MDHA director resigning in December – Nashville Post

Jim Harbison, executive director of the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, will step down from his leadership position in December after seven years leading the organization.

In a letter to MDHA Board Chair Bill Purcell dated Sept. 4, Harbison said “the time is right” to step down. In the next three months, Harbison said he would help in the agency’s search for a successor.

Among the most significant aspects of his tenure was the Envision plan to overhaul some of the city’s public housing, including by adding workforce and market-rate housing options in addition to affordable housing units.

“I am proud of the progress we have made to give Nashville’s low-income citizens a better chance to improve their lives: placing the Agency on a rock solid financial foundation, completing the largest transfer of land to MDHA from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in HUD’s history, and making the Envision concept of remediating concentrated poverty through mixed income development a reality,” Harbison wrote in the letter. “This Agency is well-positioned to continue to serve Davidson County for decades to come.”

Harbison joined MDHA in 2013 from HUD, where he was director of the Nashville Multifamily Program Center for the Federal Housing Authority. He previously spent 31 years in the military, retiring as a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps.

The board formally accepted the resignation on Tuesday, when Purcell thanked Harbison for his service to the agency.

Purcell appointed a group to begin planning for the transition to a new director, including Metro Action Commission Executive Director Cynthia Croom, Pathway Lending Executive Vice President Hank Helton, Meharry Medical College executive Dexter Samuels, former Catholic Charities director and Metro Councilmember Eileen Beehan and Dorothy Shell-Berry, the retired leader of both the Metro Department of Human Resources and Tennessee Department of Personnel.