(Bloomberg)—Pretium Partners LLC, which oversees a vast portfolio of US rental houses, has hired Andrea Gift Allan, who previously worked at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., to lead the firm’s investments in affordable housing.
Allan will focus on expanding Pretium’s portfolio of rental homes that are leased to tenants who receive assistance through the federal government’s housing choice voucher program, Pretium said in a statement Tuesday.
She spent more than 20 years at Goldman Sachs, most recently as managing director and chief operating officer of its urban investment group, which focuses on real estate projects and other initiatives that have a social impact. At Pretium, she will also serve as a strategic adviser to Progress Residential, Pretium’s property management platform. In a separate statement, Progress said it’s adding new executives to support the expansion of its affordable housing business.
Pretium, led by former Goldman Sachs partner Donald Mullen, has grown rapidly in recent years, accumulating more than 85,000 homes. The firm currently leases more than 1,100 houses to tenants receiving vouchers, and sees the opportunity to expand that number within its existing portfolio, said Josh Pristaw, Pretium’s co-head of real estate.
The housing choice program, also known as Section 8, can provide landlords with steady revenue because the rent is effectively paid by the US government. But it also requires additional effort to work with tenants, community groups and local housing authorities.
“We want to give residents the opportunity to live in neighborhoods they might not otherwise access,” Pristaw said. “If you don’t reach out and say, ‘Hey, we want to be your partner,’ then it doesn’t happen. You have to make a proactive effort, so we’re hiring more people to do that.”
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