Vicki L. Been is an American lawyer, public servant, and professor who served as the Deputy Mayor of New York City for Housing and Economic Development from April 2019 to December 2021. She previously served as commissioner of the

New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is the department of the government of New York City responsible for developing and maintaining the city's stock of affordable housing. Its regulations are compiled in title 28 of the '' ...

. She is a law professor at the

New York University School of Law The New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it was the first law school established in New York City and is the oldest survivin ...

and has served as director of the

Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy The Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy is a joint center at New York University School of Law and the NYU Wagner School of Public Service. The Furman Center was established in 1995 to create a place where people interested in affordab ...

Early life and education

Been was born and raised in

Naturita, Colorado Naturita is a statutory town in Montrose County, Colorado, United States. The population was 485 at the 2020 census, down from 546 in 2010. The post office in Naturita was opened on October 21, 1881, under the name "Chipeta"; the name was cha ...

, a mining and ranching town. She graduated from

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...

, after paying her entrance fees partially with a scholarship she won in a cooking competition. After working for

Consumers Union A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or use purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. Th ...

, she received a J.D. degree from the

, where she was a Root-Tilden scholar. Upon graduation, she clerked for judge Edward Weinfeld of the

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of the State of New York. Two of these are in New York Ci ...

. Then she clerked for

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

Associate Justice

Harry Blackmun Harold Andrew Blackmun (November 12, 1908 – March 4, 1999) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. Appointed by President Richard Nixon, Blackmun ultima ...

from 1984 to 1985. During her clerkship, she met her husband,

Richard Revesz Richard L. Revesz ( ; born May 9, 1958) is an American lawyer and academic. He is the AnBryce Professor of Law and faculty director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law. From 2023 to 2025, he served as t ...

, who was clerking for Associate Justice

Thurgood Marshall Thoroughgood "Thurgood" Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme C ...

Academic career and scholarship

After working for the Iran–Contra investigation and as an associate at

Debevoise & Plimpton Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is an international white-shoe law firm headquartered in New York City, with offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Luxembourg. The firm specializes in intellectual ...

, Been began her academic career in 1988, joining the faculty of Rutgers–Newark School of Law, as an assistant professor. In 1990, she moved to

NYU Law School The New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it was the first law school established in New York City and is the oldest surviving ...

. She achieved

tenure Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United ...

in 1994 and currently serves as the Boxer Family professor of law. In 2004, she was named director of the

. Been's scholarly interests include

property law Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property (land) and personal property. Property refers to legally protected claims to resources, such as land and personal property, including intellectual prope ...

land use Land use is an umbrella term to describe what happens on a parcel of land. It concerns the benefits derived from using the land, and also the land management actions that humans carry out there. The following categories are used for land use: fo ...

, and

housing Housing refers to a property containing one or more Shelter (building), shelter as a living space. Housing spaces are inhabited either by individuals or a collective group of people. Housing is also referred to as a human need and right to ...

law. She began her academic career as one of the first law professors to address the area of

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has gene ...

, focusing on equity considerations of the siting of undesirable land uses. She later turned her focus to the study of

takings Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...

and eminent domain, writing articles on

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

cases '' Palazzolo v. Rhode Island'' and '' Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council''. As Director of the Furman Center, she has written extensively on New York City housing issues, publishing an annual ''State of New York City's Housing and Neighborhoods''. She has also written on

impact fee An impact fee is a fee that is imposed by a local government within the United States on a new or proposed development project to pay for all or a portion of the costs of providing public services to the new development.Juergensmeyer, Julian C., ...

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has Default (finance), stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the Collateral (finance), coll ...

s, community benefits agreements,

parking Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and usually leaving it unoccupied. Parking on one or both sides of a road is often permitted, though sometimes with restrictions. Some buildings have parking facilities for use of the bu ...

requirements,

inclusionary zoning Inclusionary zoning (IZ) is municipal and county planning ordinances that require or provide incentives when a given percentage of units in a new housing development be affordable by people with low to moderate incomes. Such housing is known as ...

second lien The vast majority of all second lien loans are senior secured obligations of the borrower. Second lien loans differ from both unsecured debt and subordinated debt. First lien secured loans In the event of a bankruptcy or liquidation, the assets ...

s, and assessing the impact of

Superstorm Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late October 2012. It was the larg ...

on New York City neighborhoods. For her scholarship in the field of property law, Been was awarded the

Brigham–Kanner Property Rights Prize The Brigham–Kanner Property Rights Prize is awarded each Fall by the William & Mary Law School, at the Brigham–Kanner Property Rights Conference. The Conference and Prize were proposed in 2003 by Joseph T. Waldo, a graduate of the Marshall– ...

at the eighteenth annual

Brigham–Kanner Property Rights Conference The Brigham–Kanner Property Rights Conference was organized in 2003 at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary, with the first conference held in October 2004. The Conference and Prize were proposed in 2003 by Joseph T ...

. In 2008, she was named an affiliated professor of public policy at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She is a member of the

American Law Institute The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars limited to 3,000 elected members and established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and i ...

Public service career

Been has served on the boards of the

Municipal Art Society The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) is a non-profit membership organization for preservation in New York City, which aims to encourage thoughtful planning and urban design and inclusive neighborhoods across the city. The organization was ...

Next City ''Next City'' is a national urban affairs magazine and non-profit organization based in Philadelphia. First published in March 2003 as a magazine known as The Next American City, Next City promotes socially, economically and environmentally sust ...

, the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, and the Pratt Center for Community Development.

Housing Preservation and Development commissioner

On February 8, 2014, New York mayor

Bill de Blasio Bill de Blasio (; born Warren Wilhelm Jr., May 8, 1961; later Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm) is an American politician who was the List of mayors of New York City, 109th mayor of New York City, mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. A member of t ...

announced that Been would serve as the next commissioner of the

. She succeeded RuthAnne Visnaukas in that role. During Been's tenure, she undertook several initiatives to increase affordable housing in the city. In February 2016, Been defended a zoning proposal to allow taller buildings in exchange for more affordable housing units. In March 2016, Been gave a speech promoting her plan to foster development in

East New York East New York is a residential neighborhood in the eastern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are roughly the Cemetery Belt and the Queens borough line to the north; ...

. A March 2016 report found growing demand for affordable housing, and Been explained the city's policy was to encourage developers to build more housing units. In May 2016, her office stated it received 2.5 million applications for 2,600 affordable apartments in the city program. In October 2016, she promoted the city's update of the Lambert Houses in the

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

. In November 2016, her office initiated enforcement action seeking to make city landlords of affordable housing "play by the rules" or risk losing valuable tax exemptions. On January 17, 2017, she announced she would step down as commissioner and return to teaching full time at New York University. Her departure came amidst resignations by other aides in the city administration.

Deputy Mayor

On April 4, 2019, New York mayor

announced that Been would serve as the

Deputy Mayor The deputy mayor (also known as vice mayor and assistant mayor) is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official that is present in many local governments. Duties and functions Many elected deputy mayors are members of the loca ...

for Housing and Economic Development. Been succeeded Alicia Glen who she served under as Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development.

New York State Government

In October 2022, Been was selected by the

New York State Gaming Commission The New York State Gaming Commission is the official governing body that oversees casino gaming, charitable gaming, horse racing, lottery, and video lottery terminals in New York State. Based in Schenectady, it was formed on February 1, 2013, ...

and Gaming Commission Chair Brian O'Dwyer to join the Gaming Facilities Location Board which will determine where downstate casinos are located. In June 2024, Been was made Chair of the Gaming Facility Location Board.

Personal life

Been lives with her husband,

, the current director of the

, and former dean of the

NYU School of Law The New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-b ...

, and their two children, in New York City.

References

Selected publications and interviews

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Been, Vicki L. 1956 births American women lawyers Colorado State University alumni Commissioners in New York City Deputy mayors of New York City Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Living people New York (state) Democrats New York University faculty New York University School of Law alumni People from Montrose County, Colorado Politicians from New York City Women in New York (state) politics American women academics 21st-century American women People associated with Debevoise & Plimpton