Saying farewell to Cindy Witman Daley

Cindy Daley, Senior Counsel/Director of Community Redevelopment Initiatives will retire at the end of July having made a significant impact on the lives of Pennsylvanians in need of affordable homes. She has done considerable work in affordable housing policy, including publications and legislative advocacy, addressing vitally important concerns such as efforts to create and fund the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Enhancement Fund (PHARE), expanding rights for residents of manufactured home communities, and finding solutions to blighted properties through conservatorship and land banks.

“Cindy led the policy work for the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania that resulted in 17, yes, 17 new laws for affordable housing and healthier communities. This includes the state housing trust fund (PHARE) today moving toward $100 million annually, the land bank and blighted property Conservatorship. Cindy changed the work, and we are all better for it.”

– Liz Hersh, former Director of the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Homeless Services (OHS)

She represented both RHLS and the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania in numerous advocacy projects and championed the Whole Home Repair Bill and its (hopeful) legislative successor. She is known for her advocacy and passion for her work, and we will miss her contribution to our organization immensely.

Cindy’s interest in community development began in college when she and a few friends formed an organization to fight the university’s plans to demolish two rows of 19^th century townhomes and other historic houses on campus to make way for two new high rise office buildings. While not all of the buildings were saved, several of the buildings and the facades of one whole row are now a proud part of the campus.

After college, Cindy worked at North Area Community Forum in St. Louis County. When she returned to Pennsylvania, she spent three years as Philadelphia Neighborhood Housing Services’ Homeownership Opportunity Program Coordinator before starting law school.

Cindy joined the staff of Regional Housing Legal Services after graduating from law school. She worked with many small community organizations in the Philadelphia area and in Central Pennsylvania after opening RHLS’s Harrisburg office in 1990. Cindy also staffed the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network (PLAN) Housing Law Project, fielding questions, writing newsletters, and organizing statewide meetings and conferences.

After 17 years at RHLS, Cindy became the Policy Director at the Housing Alliance of PA. She was part of a team of advocates that worked with the legislature to create and fund PHARE, expand rights for residents of manufactured home communities, and address blighted properties through conservatorship, land banks, and other innovations.

Cindy returned to RHLS in 2017 to lead the Community Redevelopment Legal Assistance initiative (CRLA), which included the distribution of $5 million to communities across Pennsylvania, funded by a settlement with Bank of America through the PA IOLTA Board. She coordinated with eight other legal aid programs in five Justice Zones around the state to expand outreach and services to low-income households facing housing instability. Using her extensive background in community development, affordable housing, and policy, Cindy worked with selected communities to help them stabilize families and neighborhoods. It was an enormous undertaking that impacted communities across the state and resulted in new policy initiatives and development projects.

Throughout Cindy’s career, she has acted as a valued mentor, friend, and colleague to members of both the affordable housing and legal services communities in Pennsylvania. Her legacy of advocacy for millions of dollars of additional funding for affordable homes and protections for tenants will benefit Pennsylvanians for many years to come. We wish Cindy the best in her new chapter.