Monica Passeno
Senior Counsel
Monica Passeno is the Senior Counsel at the Center for Community Progress. She brings over a decade of experience in neighborhood stabilization and extensive knowledge of the legal tools available to bring vacant properties back into productive use.
As a former litigator and policy-minded program manager, Passeno provides technical expertise to communities looking to more effectively address systemic vacancy. She supports community-led revitalization by prioritizing neighborhood needs, listening to resident voices, and recommending actionable policy and practice changes.
Prior to joining Community Progress, Passeno served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office where she assisted cities and towns across the commonwealth in addressing vacant, abandoned and deteriorated residential property through receivership. Passeno also served as the Municipal Technical Assistance Manager for the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency where she strategically managed a substantial program budget providing innovative technical assistance funding to support communities in neighborhood stabilization and affordable housing development efforts.
Passeno holds a BA from Calvin University and a JD from Northeastern University School of Law.