We are updating the workshop information on an on-going basis. For information on our keynote session, click here. See more information on our conference workshops below:

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Session 1 (9:30am – 10:45am PDT)

Acquisition/Rehabs in the Time of the Coronavirus: Lessons Learned

Workshop track:
Industry Innovation and Housing Development Best Practices

Workshop Audience:
Asset Managers, Attorneys, Developers, Government Staff, Lenders, Project Managers, Property Managers, Resident Services Staff

Description:
Acquisition/Rehabs have many considerations, especially the impact on residents even in the best of times. With shelter in place and COVID-19, it becomes much harder with new health impacts to consider for residents, construction workers and property management staff. Using two recent projects as case studies, the panel will discuss how they are underwriting rehabs, rent collections, eviction moratoriums and how to manage the interactions between residents and property managers, and will share best practices to be able to mediate the long term impacts of COVID-19 and to keep people safe and get the rehab done.

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Moderator:

Lisa Motoyama, Senior Affordable Housing Finance Consultant, Community Economics

Photos of Clare, Lara, and Susan

Panelists:

  • Clare Murphy, Project Developer, Mercy Housing
  • Lara Sao Pedro, Property Supervisor, BRIDGE Housing Corporation
  • Susan Meeks, Senior Underwriter, National Affordable Housing Trust
Advancing Racial Equity Through the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority

Workshop track:
Federal, State, and Local Policy Solutions

Secondary track:
Housing as a Foundation to Racial and Economic Equity and Inclusion

Workshop Audience:
All sectors

Description:
In June of 2020, the Bay Area Housing Finance Agency (BAHFA) was launched equipping the 9-County Bay Area region a new set of powerful financing tools and authorities made possible with the passage in 2019 of AB 1487 (Chiu). BAHFA’s purpose is to raise and deploy funding to develop new affordable housing, preserve existing affordable housing, advance tenant protections; provide technical assistance to local jurisdictions; and generate useful data to inform local housing policies and programs. This workshop will discuss how to position BAHFA to address social and racial disparities in the region’s housing and displacement crisis and imagine a comprehensive regional approach to affordability and equity.

Headshot of Geeta Rao

Moderator:

  • Geeta Rao, Senior Director, Enterprise Community Partners
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Panelists:

  • Tomiquia Moss, Founder & Chief Executive, All Home
  • Kate Hartley, Chief Lending and Investment Officer, Housing Accelerator Fund
  • Daniel Saver, Assistant Director, Housing and Local Planning, Metropolitan Transportation Commission
Advancing Racial Justice and Equity in Community Lending and Investing

Workshop track:
Financing, Rents, and Regulatory Relief

Secondary track:
Housing as a Foundation to Racial and Economic Equity and Inclusion

Workshop Audience:
All sectors

Description:
Community lending and investing is a critical and catalytic component in the production of affordable housing and community development. This panel will focus on changes in community lending and investing as the affordable housing industry is both addressing the immediate and pressing challenges related to racial justice and equity movements and COVID-19. This robust and honest conversation will delve into the ways community lenders and investors have been evaluating lending and investing opportunities to increase racial justice and equity, including how we may be failing or hurting this effort, how this moment intersects with the challenges of community banking during a worldwide pandemic, and what short- and long-term changes to sponsor and project selection, commitments, and underwriting we may see as a result of this examination.

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Moderator:

  • Zorica Stancevic, Director of Training, California Housing Partnership
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Panelists:

  • Lisa Gutierrez, Senior Vice President, U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation
  • John S. Kauh, Senior Vice President, Wells Fargo
  • Sindy Spivak, Market Executive Community Development
    Banking, Bank of America
Recruitment, Retention, Leadership: Driving DEI Change at NPH Member Organizations

Workshop track:
Housing as a Foundation to Racial and Economic Equity and Inclusion

Secondary track:
Non-Profit Operations

Workshop Audience:
All sectors

Description:
NPH membership organizations have made initial and formal commitments to recruit, retain, and promote diversity in their workforce and leadership to better reflect the communities they serve. The COVID-19 pandemic and recent events with race at the forefront have created challenges as well as opportunities for organizations to meet the moment. Working from home has created more flexibility in where positions are located leading to finding more diverse candidates for some, while others have seen a pause in hiring, making retention efforts ever more critical. From executive searches to recruiting for interns, from the initial new hire orientation process to continuously making time and space for staff engagement, find out how being explicit about race and equity can initiate real change. Panelists will share via a fireside chat format their strategies, reflect back on learnings, and challenge the audience to push the conversation on diversity, equity and inclusion even further.

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Moderator:

  • Danielle DeRuiter-Williams, Head of Growth and Expansion, The Justice Collective
speakers for workshop 3

Panelists:

  • Monica Joe, Racial Equity & Inclusion Program Manager, Non Profit Housing of Northern California
  • Steven Yang, Senior Loan Officer, Multifamily Lending & Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lead, Housing Trust Silicon Valley
  • Janice Turner, SVP, Human Resources, Mercy Housing

Session 2 (12:45pm – 2:00pm PDT)

Beyond Checking the Box: Creating Equity through Innovative Community Engagement

Workshop track:
Housing as a Foundation to Racial and Economic Equity and Inclusion

Workshop Audience:
Advocates, Community Organizing Staff, Developers, Project Managers, Resident Services Staff

Description:
Whether your organization is a new or longstanding participant in the neighborhood, community engagement is a key way to connect with your neighbors and foster a healthier, inclusive, and more empowered community. However, the recent calls for racial justice, COVID-19 pandemic, and lack of face-to-face interaction have challenged both our approach to and methods for engaging community leaders. This panel will provide practical tools to foster resident leaders, empower marginalized communities, and strengthen projects and neighborhoods. Honesty, active listening, data collection, storytelling, and online engagement reveal new possibilities. By offering true curiosity and providing an authentic way to engage, we can create truly responsive designs and uplift the diverse voices in the neighborhoods in which we work.

headshot of Daniel Simons

Moderator:

  • Daniel Simons, Principal, David Baker Architects
workshop panelists 5

Panelists:

  • Cristelle Blackford, Civic Makers
  • Annie Ledbury, Chief Engagement Officer, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation
  • Biruk Belay, Landscape Designer / Project Manager, Site Workshop LLC
Challenging our Tax and Financial Regulatory Systems to Advance Racial Justice

Workshop track:
Federal, State, and Local Policy Solutions

Workshop Audience:
All sectors

Description:
How can our affordable housing community expand our collective vision and join efforts to reform federal and state tax policies and financial regulations, using this moment to view through a racial justice lens? Prop 15 on the November ballot provides a chance to generate $12 Billion/year statewide for our local communities and schools from commercial property reassessments. Hear how you can plug into the last few weeks of that campaign. In addition, panelists will explore State issues from millionaire taxes and corporate taxation to Earned Income Tax Credit and Renters Credit, along with federal issues like Community Reinvestment Act, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, revisiting Trump tax reform, and more. Bring your ideas!

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Moderator:
Elissa Dennis, Executive Director, Community Economics

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Panelists:

  • Chris Hoene, Executive Director, California Budget & Policy Center
  • Paulina Gonzalez-Brito, Executive Director, California Reinvestment Coalition
  • Veronica Carrizales, Policy and Campaign Director,  California Calls
COVID-19 Response: Resident Services and Property Management Operations

Workshop track:
Property and Asset Management and Resident Services

Workshop Audience:
Developers, Government Staff, Project Managers, General Contractors, Workforce Training Staff

Description:
As the world continues to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, practices and programs also face an evolution. This workshop will highlight perspectives and best practices in COVID-19 response within property management and resident services with a particular emphasis on health and healthy communities. Panelists will share insights of how organizational and tenant-facing programs have adapted to balance continued service to our resident communities while maintaining health and safety protocols.

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Moderator:

  • Alysyn Martinez, Healthy Food Access Manager,  First Community Housing
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Panelists:

  • Jo Anna Iruegas, Regional Portfolio Manager, FPI Management
  • Laura Sandoval, Director of Programs, PATH
  • Alysyn Martinez, Healthy Food Access Manager,  First Community Housing
Racial Equity in Faith-Based Development

Workshop track:
Federal, State, and Local Policy Solutions

Secondary track:
Housing as a Foundation to Racial and Economic Equity and Inclusion

Workshop Audience:
Advocates, Attorneys, Community Organizing Staff, Developers, Government Staff, Lenders, Project Managers

Description:
The Alameda County Housing Development Capacity Building Program, a program managed by LISC, centers racial equity in joint venture partnerships between affordable housing development and faith-based organizations. This workshop will share best practices and lessons learned from the program model as well as highlight the perspectives of a diverse cross section of the program participants (a participating church, a development consultant, a strategic advisor to the program, and a funder). Ultimately, the workshop serves as a call to action to the developer community to think critically about how to partner with faith-based organizations in a way that does not reinforce a history of exploitation of churches, but rather centers the assets of these community anchor institutions in the development process.

Laurel Engbretson portrait

Moderator:

  • Laurel Engbretson, Program Officer, LISC Bay Area | Local Initiatives Support Corporation
charmaine, myles chambers, paul and rochelle speakers

Panelists:

  • Charmaine Curtis, Principal, Curtis Development
  • Pastor Paul Bains, President/Co-Founder, WeHOPE and United HOPE Builders
  • Pastor Rochelle Frazier, Pastor,  South Hayward United Methodist Church
  • Michelle Myles Chambers, FAITHS Program Officer, San Francisco Foundation

Session 3 (2:20pm – 3:35pm PDT)

Short-Comings of Race Neutrality in Policies

Workshop track:
Federal, State, and Local Policy Solutions

Secondary track:
Housing as a Foundation to Racial and Economic Equity and Inclusion

Workshop Audience:
All sectors

Description:
Race-neutrality in a racialized society such as the United States is a myth, including in the realm of affordable housing. To assume otherwise is to ignore the fact that intergenerational impacts of structural and cultural housing discrimination still exists. To ignore the intergenerational impacts of structural and cultural housing discrimination is to disregard the root of racial inequity in housing accessibility, undermining the potential success of housing equity policies. In this workshop, panelists will discuss the existence, or lack thereof, of race consciousness in rural and urban housing policies that shape their work. Speakers will address both the limitations and potential of creating and advancing race-conscious solutions.

Moderator Erin Lapeyrolerie

Moderator:

  • Erin Lapeyrolerie, Attorney, Goldfarb & Lipman LLP
panelists for workshop 2

Panelists:

  • Mark Stivers, Director of Advocacy, California Housing Partnership
  • Karoleen Feng, Director of Community Real Estate, Mission Economic Development Agency
  • Gloria Bruce, Executive Director, East Bay Housing Organizations
Housing During a Pandemic: CA and Federal Responses to COVID-19

Workshop track:
Federal, State, and Local Policy Solutions

Secondary track:
Financing, Rents, and Regulatory Relief

Workshop Audience:
All sectors

Description:
This workshop will describe the federal responses to COVID including an overview of the housing provisions in the CARES Act, HEROES, and infrastructure legislation, the FY 2021 HUD funding levels, LIHTC improvements, and CRA regulatory reform. We will then overlay that with what happened here in California in terms of legislation passed (or not), regulatory changes in response to the pandemic, and prospects for continuing to make progress during the fall of 2020 and potential legislation for 2021.

headshot of Pedro Galvao

Moderator:

  • Pedro Galvao, Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California
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Panelists:

  • Matt Schwartz, President & CEO, California Housing Partnership
  • Sarah Saadian, Vice President of Public Policy, National Low Income Housing Coalition
  • Francisco Dueñas,  Executive Director, Housing Now! CA
  • Peter Lawrence, Director, Public Policy & Government Relations, Novogradac
Achieving Equity Impact through Construction Contracts

Workshop track:
Industry Innovation and Housing Development Best Practices

Secondary track:
Housing as a Foundation to Racial and Economic Equity and Inclusion

Workshop Audience:
Advocates, Community Organizing Staff, Project Managers, Property Managers, Resident Services Staff

Description:
The purchasing power of affordable housing development presents an opportunity to increase the hiring of businesses owned and staffed by Black, Indigenous and People of Color; thus achieving better equity outcomes in our communities. Presenters will share best practices, policies, and opportunities to get even better results through contracting and workforce development, and their organizations’ journeys to get there. Participants will have a chance to share questions, ideas, challenges, and connect with peers at other agencies interested in helping the affordable housing field to have a greater equity impact in our communities. This workshop hopes to inspire interest in a new regional working group on equity in contracting.

headshot of Alicia Klein

Moderator:

  • Alicia Klein, Associate Director of Real Estate Development, Resources for Community Development
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Panelists:

  • Bernida Reagan, Director of Community & Client Relations, Merriweather & Williams
  • Katie Lamont,  Senior Director of Housing Development, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation
  • Lillian Lew-Hailer, Vice President of Housing Development, MidPen Housing
Seize the Narrative: Educate, Agitate, and Mobilize for Policy Wins

Workshop track:
Housing as a Foundation to Racial and Economic Equity and Inclusion

Secondary track:
Federal, State, and Local Policy Solutions

Workshop Audience:
Advocates, Community Organizing Staff, Government Staff, Resident Services Staff

Description:
New message research offers exciting opportunities to drive a new narrative across the Bay Area that educates, agitates, and mobilizes the public in support of housing and racial justice — for our affordable housing projects, campaigns, and movement. Join Bay Area communications and organizing staff to dig in on what narrative shift means for our work, discuss Bay Area-specific research findings and recommendations, and review practical application and opportunities ahead.

headshot of Alina Harway

Moderator:

  • Alina Harway, Communications Director, NPH
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Panelists:

  • Catherine Bracy, Founder and Executive Director, Tech Equity
  • Debra Ballinger McManus, Executive Director, Monument Impact
  • Ryan Nicole Austin, HAVEN Project Manager & Development Associate,  EastSide Arts Alliance