The author. Source: Walter Maynard.
Editor’s note: If housing has been a tool of oppression and segregation, it can also be a force of empowerment and belonging. This Black History Month, we highlight local Black leaders and their journeys to Housing For All.
I am the Director of Property & Asset Management at West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation (WHCHC), and I am an expert in urban residential and retail real estate development and management. I began my real estate career in high-end retail, working as a financial analyst for Westfield and other developers. I would later move into asset management, managing the Gucci Building on Rodeo Drive (Beverly Hills), the Banana Republic Building on Beverly Drive (Beverly Hills), two shopping centers in Maui, and the Ann Taylor on Post Street (Union Square San Francisco). All in all, I was involved with $4 billion in real estate acquisitions covering over 30 million square feet.
I was first introduced to affordable housing as an MBA student at the USC Marshall School of Business. One of my affordable housing instructors was the now 15th President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Raphael Bostic. After graduation, I was eager to put my knowledge in low income affordable and public housing to use, and took a job serving as the Manager of the Asset Management Departmentthe Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. There, I oversaw a portfolio composed of residential communities ranging anywhere from two (2) to over 250 units. This portfolio included properties HACLA had acquired and managed, along with various public/private redevelopment projects in the City of Los Angeles, where HACLA had oversight of various real estate developer property operations. These communities serve low income families all across LA, and provide valuable resident service programs that enrich their lives.
I left HACLA in 2012 to serve as the Executive Vice President at TELACU Residential/Property Management (TRM/TPM). TELACU was established in 1968 and chartered as a Community Development Corporation (CDC). CDC’s are nonprofit organizations that specialize in real estate development, and TELACU is a unique CDC, in that it operates a family of for-profit businesses that help sustain the parent organization’s charitable activities, enhance communities, and positively impact people’s lives. The majority of TELACU’s portfolio is Senior Affordable Housing. TELACU used the HUD 202 program to build its portfolio that, unfortunately, was negatively impacted by sequestration and federal funding cutbacks for new building production, resulting in TELACU not pursuing additional development. I missed having a growing portfolio of newly built properties and contributing to the needed affordable housing production to catch up to the overwhelming demand for more of it.
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Source: Walter Maynard.
I ultimately joined the West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation (WHCHC) as the Director of Asset Management in 2017, a position I still hold today. I am responsible for the long-term health of the physical assets, i.e., buildings, their compliance requirements, and oversight of the portfolio’s property management company. Looking back at my career, I have overseen over 6,000 tax credit, project-based Section 8, Section 8, and market rate housing units.
Since childhood, my parents instilled in me a desire to help the disadvantaged by volunteering time with various nonprofit organization efforts. My volunteer experience encouraged me to pursue activities on a full time basis which harmonized with my love of real estate. For my undergraduate study, I majored in Economics and minored in Environmental Chemistry and Philosophy at UC San Diego. I was fortunate to learn from economist Walter P. Heller, in a program that included 2003 Nobel Prize laureates in Economics, Professors Robert F. Engle and Clive Granger.
As a minority, specifically Black leader in housing, I am intentional in seeking opportunities to elevate my impact and uplift other minority voices in housing. I am the Co-Chair of the Urban Land Institute Technical Assistance Panel and an advisory member to the Los Angeles Real Estate Associate Program (REAP-LA), which is a market-driven program that serves as a bridge between talented minority professionals and commercial real estate companies looking for talent. I also served on the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority Citizens Advisory Committee.
Back at TELACU, I was first introduced to concepts like a double bottom line–profitability that is inseparable from social impact. The combination of my educational background and family upbringing, the exposure to a model based upon the concept that there is no more viable business venture than one that is founded based on economic stability, is a community asset, and makes a positive impact on people’s lives, shaped my approach to affordable housing asset management. Today I continue to build upon these concepts at WHCHC, with values of quality and integrity, where the mission is “building homes and providing services that move community members from insecurity to stability.”
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