Ivory N. Mathews

Ivory N. Mathews brings more than 30 years of public housing leadership to an agency that serves more than 18,000 Pittsburghers.

She previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Home Forward, Oregon’s largest housing authority, and as Executive Director of the Columbia Housing Authority in South Carolina.

She has served as Senior Vice President of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO), which represents housing authorities before Congress and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and she has been a national voice for the residents and communities that public housing serves.

A first-generation college graduate born and raised in substandard housing in rural South Carolina, Director Mathews has dedicated her career to addressing the needs of socioeconomically marginalized populations, including Black, Indian and People of Color (BIPOC) communities facing barriers to employment, education, health care, and safe housing.

Director Mathews grew up in poverty in rural South Carolina. Her experiences in childhood living in a dilapidated hand-me-down trailer with unreliable heating and cooling led to her career in affordable housing.

“I know what it means to be housing insecure, and I know what quality affordable housing can do for a family.”