Shams DaBaron is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of LionFox Development and co- developer of One45 in Harlem.

He is a Trustee of Project Renewal, a Board Member of Housing Solutions of New York, and Policy Committee Chair of C.U.R.E., the Council of Urban Real Estate. He served on the 2025 New York City Charter Revision Commission, which produced the housing measures voters approved in November 2025. City & State New York named him to its 2026 Black Trailblazers list.

He worked with the administration to help win approval of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, the largest zoning reform in New York City in more than 60 years. He brokered the change that raised advance payments to nonprofit service providers from 25% to 50% of contract value, more than $5 billion, by putting nonprofit leaders and senior city officials in the same room and keeping them there. He also pushed for the end of the 90-day rule that kept shelter residents from applying for housing vouchers.

Shams entered foster care as a young child, first became homeless at 10, and was permanently discharged from foster care at 12. He survived his teenage years in libraries and subway stations. During the 2020 Lucerne Hotel fight he became known as Da Homeless Hero, and the case he joined established that shelter residents can challenge a transfer before it happens. He received the New York Housing Conference Advocate of the Year award in 2021, created for that purpose and given once.

He started LionFox Development because advocacy can name a problem but it cannot build the answer. Housing gets built by the people at the table where it is financed, designed, and approved. He went to that table as a builder.