Steven Bernard Nesmith is returning to public housing more than 40 years after leaving the Philadelphia projects where he grew up.

Since leaving public housing four decades ago, his journey has been filled with undeniable success.

Now a lawyer and housing and community development expert with a long list of credentials that includes a three-year stint as an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the 6-foot-5 former American University basketball star has been tapped to lead Richmond’s public housing operations and spearhead its transformation.

Monday afternoon, the board of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority voted to install Mr. Nesmith as the chief executive officer, capping a more than two-year search for a permanent succes- sor to Damon E. Duncan, who left in 2020.

“Our board is thrilled to welcome Steven,” current Chair Brett Hardiman, stated in the announcement. “He has a breadth and depth of knowledge that, combined with his passion and experience, will ensure that RRHA strengthens its commitment to our residents and re-establishes itself as a leader in the creation of affordable housing.”

Now busy closing up the housing policy company he has operated in Northern Virginia since 2016, Mr. Nesmith will take over from the interim chief executive, Sheila Hill-Christian, whose company, Fahrenheit Advisors, led the executive recruiting search that brought him to the attention of the board.

He is to take the RRHA helm on Oct. 1, where he will oversee an agency with a $90 million annual budget and 233 employees. The agency’s portfolio also includes more than 3,100 apartments, primarily located in six major complexes.

A board member said he will start with a $250,000 a year salary, high for the authority, but a pay cut for him.

Still, Mr. Nesmith, who has known poverty and prosperity, considers the RRHA post a dream job.

Reached at his company’s office in Fairfax County, he described his new role as an opportunity to use his experience and knowledge to impact the lives of the people and children who look like him and live in the same circumstances he once did.

He told a U.S. Senate committee considering his confirmation for assistant HUD secretary that he had been “a so-called ‘at risk child’ in the ghetto of Philadelphia, Pa., who I am sure many could never imagine that I might sit here.”

Mr. Nesmith said his goal also is to restore RRHA as a primary force in housing and economic development. He said it is not enough to just develop housing.

He said the whole package needs to include economic development so that residents can have the jobs they need to afford to rent or buy.

Mr. Nesmith said he is already getting calls from people who want to join the executive team he plans to assemble to help carry out his vision for RRHA, one of the largest public housing operations in the Mid- Atlantic region.

And, although he said he has had previous opportunities to lead a public housing authority, until now “the timing was never right.”

Now with his son at Cornell University and his daughter at Virginia Tech and with the support of his wife, Christelle, he said he is finally at age 60 ready to make the career change.

A former partner in several prestigious corporate law firms where he specialized in housing and development issues, Mr. Nesmith has spent the past six years leading Capital Mortgage and Financial Services LLC.

That is a boutique lobbying firm he founded to provide policy, legal and governmental relations services to mortgage companies, title firms, banks, home builders, trade associations and housing nonprofits such as the Center for Responsible Lending.

City Council Vice President Ellen F. Robertson, a former leader of a Richmond housing nonprofit that helped rebuild Highland Park, called Mr. Nesmith’s resume “impressive” and noted his “great connections with HUD.”

Basketball and academics were his tickets to a better life. Awarded a full athletic scholarship to American, he played for four years before graduating, rising to captain of the team and earning a recognition award in 1985 for his play from the Washington Metropolitan Basketball Hall of Fame.

After playing professional ball overseas for several sea- sons, he returned to enroll in the Georgetown University School of Law, where he served a term as president of the student bar before graduating.

He clerked for a judge, then joined the Philadelphia city government.

He captured the attention of then-President Bill Clinton’s administration after he led the restructuring of the city’s Empowerment Zone agency, and was tapped in 1999 to serve as a deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Commerce Department where he oversaw the Economic Development Administration’s and its $1.5 billion development portfolio.

After George W. Bush was elected president, Mr. Nesmith, who had won kudos for his ability work with diverse groups and cross political lines, was named to his HUD post to serve as the agency’s liaison to Congress as well as other federal agencies, state and local governments, housing developers and nonprofits. He said he got his schooling then on the risks and rewards of developing affordable housing.

After leaving the government, he spent the next few years with law firms and financial services companies.At one firm, he helped corporate clients gain government support to recover from the Great Recession. At another, he was tasked with turning around a title company that had fallen on hard times.

He also was involved in building a financial services practice at an international law firm and aiding another financial services company grow its mortgage portfolio before founding Capital Mortgage.

The depth and breadth of his experience in housing, policy and development appear to eclipse that of any previous CEO in the past 30 years.

“I think we have picked a real winner,” said RRHA board member William E. Johnson Jr. “I am hopeful that Richmond will welcome him and work with him.”

Mr. Nesmith, himself, admires Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s vision for boosting affordable housing.

His remarks to the Republican-led Senate committee that would support his confirmation spelled out his interest in a collaborative and inclusive approach and to ensuring involvement all of those with a stake.

“I recognize that there will be challenges ahead for us,” he said then, “whether they are a specific program at HUD or issues facing the broader housing community. Nevertheless, I believe that we must address these issues in a bipartisan manner in order to find long-term solutions.”