Mayor de Blasio announced five appointments to the Rent Guidelines Board.
SARA WILLIAMS WILLARD
He appointed Sara Williams Willard as an owners’ representative, Cecilia Joza and Steven Flax as public members, and Sheila Garcia as a tenant representative. The Mayor also re-appointed current tenants’ representative Harvey Epstein to the board.
The Rent Guidelines Board determines annual rent adjustments for approximately one million apartments across the city subject to the Rent Stabilization Law.
Joza is the housing counseling program director at Mutual Housing Association of New York, a not-for-profit that owns and manages over 1,200 affordablepartments.
Flax has spent decades involved in promoting community-based housing and development and is currently a vice president of community reinvestment at M&T Bank.
Sara Williams Willard has spent over 15 years in real estate development and management. She spent her early years at Prudential Capital, CarrAmerica and Greenfield Partners, where she held several roles. Willard also worked at the MacFarlane Group and at Blesso Properties, where she eventually became a real estate developer.
Last September, Willard joined Hudson Companies as a senior project manager, where she is responsible for managing the company’s activities on Roosevelt Island.
Epstein, a tenants’ representative since April 2013, is also the project director of the Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center.
Sheila Garcia is the community organizer at CASA New Settlement in the Bronx.
