s 15 Council Districts through the first round of the State’s Homekey program, which provides funds to purchase and develop housing for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. HACLA managed all acquisitions within the City of Los Angeles on behalf of itself and the City.

Prior to this position, he held the position of General Manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD). This was an office of 600 employees with responsibilities for managing the City’s primary affordable housing development programs which address priorities for affordable housing, housing preservation, transit oriented development, and permanent and supportive housing for the homeless; systematic code enforcement of LA’s rental housing stock of nearly 760,000 housing units, and oversight of the rent stabilization program that manages rent adjustments on 620,000 rental housing units.

He has spent his career working in the field of affordable housing and community development. Prior to joining the Los Angeles Housing Department, Mr. Guthrie was President of Kimball Hill Urban Centers (KHUC), a developer of large scale mixed use and mixed income housing developments including a partnership in the redevelopment of the former Stateway Gardens and Cabrini Green public housing sites in the City of Chicago into mixed income communities.

Before working in the private sector, Mr. Guthrie served as the President of the National Equity Fund (NEF) from 1990-95. He also held the role of Senior Vice President of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), NEF’s parent corporation. LISC is one of the nation’s largest nonprofit community development support organizations. Under Mr. Guthrie’s leadership, NEF became the nation’s largest source of equity financing for low and moderate-income housing. Utilizing the low-income housing tax credit, over $1.6 billion was raised from major corporations to invest in real estate limited partnerships in low-income housing developments sponsored by nonprofit CDC’s from around the country. Those investments resulted in the development of over 28,000 affordable housing units in 550 projects, with real estate assets valued in excess of $3 billion.

Mr. Guthrie has also held various positions working for the City of Chicago under Mayor Harold Washington, including Chief Operating Officer of the Chicago Housing Authority and Deputy Housing Commissioner.

Mr. Guthrie began his professional career working for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development where he specialized in Model Cities, Urban Renewal and the Community Development Block Grant programs.

Mr. Guthrie has a BA Degree in Sociology and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration (specializing in Urban Studies) from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

2023 AIA|LA City Leaders Breakfast Series Presented By: