During an entire career spent within a single municipal organization, Mark Iampietro witnessed a slow, trudging improvement he reflects on with pride but was largely too gradual for most people to even notice.

He’s now retiring, but for 42 years he’s been at the heart of the Bethlehem Housing Authority, working to serve and provide for some of the city’s struggling residents against changing social challenges and government priorities.

Even as his office is in disarray and boxes are packed, he prefers to talk about the department and its mission over himself.

A lifelong city resident and graduate of Liberty HS and Northampton Community College, Iampietro was a young man unsure of his future. “I’d intended to become a schoolteacher. I was going to go to Mansfield State College at the time. I don’t know. I just didn’t have the drive or the passion. It was between finishing community college and making a decision … I was working at a job part-time in the Lehigh Shopping Center when I met a fella, who worked at the Housing Authority, and we got friendly.”

Iampietro followed the man’s suggestion and applied for a job “at the bottom.”

At $3.50 an hour and benefits, more than twice what he was then making, Iampietro joined the maintenance department. “Sometimes you pick your career and sometimes your career picks you. In my case it was more the latter.”

At that time in 1974 the authority’s main building – Moravian Tower – had only just been completed and Iampietro lived nearby on West North Street. For over a decade he did every dirty job there was, from collecting garbage to digging ditches, before moving into a management position, where he remained until 1998. He took the deputy executive director position in 2003 and worked alongside Executive Director Clara Kendy and, later, Gene Gonzalez. “So I went from entry level to one step from the top,” Iampietro said. “There aren’t many people who stay with one company their whole lives, and there are that many companies that stay with their employees that long either. It’s a two-way street.”

In his early days, the executive director was Frank Loretti, a former Housing and Urban Development labor relations expert who inherited an authority full of decrepit, outdated buildings and crumbling infrastructure. He promoted Iampietro to the central office.

“In the 70s the place was in pretty bad shape fiscally and physically,” Iampietro said. “Mr. Loretti would tell a story that he was in his office, he had just started, and there was a man at the door from the accounting department. He said ‘we just had a roof repaired and I have the bill.’ Loretti said if the contractor did a good job to go ahead and pay them, and the accountant’s response was, ‘We don’t have any money.’”

Iampietro said many of BHA’s buildings were in bad shape back then. The Lynfield, South Terrace, Park Ridge and other developments were used or built during the war years as temporary housing for the influx of Bethlehem Steel Corp. employees and returning veterans, the basic structures in those first developments were by the 70s decades past their intended usage. “They lasted way longer than they were supposed to. They were held together with bailing wire and promises.

“The people in charge of housing at the time didn’t have a plan, so they did nothing.”

Iampietro worked tirelessly with Loretti and others through four decades and many tens of millions of dollars to gradually improve, renovate, replace and expand housing opportunities in the city. “The transformation is so incredible that the only people that recognize it are me and a couple of old-timers,” he said.

Iampietro took the deputy executive director position in 2003 and worked alongside Executive Director Clara Kendy and, currently, Gene Gonzalez. “So I went from entry level to one step from the top,” Iampietro said. “There aren’t many people who stay with one company their whole lives, and there are that many companies that stay with their employees that long either. It’s a two-way street.”

Today, the BHA is rated by HUD at 95 percent for management and facilities, one of the top scorers in the state. “It’s a tribute to every man and woman who works here. We’ve always wanted to be more than bricks and mortar. Housing authorities are, at the most fundamental level, about providing housing for poor people. What I’m most proud of is once we got things squared away – our finances were in good shape and our buildings were in the best condition, we started focusing on the needs of the people.

“I’ve always felt there has to be an effort on our part to end the cycle of generational poverty, family poverty, the never-ending cycle of low expectations. The people we serve should know they don’t have to live in public housing just because they lived there as a child. The things we have been doing the last 15 years revolve around education and programs that make it possible … for people who don’t want to stay here forever, I’m happy to see you get out.”

He’s particularly proud of the family self-sufficiency program, which commits willing participants to a five-year plan for education, job training, financial stability or whatever their personal goals. “When we get people who complete this program and they achieve these goals, that is just so personally uplifting to know you’ve not only rescued somebody but put them on a positive course and that will pass what they’ve learned on to their kids.

“I got a kick out of being part of that. It’s been a great ride. I was very fortunate to work here because of not only the opportunities, but the fact that I had a varied career. There were always new challenges and they were great challenges. I got to affect change.”