Latest / ChangeMakers with Katie Goar / Episode 136: Laura Archuleta, President and CEO, Jamboree Housing Corporation

Transcript

Episode 136: Laura Archuleta, President and CEO, Jamboree Housing Corporation · ChangeMakers with Katie Goar

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is change Makers with Katie Gore finding the right
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: solutions for the affordable housing community.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Today's change maker is Laura Archiletta, the President and CEO
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: of Jamboree Housing Corporation, one of California's leading nonprofit affordable
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: housing developers who are serving more than twenty thousand residents statewide. Laura,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: thank you for joining change Makers.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Katie, thank you so much for having me. It's a
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: real honor to be here.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Many of us have started in housing, and I am
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: really excited to share certain things about what Jamboree is doing.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: But many of us have a personal attachment to why
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: we're in housing.
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: And I know that you have some lived.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Experiences that brought you through this journey. So can you
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: start is off from that point before we really get
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: into the nets and bolts and the nuances of what
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: we're all doing today.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: But can you walk us back a few steps.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: It's so interesting how it happens, right is growing up.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: I grew up in a suburb in kind of East
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: Los Angeles County in a single family home, and my
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: dad worked, my mom stayed home. Just a really, really
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: nice community. But what I didn't realize was that was
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: not always the case for my mom. My mom grew
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: up in public housing back in Massachusetts, in Chelsea, and
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: she would tell me stories about it. She'd tell me
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: stories about what was public housing, like, what was it
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: like where she lived, where she faced discrimination actually for
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: being Jewish in the community. And then as she aged,
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: her and my aunt both i'd very young from lung
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: cancer and come to find out a lot of the
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: old public housing had environmental issues. Right, So of course
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: I didn't realize that as I was working in city
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: government wanting to be a city manager, I didn't realize
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: how those stories impacted me until I started to do
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: affordable housing and I fell in love with it and
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: then focused, you know, thirty seven years of my career
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: doing affordable housing, either working in city government or for
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: the last twenty six years at Jambrie Housing Corporation.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: So your lived experience is drawing on some early legacies.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: Right. The sharing of that is such.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: A moment because it attaches you.
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: To the mission. Obviously, are there other pieces that you
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: see in how you lead that you're also bringing to
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: the table, Like what other ways do you see maybe
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: the imprint from your mom or some of those stories.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: That you heard. Yeah, absolutely, I mean for sure kind
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: of the social justice element to it coming through, right.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: I mean, we do affordable housing, but what does afford
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: what's the impact of affordable housing on the broader community?
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: It has a full ripple effect from allowing kids to
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: get good education to you know, having everyone feel a
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: part of the community if you do it right. And
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: so everything that I heard from her and what was
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: going on living in that community in Massachusetts in public
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: housing we you know, has I think impacted the way
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: that we have grown Jamboree. Jambree has a mission, you know,
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: vision and values and when you look at those, we
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: really live those every day to carry out that mission.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: So I think that's you know, a bit of it,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: but it definitely ripples on from there, right, And I
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: don't think that people really realize until you kind of
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: do your personal mapping of where you've been to see,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: my gosh, all of these different touch points. I Mean,
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: one other one that comes to mind is I lost
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: my father. He was forty four. He passed away from
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: a heart attack, and they had bought their home on
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: using the VA program. Right, he'd been in the military
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: and they'd been in the home for twenty years when
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: he passed away, and we were able to draw money
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: from the house to keep my sister and I in
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: college right to keep us going. So again, just the
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: sense of housing, whether it's housing for security and stability
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: in your family or in this case, home ownership, housing
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: being able to be used as a bit of a
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: wealth generator to ensure that I could go to college,
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: which I was the first one, you know, in our
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: family to go to college, and then my sister followed
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: in my footsteps. So I think that for me, I
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: know people think I'm crazy, but housing just ripples beyond
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: just having you know, a place to call home. It
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: goes much further than that in many ways.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: And you and your sister are the recipients of what
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: stable housing can do. And so now I have shared
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: even some of my personal story to say, okay, so
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: now we've made it through, we've survived the instability, but
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: we now have a chance to pay.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: It forward for lack of a better word, and we're
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: able to now turn around and help people and offer
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: this hand up moment to others because we also benefited
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: from that.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: And so there is some beauty of this full circle
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: moment well.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: There absolutely is, especially when you're you know, doing something
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: that's difficult. Affordable housing is not easy in any way.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: And I love when I hire project managers from the
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: market rates side who come in and go what, You've
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: got five to seven layers of financing and you have
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: to compete with each other for it? How does that work?
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: And or you know, when you're working with city councils
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: that are afraid. You know, we've been moving into housing
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: folks coming from homelessness, living with mental illness, and it's scary.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: It's scary for the city councils that we go to
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: approof of the projects. It's scary for the neighborhoods when
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: we have our community meetings. So having a lot of memory,
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: recent examples of the impact we're making is really important
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: to keep us pushing forward.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: So let's talk about what you're doing with Jamboree and
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: what kind of funding you're doing, what kind of goals
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: you have.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Let's just let's get into the details here. How many
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: units you have on development, how many units you have?
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Just share with us and give us some perspective on
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Jamboree's Housing corporation because being a nonprofit affordable housing developer
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: is a very unique knitch, isn't it.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know it is. And of course when I
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: went to school, I didn't didn't really realize that there
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: was this whole industry. What I love now is we
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: actually are seeing programs being created at many of our
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: universities that are specifically for real estate development with an
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: emphasis in affordable housing. So I appreciate that. But yeah,
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: so Jambrey Housing Corporation, you know, started locally in the
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: city of Irvine. The city council had seen some of
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: the work being done up in northern California and thought
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: it'd be great to have a local affordable housing developer
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: in Irvine, and they passed a resolution and Jambree was formed.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: We were, you know, very small. I think I was
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: employee number four when I got there, and have done
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: a little bit of everything in affordable housing that's not
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: you know, our housing that we do is not being
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: met by the marketplace. Is how I came and so
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: I first got there, they were doing first time home
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: buyer programs, both administering a loan program and building with
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: a joint in joint ventures for sale first time home
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: buyer condos. So that was a very short lived kind
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: of program. We moved into multifamily housing pretty quickly, seeing
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: that we could have a larger impact, and so we
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: started working with our city partners. Back in the day
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: here in California you had redevelopment agencies, and redevelopment agencies
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: had quite a bit of funding that was dedicated to
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: affordable housing. It couldn't be used for auto malls or
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: shopping shopping malls. It could only be used for affordable housing.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: And so my twelve years working in city government really
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: paid off for Jambree because I was able to work
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: with city partners that I knew, that trusted me, that
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: we could bring in Jambree and show how we could
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: actually develop new housing ground up. We could do acquisition rehabs.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: We've acquired mobile home parks where we've been able to
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: preserve them and improve them. So a variety of funding sources,
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: traditional tax exempt bonds and four percent tax credits as
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: well as nine percent tax credits a little further on,
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: as we grew and had the funding to pay for
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: the pre development needed to get all the points competing
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: in the nine percent tax credit round. But we've used
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: kind of every type of creative financing tool out there.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: We worked with local businesses who have contributed to our projects.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: Both a large healthcare system in Orange County has contributed
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: helping us buy land as well as some gap financing,
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: and Disneyland here in Anaheim actually committed five million dollars
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: to affordable housing seeing the needs in and around Anaheim.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: So with that five million dollars, what are your plans
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: for that and how is that going to take shape? Yeah,
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: so we were able to work with them where the
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: five million dollars went into a trust fund here in
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: Orange County, not just for jambrie but for a variety
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: of nonprofits, and we were able to capture three million
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: of the five million to go into two different developments.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: One is a new construction development that's open. It houses
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: families very close to Disneyland, and it is a new
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: model for us where we have a full center of support.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: So we have a health clinic there, we have a daycare,
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: we have a preschool program operating as well as an
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: after school learning center, so all on the same site.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: And what's unique with Jamboree is that those services are
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: open to our residents but also to the surrounding community.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Nice, very nice. Yeah.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: What we saw is as affordable housing and all housing
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: got more expensive over the last thirty years, is that
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: it was really hard to get obviously the gap financing
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: to fill the gap between what it costs versus what
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: we can charge for rents, and so being able to
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: show that we're having this broader community benefit, it's not
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: just benefiting our one hundred units, it's benefiting far beyond
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: that was really important. So that's the first development that
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: Disney invested in, and the second one was a motel conversion.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: So this was right just prior to the start of
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: COVID here in Orange County, we had quite a few
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: homeless folks living along the river bed encampments and a
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: judge came forward here in Orange County and told cities, look,
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: that you really need to be housing your homeless. And
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: so we had been working for some time and getting
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: a little bit of momentum, but definitely as more attention
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: grew on the homeless population, we had more cities coming
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: to us looking for options, and in Anaheim specifically, we
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: worked with them on creating a motel conversion ordinance that
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: got adopted and then we acquired a motel. It was
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: an Icano lodge that we were able to to purchase
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: and renovate it, redo the rooms, and turn it into
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: permanent housing for folks who were coming directly from homelessness,
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: directly off the street. And in that property there's a
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: set aside for our veterans also, and so that Disney
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: invested in at the time. The president of Disneyland here
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: came to the grand opening and was just really moved
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: with being able to do that work. So those are
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: the two developments that they invested in with us, and
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: they're also helping other nonprofits really throughout the county improve housing.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: What does the.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Wait list look like to get into both of those
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: new developments, like tell us a glimpse of supply versus
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: demand dynamics.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Orange County itself is just it's such
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: a high demand county. It's a beautiful county, right, lot
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: high employment opportunities obviously, the beach, the climate, everything that
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: comes along with that. And so when we open a
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: new property, the wait lists are thousands of people. For
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: like a seventy unit development, we'll have four thousand people
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: on a waiting list. Those developments in Anaheim are kind
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: of unique. The motel conversion. The folks living there were
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: taken off of the coordinated entry system because they are
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: coming from homelessness. So those a little bit there's more
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: agencies involved with that. The counties participating in that county
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: of Orange and Finamore place the family property that I
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: had mentioned with all the services there, we did handle
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: that lease up and so folks put in their applications
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: and we just go right from you know, right from
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: the top and see who qualifies. But it is somewhat
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: like winning the lottery to get a unit. And recently
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: we had some of the families there were interviewed, and
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: I mean, we'll have we have a family there that
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: had two children. Both of the parents have four year
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: college degrees, and they're living in affordable housing because their
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: chosen careers. Just the starting wage is just not enough
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: to afford a three thousand or four thousand dollars a
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: month rent. The rents here are astronomical. So when I
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: first started doing affordable housing, affordable rents would be four
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: hundred and fifty to six hundred and fifty. You know,
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: now our affordable rents are one thousand to eighteen hundred,
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: so you know, they've really in my mind, having done
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: it for so long, it's hard to think of that
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: as being affordable. And I'm sure throughout the country people
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: are thinking, you know what, but for Orange County and
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: the state of California, it's really you know, rents obviously
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: have just skyrocketed.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Both of these are great highlights of partnerships and vision
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: and how you guys are solving some of those housing crisis.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: I want to mention to others that I read about
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: and have you highlight those as well. Salita del Soul
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: and Heroes Landing. Can you talk more about those two
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: in particular. Yeah, absolutely, So let me start with Heroes
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Landy because it's probably a little closer similar to the
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: first to developments I describe. It's in the city of
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: Santa Anna, and in that development, it is specifically for veterans.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: It's a dedicated property for veterans. It has a service
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: center that services all veterans kind of throughout the area.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: So that again is really nice bringing in more resources
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: for our veterans. The land there, we optioned the land
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: and the Saint Joseph Health System gave us the funding
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: nine million dollars to take down the land and then
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: we were able to repay them through once we got
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: all of our construction financing, our VASH vouchers from the VA,
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: and we put together all of the financing for that property.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: So what is I think unique about that property is
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: definitely the service center, having five different service nonprofits they're
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: located on site to help again our residents in the
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: broader community. And it's also, you know, in serving veterans
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: very interesting because you have a wide range of age
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: of veterans who you know, are looking for housing that
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: may have had some traumatic events while they were in
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: the military that they're living with that have caused issues
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: for them, and so having them housed together, there's a
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: real benefit of them being able to work together, identify together.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: We've also been successful at hiring property management staff as
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: well as we have a top level services staff person
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: who is a veteran, and so when you have people
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: who have lived experience that other those veterans can relate to,
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: it really makes a difference. So that's Heroes Landing.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: It's a really really beautiful property that is I think
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: changing the lives and helping the lives of the veterans
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: that live there and those in the community. The second
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: property you mentioned, Salita del Sol, is the one that
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: we just recently opened. Very near and dear to my heart.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: Having worked in city government, as they had mentioned before,
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: the city of San Juan Capistrano, came to us and said,
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: excuse men, let me tell you. I mean. San Juan
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Capistrano is a beach community in South Orange County, which
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: is even a high has a higher income profile than
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: North Orange County. But they came to us their council
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: and said, we'd like to do something to house the
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: folks who are homeless. We're seeing homelessness impact our community.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: And we're not talking about thousands of homelessness homeless in
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: this in this city. We're talking about maybe one hundred
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: to two hundred that are passing through and maybe fifty
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: or sixty that are there daily that their residents were seeing.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: Their residents are saying, why can't we help these folks?
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: And so we were able to sit down with them
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: and brainstorm how can we find land again in a
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: beach community, land that is soive and so hard to find.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: At the same time, they were looking at their city hall,
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: which was really made up of modular trailers kind of
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: cobbled together with some small buildings that they had far
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: outlived its you know, its life, and we came together
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: with the idea of building a new city hall with
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: housing on using that land. And that's came up with that.
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: And I have to tell you, I mean the willingness
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: right of a city council and city manager and leaders
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: to say, you know what, let's bring these folks right here.
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: They're going to live right next to city on the
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: same land. And these are folks who are coming directly
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: off the street, who are still experiencing mental health challenges.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: They may not be stabilized yet. That's what happens when
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: they get into our property, right is we have the
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: full wrapper owned services that we bring to them. So
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: a year two years out that property becomes very stable.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: Our residents excel. But it is a tricky couple years.
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: And that city council and city manager and team said,
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: you know, we can do it, we can do it.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: We'll be here, We're close to them, and we just
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: you know, opened this year. So it is still in
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: its transition stage. We're getting those residents used to living
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: indoors right and like mostly in an apartment community and
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: close to the Sheriff's department right there and learning to
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: trust that in itself. Right, when you've been living on
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: the street, you may not trust law enforcement the way
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: many of us do, right, It may may take you
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: a while to trust them, and as well as the
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: law enforcement folks understanding this isn't a shelter. These people
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: aren't transitioning through. This is permanent housing for them. So
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: it is an exciting development. It's getting a lot of
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: attention down here. We had a wonderful grand opening and
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: we had an elected officials event where at least twenty
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: other cities came to see how could this be done?
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: How does it work? And it's an exciting one for us.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: Both of those are leading with bold statements and bold steps.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: And it's so impressive because both of those communities, veterans
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: and homelessness have to have some type of advocate or
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: it has to have a bold step to say we're
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: not going to accept this societal issue as just being eh,
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: what can you do?
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: Right? Like, we are actually going to create a solution
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: solve this problem as a community. It's very impressive that
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: you guys are tackling these.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: Types of things and pairing it with solutions.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: How has been the You mentioned the city council supporting
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: it and accepting it, and some of your social services
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: and your support of housing components. How's been the community overall, Like,
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: is it an education process or were they on from
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: the beginning and involved? How do community approach this?
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's always an education process. And I think
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: when I first started in affordable housing, I often saw
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: cities try to push forward with affordable housing and maybe
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: not do community outreach, thinking that people are busy, they're
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: working a lot, they won't realize what's being built here.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: And at the time, I mean, it's workforce affordable housing
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: is what I would call it, right, But when you're
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: building housing for groups that have special needs, and there's
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: just a lot of fear, a lot of fear. And
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: I have a story from our very first development we
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: did fifteen years ago in the city of Anaheim, first
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: development for folks coming from homelessness, living with chronic mental illness.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: Is we had a neighbor to the site to come
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: forward and say, look at I think this is a
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: very worthwhile population, but I cannot have this development is
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: just twenty five units, but being built this close to
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: our home. You said, just last month, we had a
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: gentleman break into our house clothed, sitting on our couch,
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: and we came into our living room and there he
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: was sitting there and he said, we can't be bringing
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: those folks into our community. And once we sat him
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: down and said no, these are the folks that we're
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: going to be housing and we're going to be providing
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: services for them, his eyes opened up and he ended
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: up supporting our development. But it really took him, you know,
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: understanding we're not bringing these folks in. These folks are
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: already here, and he'd he had seen that, right, So
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: that was one that always sticks in my mind early on.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: Right now, we're going through a development here in the
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: city of Brea, which is in North Orange County, a
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: beautiful community, lots of beautiful homes and shopping and very
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: high job rich community, and we are they don't have
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: a huge homeless problem, but they probably have thirty to
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: fifty folks kind of wandering through. And we're proposing a
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: small project under forty units, and it's people are nervous
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: about it, and so we're doing a lot of community outreach.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: But you know, I will say that we've learned a
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: lot also in the last fifteen years at Jambrie, and
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: so it's much easier for us to sit down with
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: a council person and say, you know, those first two years,
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: it is a transition time. We may you may seem
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: the residents sitting outside the property more because they're used
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: to living outside. They may not be living inside. We
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: will put more staff on site. We will just have
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: more staff there to help those residents transition. And so
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: we've learned a lot, and we've learned how to talk
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: about it in communities understanding. It's very interesting because the
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: fear around how folks with special needs I think it's
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: very different than the pushback you get when you're developing
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: workforce affordable housing. So folks who are who are the
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: working poor, I feel that when you're developing housing for
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: folks who are more just the working poor, is there's
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: a lot more I think discrimination, racial discrimination that comes
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: in at least here what I see in California in
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: that opposition, it's not fear of oh my gosh, they're poor,
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: it's who are these people and they're going to be
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: different than us? When we're building housing for folks living
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: with special needs, it's more about the fear of the people,
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: what are their special needs and how will it impact me?
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: And then in terms of opposition overarching, Right, there's the
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: financial side of people. Here in California and probably throughout
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: the country. Your number one form of wealth creation is
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: through the house that you've purchased, Right, and how will
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: this impact the value of my home is always considered right,
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: And so we have done studies partnering with you see
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: Irvine and other academic institutions to look at does affordable
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: housing reduce the value of your property? And it does not.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: And that's now we have these studies that show that
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: in some cases it can possibly increase the value of
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: your housing. And I would argue in my example in
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: Anaheim where we built the special needs housing there, if
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: you're taking folks off of the streets, that's increase the
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: value of your real estate.
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: Right. The community has got to go through an education process.
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: But it also sounds like you guys have been refining
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: your tools of advocacy for this too, and that has
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: probably helped a lot of the success that you guys
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: are seeing. What is it moving forward for your strategic
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: vision where you want to see yourself Because you guys
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: have had some great success so far.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Where do you see yourself in the next five years decade,
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: however far you want to future cast, what would you
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: like to see yourself and Jamboree doing.
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so looking out five years. We just celebrated our
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: thirty fifth anniversary. So there you know that is always
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: the question. Okay, what does the next five years look like?
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: In affordable housing, parts of it have really gotten more difficult,
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: having more layers of financing added to your property. It
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: just takes more time, It takes more staff, more complexity,
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: and it costs more. Right, each funding source adds a
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: cost that comes along with attorneys and the whole shebang,
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: as I would call it. And so I see it
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: not getting easier from that perspective, from the funding perspective,
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: But I do think in California, actually getting approval four
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: your development is getting easier. Each legislative session here in California,
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: we're seeing thirty forty fifty different housing pieces of legislation
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: pass and signed by the governor that chip away at
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: some of the difficulties, whether it be the California Environmental
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: Quality Acts SEQUA, whether it be allowing by right density
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: around transit remptions, whether it be churches. One of the
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: areas where we have gone out and have been act
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: it was working with churches who have surplus land and
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: would like to have housing built there. And it's a
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: real win for win win for both because sometimes they're
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: seeing a reduced congregation, it can bring some revenue to them.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: So if we can create a shared vision together, we
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: can do some really cool things. Well, we initially had
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: to go through kind of some difficult community meetings and
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: getting the council on board with that, but there was
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: legislation that was passed so that church land can also
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: be used for residential, multi family residential, and so those
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: pieces of legislation are very helpful for us. So in
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: the next five years, I think we'll see it getting
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: easier to build, to get your affordable housing entitlements and
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: get your housing approved, But it doesn't necessar necessarily get
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: you to the building stage, because I think the financing
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: will continue to be a challenge.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: I've heard some people describe the financing complexity like they've
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: called it funding Lasagna, because there's just so many layers
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: and so much complexity of having to package in a way,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: and every time you add in another layer then it
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: introduces more time, you know, more professionals you have to
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: have way in, and more complexity.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: So that's.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: Unfortunate because you're trying to package from multiple sources and
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: utilize multiple sources. But it does inherently bog it down.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: And you know, you've got state agencies who try to
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: help you in that, but every time you add another
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: component and it really pushes the deliverables out even farther.
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: And I don't know that we've solved as an industry.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: We just haven't solved that quite yet because we're so
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: focused on trying to make the deal happen that we're
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: willing to layer it even more.
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: Are you seeing any trending or is this just kind
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: of the rules.
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: Of engagement right now? It's really the rules of engagement
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: right now. I do not see that changing because there's
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: so many pieces that are needed to make the housing affordable.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: The one area that Jambree has one of the tools
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: that we have used successfully since GOSH for the last
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: twenty five years is working with master developers on inclusionary
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: zoning opportunities. So when a city requires a master developer
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: to build a percentage of their development as a affordable
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: or requires them to pay a fee giving them an option.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: We've been successful at partnering with developers, and we just
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: this last year opened up a project in the city
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: of Temecula that came through an inclusionary zoning program. We
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: are seeing more cities look to inclusionary zoning as a
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: tool as defunding drives up. I mean, the nice part
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: about that is you really end up getting, you know,
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: economically diverse communities built together. There's also these rippling spinoff
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: benefits if you're building an affordable development around a high
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: resource area excuse me, where the kids are able to
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: go to high performing schools, right, the families are together
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: with high performing kind of functioning families. There's some real
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: benefits to that. And so I am seeing more cities
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: look at inclusionary zoning and how to put those programs
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: together and be very successful at bringing a new tool
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: into their toolbox.
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: Are there exemptions or waivers that you really really wish
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: you would have in your pocket to speed this along
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: or to provide better cost cost savings for you guys
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: as developers.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: Well, definitely, by right, by right development having overlay zones.
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: Some cities are adopting overlay zones. Okay, if you're developing,
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: you know, an affordable development that's one hundred percent affordable
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: or fifty percent developer are affordable, that there you can
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: move much quicker. I mean, we have two developments that
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: are both open that each one took ten years to
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: develop for a whole variety of reasons, whether it was
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: going through the entitlement process, getting unity support, putting together financing.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: You know, because above all of this is just the
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: general economic elements going on and factors going on right
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: in the country and in the States. So we may
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: think we're controlling for the affordable housing issues, and then
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: you have interest rates run on you, or you have
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: a pandemic hit, or you have supply chain issues, or
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: you have tariffs or whatever is hitting the overall marketplace
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: comes down and hits us also. So but the buy
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: right knowing that if you purchase a piece of land
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: that you can actually build the number of units on
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: it that you if you fit within that is key
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: and that's you know, it's very hard hard for cities
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: to in the past to commit to that, but more
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: and more in California, the housing element process that cities
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: go through it does like they do identify sites, and
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: those sites through that process need to be rezoned in
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: order to keep staying compliance with their housing element. And
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: so that's a real benefit, you know, for us. So
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: that's why I do think that in the next five years,
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: we're going to find more and more opportunity opportunity sites,
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: cities that want to work with us, Communities that come
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: forward and say, we really would like to get these
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: folks who are living on our streets housed and in housing.
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: But it's really now, how can we pay for it
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: is the issue.
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: And you guys are doing it in a way not
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: just how can we pay for it, but you're trying
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: not to sacrifice quality and integration with the community.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Because one of the things I noticed is that.
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: You guys are purposeful about.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: Your design and how your design is trying to impact connection, stability, wellness.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: And you're still trying to do this on budget, which
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: is difficult because the market's moving so much.
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: Speak to though, how important this design piece is for
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: you guys as an entity too. No, it's a great
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: point because you know, some of it is right. We
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: were born out of the city of Irvine, which is
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: a very very thoughtfully you know, planned community, well known
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: throughout the country for being such a planned community and
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: high development standards, and so when we're we just kind
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: of were born with this belief that what we're building
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: should be of the same quality of what's being built
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: in our communities where we're building. And so that's that's
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: what we started. And I would say now, I think
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: that reputation comes with Jamboree. So if a community comes
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: to Jamber and says they want to work with us,
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: they know that that's what they're getting. But there was
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: a time when I'd have cities, maybe out in the
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: Inland Empire, come and say, well, we don't need that
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: Irvine quality here, we don't need Orange County here. But
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: I tell you, once you start working with them and
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: you start doing the drawings, the questions are, well, can
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: do you think we could get this? Do you think
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: we could get a pool in a clubhouse? You think
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: we could get an after school learning tutoring lab, Well, yeah,
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: a ken, let's work.
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: It in right. People do want that, and everyone wants
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: to feel proud befoere they live, right, Everyone wants to
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: feel proud, and it just changes peoples thinking. They see
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: that there's a future for them right, there's no reason
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: to lose hope they're getting in this stable housing. We
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: have some of our residents going back to school right,
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: bettering themselves. We have some of our residents who have
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: moved on and purchased town homes. Right, They've been able
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: to move into their own home over time. It doesn't
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: happen overnight, and again the economics have to work. That
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: happened to be when there's a downturn in the for
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: sale housing market, and some of our residents could jump into.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: It, right.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I think quality is really important. It is
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: absolutely well.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: Laura, I appreciate you sharing what Jamboree Housing Corporation is
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: doing and that your leadership you've given some great national
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: best practices, everything from the veterans to this motel conversion.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: I think that you've given us strategies for housing people
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: to just not accept the status quo. And this is
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: what we're about, bringing change makers messages to a larger platform.
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: So, Laura, I appreciate this. Any other point you want
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: to mention before we close.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: Out, Yeah, thank you, Katie. I would just add I
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: get often asked how can we solve homelessness? My answer
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: is just get people housed. You know, there are other
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: factors that come along with a portion of the population,
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: like services and mental health and addiction issues, but that
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: can only really be successfully done when people have a
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: place to live and a safe place to live. So
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: it really is kind of how we started to my
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: lived experience with my mom. It really is about having
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: a place to live and about housing. Folks. I really
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: thank you for having me on today and appreciate the conversation.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to change Makers with Katie Gore. To
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: find out more about Katie, go to quadel dot com.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: That's quad El dot com. This has been a production
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: of Forbes Books Radio