Martin Mellett serves as vice president of External Affairs for Jubilee Housing. He assumed that role in July 2016, after serving as Jubilee’s director of Special Projects from January 2013.
In his current position, Mellett is responsible for promoting Jubilee’s interests on federal and local legislation that affects Jubilee residents or program participants. He focuses on legislation that touches home affordability, out-of-school programs for youth, re-entry for citizens returning from incarceration, and immigration. He lends Jubilee’s support to organizations working on these issues and brings insights from their experts back to Jubilee’s team.
Highlights of Mellett’s work at Jubilee include coordinating the multiple processes—regulatory, short- and long-term financing, tenant outreach, legal, grants, and more—required for Jubilee to close on the Maycoft Apartments in 2017; employing creative financing strategies for Jubilee projects; establishing and strengthening relationships with local public officials; and assisting the organization with an infrastructure review and redesign in the areas of human resources, real estate, and advocacy.
Prior to joining Jubilee Housing, Mellett served as senior program officer at LISC DC from 1996 to 2013, while also serving as the director of the Community Development Support Collaborative. He also has worked on social justice issues for the Archdiocese of Washington, on immigration issues at his own law firm, and on education and training at the Arizona Farmworkers Union.
Mellett has served on the board of directors for many nonprofits and currently is a member of the boards of the Housing Initiative Partnership, Joe’s Movement Emporium, and Caldwell Community. He was a member of the Leadership Washington Class of 2000.
Mellett holds a BA in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and a JD from Antioch School of Law, now the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.