MBA Affordable Housing Leader Steve O’Connor Announces Plans to Retire

Steve O’Connor, MBA’s Senior Vice President for Affordable Housing Initiatives, recently announced plans to retire at the end of September.

MBA President & CEO Bob Broeksmit, CMB, noted O’Connor has worn many hats during his tenure at MBA. “Steve has been a crucial part of the MBA leadership team for nearly 30 years,” he said. “Most recently, he has spearheaded MBA’s efforts to bring industry, policymakers, consumer advocates, and other community leaders together to find answers to the affordable housing crisis plaguing our country.”

Broeksmit said MBA and its members will miss O’Connor’s tireless work to convene diverse stakeholders to identify solutions to affordability and other housing challenges. “Steve’s lasting legacy will be conceiving, building, and growing MBA’s Affordable Housing Initiatives program and for being the architect of our CONVERGENCE initiative,” he said.

MBA’s place-based CONVERGENCE initiative creates cross-sector, collective impact coalitions focused on increasing minority homeownership in Memphis, Columbus, and Philadelphia. The initiative will carry on under the leadership of MBA Associate Vice President of Affordable Housing Initiatives Wendy Penn and Associate Director Katelynn Harris Walker. “They make a great team, and the affordable housing initiative will be in good hands with the team that we’ve established,” O’Connor said.

In fact, MBA is actively engaged with industry leaders to expand the CONVERGENCE initiative to create replicable, scalable solutions to address the minority homeownership gap in other cities as well, O’Connor noted.

A graduate of Marquette University in Milwaukee with a Master’s from American University in Washington, O’Connor has been active with the National Housing Conference, the oldest and broadest affordable housing coalition in America, for decades. He started as a mentor in NHC’s Young Leaders in Affordable Housing program and has served on the organization’s Board of Governors for more than 23 years.

“For the past two years, Steve has served as our Chair, were he provided invaluable expertise, guidance and support to me and the entire organization,” said David Dworkin, President and CEO at the National Housing Conference. “His passionate support of our mission, and the work of the Black Homeownership Collaborative, which he helped found, is a model for the housing industry.”

In addition to the National Housing Conference, O’Connor also serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Up for Growth Action, the only U.S. organization singularly focused on leading federal legislation to eliminate barriers and increase resources for housing production. He also serves on industry boards including the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, Freddie Mac’s Affordable Housing Advisory Council, the Homeownership Council of America, and Rocket Mortgage’s Consumer Affairs Forum.

For his part, O’Connor said he will miss his MBA colleagues and friends. “Honestly, they are very, very committed and passionate professionals,” he said. “The caliber of my colleagues at all levels of this organization has been extraordinary.”

But he plans to remain active. “Part of the next step in my journey is that I’m going to be doing some consulting after I retire from MBA, to help advance the work of mission-oriented clients,” O’Connor said.

Before joining MBA in 1996, O’Connor worked in government affairs for the National Association of Realtors and Freddie Mac.