Ismael Guerrero knows what it's like to come from a place where people expect you to fail.

He grew up in a poor neighborhood in Chicago, the son of immigrants from Mexico. "I was one of two kids from my eighth-grade class who got through high school," said Guerrero, the first person in his family to attend college.

Today, Guerrero is the new director of the Denver Housing Authority. He replaced longtime DHA Director Sal Carpio, who retired.

Guerrero, who joined the agency this summer, brings a background in finance and nonprofit housing development, crucial skills for DHA's new mandate to work as a partner with private groups to expand Denver's stock of affordable housing. "We're breaking the model of a stereotypical public-housing authority," he said. After earning an master's degree in finance from the University of Chicago, Guerrero, 42, went to work for AT&T, doing budget analysis. He grew restless with the corporate world, and eventually heard from a friend who had started a nonprofit that was building homes on vacant lots in his old neighborhood.

"He challenged me to come back and do some 'real work' in the neighborhood," said Guerrero with a laugh.

The group went on to build 100 homes that were sold to working-class families. That was Guerrero's entry into the world of affordable housing.

He came to Denver in 1999 with his wife and two daughters, drawn by the mountains and quality of life. Guerrero worked for Mercy Housing, one of the largest nonprofit developers in the region, and U.S. Bancorp, where he worked with tax credits used to finance low-income housing.

Guerrero sees the job at DHA as an opportunity to recast the role of public housing in Denver.

"People are returning to the cities, and housing authorities are the last frontier for in-fill housing," he said.