Brenda E. Rosen was appointed President and CEO of Breaking Ground in July 2011. She first joined the agency in 1999 as its Director of the newly renovated 416-unit Prince George residence on East 28th Street in Manhattan, at which she helped to establish a model of sustainable, affordable, supportive housing for New York City. For the five years prior to her appointment as President and CEO, Ms. Rosen ran Breaking Ground’s Housing Operations & Programs department, with 20 properties under management in New York State and Connecticut.

Today, as President and CEO, Ms. Rosen oversees the entirety of Breaking Ground’s activities, including the largest supportive housing property in the country, the Times Square on West 43rd Street and 8th Avenue, and Street to Home, a City of New York sponsored outreach program to house homeless individuals living on the streets of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. Ms. Rosen provides counsel and direction to Breaking Ground’s Administration, External Affairs, Finance, Housing Operations & Programs, and Real Estate Development departments. She is also the agency’s chief liaison with community leaders and other stakeholders, and is charged with supporting Breaking Ground’s Board of Directors in their oversight responsibilities to assure the agency’s continual fiscal and programmatic stability and their ability to set future strategic direction of agency activities and priorities.

Ms. Rosen is Board Chair of the Supportive Housing Network of New York, serves on the board of Homeless Services United, is an advisory member of both the New York State Department of Health Medicaid Redesign Team and New York Housing Conference, co-Chaired Mayor de Blasio’s Supportive Housing Taskforce, and frequently lectures on the role of supportive housing in the life and vitality of today’s urban environment in the United States at prominent institutes of higher learning. She holds a J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and received her B.A. from Hunter College where she began her career working with the City Council as part of the Hunter College Public Service Scholar Program. Prior to joining Breaking Ground, Ms. Rosen was Assistant General Counsel at the New York City Department of Homeless Services.