President & CEO

David A. Northern, Sr. is President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Houston Housing Authority (HHA), one of the nation’s largest housing authorities, serving more than 60,000 low-income Houstonians with 200 plus full-time employees and more than 100 private management staff. HHA’s annual budget is about $300 million with an inventory that includes a federally funded portfolio of 24,000 units and 22,000 non-federal units.

His educational background includes a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Ball State University and a Master of Public Affairs from Indiana University. Additionally, Northern completed the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government 18-month Community Development program.

Mr. Northern has dedicated his longstanding and reputable career of 26 years to the public housing industry. A demonstrated leader in the affordable housing sector, he is the immediate past President of the Public Housing Authorities Directors Association, an organization of 1,900-member housing agencies representing more than 1.9 million low-come housing units throughout the U.S.

Mr. Northern has proven experience as a proactive leader in federal housing assistance programs, including urban planning and policy development. In 2011 he was selected as a member of a housing delegation that traveled to South Africa to educate and advise their government leadership. In 2016 he was a speaker at the White House Convening on the proposed HUD smoke-free rule in public housing. In 2019 he was appointed by Governor J.B. Pritzker to the Illinois State Housing Task Force and was elected to the Illinois Housing Council’s Board of Directors.