Yusef Freeman is a seasoned real estate professional with over 20 years of experience in affordable housing, urban development, and impact investing. He currently serves as a Partner in Real Estate at The Vistria Group and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Prior to joining The Vistria Group, Yusef held leadership positions at the Jonathan Rose Companies, including Senior Managing Director of California and membership of the company’s management committee. During his tenure, he opened the company’s first West Coast office, leading both ground-up development and the deployment of the affordable housing fund on the West Coast and sourced over 900 units of affordable housing.
Before joining the Jonathan Rose Companies, Yusef was Vice President at PGIM Real Estate from 2018 to 2020, sourcing and structuring deals from all real estate asset classes for the 14 active funds of the company out of their San Francisco office.
Yusef spent nearly 12 years at McCormack Baron Salazar, progressing from Project Manager to Managing Director. In these roles, he focused on mixed-income housing development and neighborhood transformation projects across the country. He led the redevelopment of over 1,000 units of mixed-income housing in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina before opening the San Francisco office for the firm and leading the redevelopment of communities throughout the west coast while also directing business development for the company nationally. While at McCormack Baron Salazar, Yusef was responsible for the development of nearly 4,000 units of mixed-income housing including leading one of the final public housing transformations under the HUD Hope VI program and two of the first five public housing transformations under the HUD Choice Neighborhoods Program.
In addition to his corporate experience, Yusef has contributed to the affordable, workforce and mixed-income academic field, formerly serving as a Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, teaching Methods of Project Analysis in the Graduate Program of the Department of City and Regional Planning. He also serves as an advisor for the Terner Center for Housing Innovation, also at the University of California, Berkeley.
Yusef holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley where he spent one year studying abroad at the American University in Cairo, Egypt; a Master of Public Administration from New York University, where he majored in public finance as a Public Policy and International Affairs Fellow; and an alum of the Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence Fellowship Program at the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the boards of the National Housing Trust and Mid Pen Housing.