Jessica Mills was recently appointed the executive director of the Fulton Community Development Agency (CDA) by the Fulton Community Development Agency Board of Commissioners , it was announced by Fulton Mayor Deana Michaels.
“Jessica’s broad experience in a number of housing program positions at the CDA makes her a great fit for this position,” Michaels said. “We are delighted to have her at the helm of Fulton’s CDA.”
Mills, who has been with the agency for nearly 10 years, holds a B.S. in Business, Management and Economics from SUNY Empire State College. She is also certified as a HUD Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Specialist and Housing Quality Standards Specialist as well as a HUD Certified Housing Counselor providing housing counseling services in the areas of Financial Management, Housing Affordability, Fair Housing, Homeownership, Avoiding Foreclosure, and Tenancy.
In her role as executive director, she is responsible for the management and administration of Low-Income Public Housing Programs and any programs authorized by the United States Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She supervises all agency operations, maintains contact with HUD and NY State housing programs representatives, as well as supervising participation in federal grants and other sources for funding. She also develops, implements and oversees the agency’s budgets, while managing day-to-day operations and keeping board commissioners informed.
From January 2019 to the present, she worked as the Housing Programs Director at the CDA where she oversaw the organization’s housing programs and staff for HUD and New York State Homes & Community Renewal programs. She worked with a caseload of 200 clients, property managers, and government officials to make sure that all regulations are followed. She was responsible for property and fiscal oversight, development of policies and procedures, hiring, supervising, the training and development of operation staff, reporting to funding sources and interfacing with community members.
She has also served as a Housing Counselor/Administrative Assistant at the CDA where she handled incoming communications, processed applications for a variety of programs and assisted the executive director. Her counselor activities included assisting homeowners with loss mitigation options, developing foreclosure intervention action plans, dealing with mortgage companies, and assisting with developing a budget and savings plan, as well as explaining lenders collection and foreclosure procedures to clients they served. In this position, she restructured housing programs while increasing efficiency and productivity and moving programs to paperless operation. She has grown the agency’s Housing Counseling programs to include more funding opportunities and services. In the past ten years, she increased agency funding for foreclosure prevention from $10,000/year in 2014 to $90,000 in 2023.
In addition, Mills has served for more than two years as a Housing Counselor/Senior Law Assistant at the Hiscock Legal Aid Society in Syracuse.
Mills was born in Oswego, but grew up in Colton, NY. When she was 15 her family came to Fulton. She lives in Fulton with her husband, Kurtis, and teenage sons Tyler and Anthony.
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