Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Housing Commissioner Rafael Cestero Stepping Down

By DNAinfo Staff on January 21, 2011 1:34pm

Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Rafael Cestero is stepping down.
Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Rafael Cestero is stepping down.
View Full Caption
Courtesy of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development

By Jill Colvin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Rafael Cestero is stepping down after less than two years in office, the city announced Friday.

Cestero will be leaving government to join L&M Development Partners as managing director, focusing on the West Coast, the Gulf and New Jersey, department spokesman Eric Bederman said. Cestero moved away from his wife and children when he accepted the job in February 2009.

"Throughout his career, both in City government and in the nonprofit sector, Rafael has embodied the best of what public service can be," Mayor Michael Boomberg said in a statement. "I know he will thrive in his new role and wish him well in this next chapter of his life."

Cestero was brought in to replace Shaun Donovan, who left to join the Obama administration as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Cestero worked at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development for five years and headed an aggressive foreclosure prevention program and a new plan to address troubled buildings, the mayor said.

"What we have accomplished together at HPD is remarkable by any definition and I could not be prouder to have been a part of it," Cestero said in a statement. "I am confident we have built a strong foundation from which HPD will continue to protect our City’s tenants and expand and preserve its affordable housing stock for generations to come."

Cestero will stay on thorough the end of March, Bederman said.