Robert Finn
Vice President, Policy and Research
Robert E. Finn is the Vice President of Policy and Research at the Center for Community Progress. Finn supervises the development and management of an active policy advocacy program that advances policy responses to vacancy and abandonment at the federal regulatory and legislative levels.
Finn draws on his extensive legal, policy advocacy, and government relations experience to build relationships with lawmakers, regulators, administrators, and peers in nonprofit housing policy. He has worked closely with congressional offices to craft legislative proposals that support land banks, fund local efforts to map property conditions data, and increase the supply of affordable homeownership opportunities in disinvested communities. He also participates in coalitions and working groups including the Coalition for Affordable Homeownership, Americans for Financial Reform’s Housing and Mortgage Policy Working Group, the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding, and the Underserved Mortgage Markets Coalition.
Previously, Finn served as Legislative Affairs Director for the District of Columbia Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, where he led a team of attorneys in the development and implementation of policies aimed to protect tenants and consumers, improve DC’s vacant building enforcement program, and adopt updated construction codes. He also served as Senior Policy Associate at the National Community Stabilization Trust, where he developed and advanced policies to redevelop vacant residential properties into homeownership opportunities.
A native of Jersey City, New Jersey, Finn practiced law with a diverse litigation portfolio that included landlord-tenant, employment, civil rights and complex commercial litigation, as well as extensive appellate experience at the state and federal levels. He cares deeply about the protection of populations experiencing housing instability and served for six years as the Tenant Advocate and Special Housing Prosecutor for the Township of North Bergen.
Finn served as editor for the research volume Tackling Vacancy and Abandonment: Strategies and Impacts After the Great Recession. He authored Fast Track Foreclosure Laws: Not a Silver Bullet for Fighting Blight.
Finn received his Juris Doctor from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University and his bachelor’s with honors from Wesleyan University. He works out of Community Progress’ Washington, DC office and lives with his husband in Prince George’s County, Maryland.