We were thrilled that many of our Enterprise team members were able to join affordable housing developers, service providers, financial partners, advocates, and community members directly impacted by housing insecurity at this year’s Housing California Conference in San Diego.
The Housing California Conference is a special opportunity to connect with our partners from across the state in person, share our work through panels and presentations, and learn about the new, innovative work being led by our partners. It is a joy and a privilege to be able to come together, and we left reenergized and inspired to double down on our efforts to ensure everyone has a safe, stable, affordable place to call home.
Among the numerous visionary speakers at the conference, it was a pleasure to be welcomed by new Housing California Executive Director Chione Lucina Muñoz Flegal, who kicked off the conference at the morning plenary session, Housing’s Next Chapter. Chione shared her own personal experiences and motivations in this work and challenged all of us in the room to come together and leverage our individual lived experiences to envision and execute a more just housing future.
At the conference, Enterprise staff moderated and presented on several panels, ranging from research, policy, campaigns, and narrative change.
Enterprise Senior Director Geeta Rao moderated a timely session, Coalition Building for a Transformative Electoral Win in 2024, which provided key insights and strategy on the powerful two-step 2024 campaign to pursue a statewide constitutional amendment to lower the voter threshold for local affordable housing bond measures and raise $10-20 billion through a 9-county Bay Area affordable housing bond. Geeta was joined by Matt Huerta, Principal at Matt Huerta Consulting, Alan Greenlee, Executive Director of the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing, and Zekun Li, Senior Campaign Manager at NPH.
Our Policy Director Justine Marcus also presented new research and moderated a panel, New Data from the Affordable Housing Pipeline: Implications for Policy, Advocacy, & Funding. Justine presented new preliminary findings from Enterprise’s statewide affordable housing pipeline research, as well as a case study of our regional pipeline work with the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA). Justine was joined by esteemed panelists Kate Hartley, Director at BAHFA, Elda Mendez-Lemus, Chief Real Estate Officer at LA Family Housing, and Consuelo Hernandez, Director at the Office of Supportive Housing of Santa Clara County. Together, they discussed the implications of these findings, including the need to create more efficiency and predictability in the state housing financing system, innovative ways to leverage local and federal funds, and strategies to make the case to our elected leaders for addition resources for affordable housing.
Senior Program Officer Amiel Leaño Atanacio moderated a panel discussion, Trends in Unsubsidized Affordable Housing in California and Strategies to Preserve Affordability and Support Tenant Stability Innovation, about the scale of homes and households at-risk and much needed policy solutions. Participants heard from panelists doing research and on-the-ground work to preserve unsubsidized affordable homes, protect tenants, and advocate for policy tools such as SB 225, the Community Anti-Displacement and Preservation Program (CAPP) and AB 919, a statewide tenant and community opportunity to purchase policy. Amiel was joined by Becky Dennison, Executive Director at Venice Community Housing, Reverend Raw Huang, Senior Organizer at Housing Now!, Danielle Mazzella, Senior Research Manager at CHPC, and Doni Tadesse, Organizer at California Reinvestment Coalition.
Justine also joined Tomiquia Moss, Founder and CEO of All Home, Matt Schwartz, CEO and President of CHPC, and Christopher Martin, Policy Director for Housing California, for a reflective and energizing discussion of the Roadmap Home 2030 initiative. Roadmap Home 2030 is the first comprehensive, evidence-based plan to address the root causes of housing insecurity and homelessness in California. The group discussed the successes and limitations of Roadmap efforts so far and the narrative, power-building, policy, and campaign strategies needed to elevate and win the policies priorities outlined in the Roadmap.
It was wonderful catching up with so many of our partners and meeting new people who share our passion and dedication to this work!
