Philip F. Mangano

Mangano is the author of The Primacy of Research: Getting to Housing First in the United States – A Policymaker’s Perspective in Housing, Citizenship, and Communities for People with Serious Mental Illness (Oxford University Press, 2017). He co-authored the working paper on Ending Homelessness for the 2015 American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare Grand Challenge to End Homelessness and authored Replenishing Social Capital in the Lives of Homeless People: Overcoming Stigma Through Housing and Employment.

Following his work in Washington, Mangano established the American Round Table to Abolish Homelessness in 2009 and serves as President and CEO, working directly with state and local jurisdictional leaders. In July 2019, CA Governor Newsom named Mangano to the new Governor’s Council of Regional Homeless Advisors He also serves as the Vice Chair of the VA Secretary’s Advisory Board on homeless veterans in Los Angeles.

In 2004, he initiated international discussion on homelessness with the creation of regular tri-partite meetings with peers in government and research in the UK, Canada, and Australia.

In 2002, Mangano was appointed by President George W. Bush to be the Executive Director of the White House United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. He led the national strategy to prevent and end homelessness from 2002 – 2009 with the Council’s 20 federal agency members, including in the transitional phase of the President Barack Obama administration.

Mangano was awarded the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris Causa) from University of Puget Sound, holds a B.S degree from Boston University and M.A. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. He also has studied Business Law in 1978 at UCLA and Entertainment law in 1979 at USC.

From 1976 to 1981, Mangano was president and owner of Street Level Artists Agency for musicians. He was inspired to help poor people after seeing the Franco Zeffirelli film Brother Sun Sister Moon about St Francis of Assisi. Mangano sold his business in Los Angeles and returned to his native Boston, where he first worked on a breadline at St. Anthony Shrine in downtown Boston from 1981 to 1984. He later became Director of Homeless Services for the City of Cambridge, MA in 1986 as growing family homelessness led to emergency shelter placements in motels. As Director for the Family Homelessness and Housing Programs operated by St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church (1990–1993), Mangano worked closely with the historic African-American church and the Cambridge Black Pastors’ Conference and co-founded Cambridge Clergy for Affordable Housing, a multi-congregational effort to respond to homelessness issues. In 1990 he became Founding Executive Director of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance (MHSA), a statewide advocacy alliance of more than 80 community-based organizations focused on individuals experiencing homelessness and the federal, state, and local resources to meet emergency needs and housing solutions.

Philip F. Mangano (born November 1947) is the President and CEO of The American Round Table to Abolish Homelessness, and former Executive Director of the White House United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.