Five Minutes With Steven Palmer
Steven Palmer
HAND: The HAND Team is excited to have you on board as the Director of Public Policy! Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your work experience and how you will apply what you’ve learned to your new role?
Steven: I’m Steven––I’m originally from Montgomery County, Maryland, and have lived in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of the District since graduating from law school. I briefly practiced at a DC law firm before becoming legislative staff at the Council of the District of Columbia, where I worked in a few different roles, including as staff on the Committee on Transportation and the Environment and later on the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety. I also served as Ward 3 Councilmember Matt Frumin’s first legislative director.
Working at the Council was an education in how local government functions (or sometimes fails to function) and taught me the importance of homing in on a particular issue to really get things done. I hope to bring this emphasis on focus to my new role to help strengthen the region’s policies toward creating and preserving affordable housing.
HAND: What are you most looking forward to over the coming months at HAND? Are there any projects that you are particularly excited about?
Steven: This is certainly an interesting time to be joining the team at HAND! Many folks in the affordable housing space are struggling as we face the after-effects of the pandemic and the reduction of much of the federal and local funding that kept projects moving forward for the past few years. Although this presents a challenge, I think it also presents an opportunity to strengthen the foundation on which the region’s affordable housing industry is built.
HAND: As the Director of Public Policy, you’ll oversee HAND’s advocacy work, including the Housing Indicator Tool (HIT). What value do you hope members can gain from the use and growth of the tool?
Steven: The HIT is a wonderful tool that I’m excited to be working on. Every jurisdiction in the region has a role to play in increasing and preserving the overall supply of affordable housing and one of the best ways to do so is to work in tandem with each other. During my time in government, I cannot count how many times I was asked by Councilmembers what neighboring jurisdictions were doing on a particular issue. Keeping track of what the region is doing and consistently allowing for a bit of friendly competition proves to be the best method for pushing forward vital policies. I hope the HIT allows members to deepen their understanding of the region’s approach to housing beyond the jurisdictions in which they work and to better communicate with local elected officials about what else is needed to increase our supply of affordable housing.
HAND: What is your “why” for working in this industry?
Steven: At the DC Council, I worked on a long list of very different issues, including education, environmental protection, and public safety, just to name a few. Every issue was important, but it felt like each problem kept leading back to our region’s lack of abundant, affordable housing. I joined the team at HAND because I wanted to support the people and organizations focused on fixing that core imbalance between the number of people seeking affordable housing and the amount of affordable housing available. To me, that is the best thing I could do to improve the lives of everyone living and working in my community.
HAND: What might you be doing if you weren’t working in this space?
Steven: There are plenty of alternate universes where I work in local government here in the District forever and ever. There’s also one or two universes where I’m toiling away practicing law somewhere. A more fun answer: as a little kid, I wanted to be a filmmaker, but I am absolutely the least artistic person I know, so there’s one universe out there in which I’m making absolutely terrible movies. Suffice to say, I’m pretty sure I’m where I should be!
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