Yale Law School Associate Dean Stephen Yandle will take the reins of the New Haven Housing Authority in June, replacing current interim Director Robert Solomon when he returns to his full-time job as a Law School professor, Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said Wednesday.

“Steve Yandle is tremendously committed and particularly has demonstrated through his time on the [Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners] a tremendous commitment to providing housing for the residents of New Haven,” said Henry Fernandez LAW ’94, New Haven’s economic development administrator.

Yandle, who is currently a member of the Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners, will assume the director’s job on the same interim basis as Solomon did when he agreed to head the oft-troubled agency in September 1999. Yandle did not return telephone calls late Wednesday, but his wife, Martha Anne, confirmed the appointment.

DeStefano said he would officially announce the appointment later this week.

Solomon declined to comment on the announcement.

“We have some details to work out,” he said.

During his two-year tenure, Solomon is credited with turning around a housing authority with a troubled history.

Last spring, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development removed New Haven from the federal “troubled list” when the Housing Authority ended a six-year streak of failing public housing ratings. In 1999, federal officials considered taking over the Housing Authority after $1.1 million of the agency’s money disappeared without explanation.

DeStefano said he was pleased to have another Law School faculty member heading the department.

“We’re providing continuity,” he said.

Through its faculty and graduates, the school is well-represented in the DeStefano administration.

Fernandez and Suzanne Miller LAW ’95, the director of the Housing Authority’s HOPE VI project, are both graduates of the Law School, and Solomon and Yandle are professors there.