David Zisser

David Zisser has served as the Assistant Deputy Director for Local Government Relations and Accountability at the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) since November 2021. David is the inaugural head of HCD’s Housing Accountability Unit (HAU), formed by Governor Newsom to hold cities and counties accountable for following state housing laws that promote the production of more homes, faster.

David leads a team of about 70 people charged with expanding on HCD’s accountability work through a holistic strategy that includes: ensuring all 540 cities and counties in the state plan effectively for their fair share of the state’s housing needs, awarding prohousing incentives and planning grants to support local jurisdictions in promoting housing production and in complying with state housing laws, providing education and technical assistance to help jurisdictions understand the law, and holding jurisdictions accountable through enforcement actions as needed, including partnering with the state Department of Justice to sue local jurisdictions that violate state housing laws.

David brings more than 17 years of professional experience in local, regional, and statewide housing policy, advocacy, and accountability to HCD. Previously, David served as the Associate Director of Housing California, a statewide affordable housing and homelessness advocacy organization; as Senior Staff Attorney at Public Advocates, where he created a robust practice around Surplus Land Act accountability and led the organization’s efforts to enforce local jurisdictions’ obligations to affirmatively further fair housing; as Counsel at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, where he developed a post-Katrina Gulf Coast initiative, working with dozens of local organizations in Louisiana and Mississippi to hold communities accountable for affordable housing, fair housing, tenant protections, equitable development, and environmental justice; and as a Housing Fellow at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, where he implemented various affordable housing programs, including Housing Choice Vouchers and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, and sued landlords for failure to provide heat and hot water and meet other standards.

David earned his Bachelor’s in Sociology at UCLA, his J.D. at UC Law SF, and his Master’s in City Planning at UC Berkeley. He was born and raised in the South Bay and lives with his wife and two young daughters in Sacramento.