Throughout my career, I have witnessed and harnessed the power of research and data as tools to empower community agents to drive change, and I am honored to work with a team of fellow impassioned problem solvers and leverage the incredible housing expertise at Urban to aid changemakers across the country in achieving their highest potential for all their citizens.
Monique King-Viehland is associate vice president for metropolitan housing and communities policy at the Urban Institute where she is leading new work on racial equity and housing justice, as well as working with researchers on policy, communications, and business development to grow compelling bodies of work and embedding racial equity across Metro’s practice areas.
King-Viehland previously served as executive director of the Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA) where she oversaw 580 employees and a budget of $600 million. She was the first woman and African American to take the helm of the 40-year-old agency. She led the agency through significant transformation, including the merger of the Community Development Commission and housing authority into one unified agency to augment cross-agency thinking and client service, increase organizational effectiveness, and reposition the agency as a forward-thinking, industry leader in the provision of housing, community, and economic development.
She enhanced the LACDA’s efforts to fight the homelessness and affordability crises, including a 10-fold increase in affordable and supportive units funded, increasing project based rental voucher commitments by more than 100 percent while providing housing and housing assistance to hundreds of thousands annually. In 2019, she was recognized as an LA Power Woman by Bisnow.
King-Viehland has 20 years of experience in housing, community, and economic development. She is a member of the LAHSA Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness and a member of the Policy Advisory Committee for the California Roadmap HOME 2030 initiative.
In late 2020, King-Viehland served as a member of the US Housing and Urban Development Agency Review Team for the Biden-Harris Transition Team.
She graduated with honors from Smith College and has a master’s in public policy from Carnegie Mellon.
