Securing Our Future: Pathways to Affordable Housing And Stability – ep.150

This week I want to share Part 1 of an insightful webinar hosted by the Tracy Area Alumnae Chapter (TAAC) of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated and the NAACP Stockton Branch. The webinar entitled Securing Our Future – Pathways to Affordable Housing and Stability. The webinar kicks off with brief greetings from TAAC President Liz Baker and NAACP Stockton Branch President Robert “Bobby” Bivens. Moderated by the NAACP Stockton Branch Housing Chair D’Adrea Davie and including the esteemed panel Sereno Realtor Kimberly Nash, Former Tracy City Council Member and Candidate for State Assembly Rhodesia Ransom, and San Joaquin Housing Authority Commissioner Lester Patrick. The group discusses affordable housing strategies and solutions to achieve housing stability. Great information!

Melyssa Barrett:  Welcome to the Jali Podcast. I’m your host, Melyssa Barrett. This podcast is for those who are interested in the conversation around equity, diversity, and inclusion. Each week I’ll be interviewing a guest who has something special to share or is actively part of building solutions in the space. Let’s get started. Welcome to the Jali Podcast where we amplify voices, stories and insights that shape communities and drive change. I’m your host Melyssa Barrett, and today’s episode is part one of an exciting conversation you won’t want to miss. We’re highlighting a recent webinar entitled Securing Our Future Pathways to Affordable Housing and Stability. It was hosted by the Tracy Area alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated and the N-A-A-C-P Stockton Branch. This powerful event featured experts like D’Adrea Davie, Lester Patrick, Rhodesia Ransom, and Kimberly Nash, who shared valuable insights into how we can impact housing policy, access resources and secure economic stability for ourselves and our communities. Whether you’re interested in policy change, affordable housing, or simply improving your financial future, this conversation is packed with actionable information that can empower you. Let’s dive into part one of this impactful discussion. Thank you all for joining. So let me introduce our president of Tracy Area alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated to provide our welcome.

Liz Baker:  It is a pleasure to be with all of you this afternoon. Thank you to all of the great speakers who are on today’s agenda to give us some great information on affordable housing. My name is Liz Baker. I’m the chapter president for Tracy Area alumni chapter of Delta Sign Theta Sorority Incorporated, and we are just excited to be able to host this event with so many of our great partners who are on the front lines with us as we really try to level the playing field for African-Americans and their ability to even have the resources and tools to have affordable housing. And just a little bit about Delta Sigma Theta. We were founded on January 13th, 1913 on the campus of Howard University by 22 phenomenal women who really wanted to do some things differently in the community. Their first act was to march in the women’s suffrage march in Washington dc And from that political action or social action activity, we’ve gone on to have other what we call programmatic thrust that we also encourage and have activities in one being economic development, which is what this program would fall under.

We have many programs under educational development working with youth, as well as giving out scholarships to our high school, graduating seniors. We have quite a bit of work being done in the physical and mental health space partnering with organizations such as HPSJ and other health centers throughout San Joaquin County and beyond, even in Stanislaus. That covers our service area as well as international awareness and involvement. So we have a very broad range of activities and programs that we are involved in. And this, again, today’s event is really under our economic development and is long overdue as we know that our community is really suffering from affordable housing, even from the rental space as well as even affordability for their own homes. So we thank you again for your time today. We hope that you’ll learn lots of things today, and we just want to thank again all of the speakers who agree to be with us this afternoon. Thanks again.

Melyssa Barrett:  Thank you. And Mr. President Bivens of the N-A-A-C-P,

Robert Bivens:  Good afternoon and hope everybody’s enjoying this nice school noon hour because it’s going to get very hot. But thank you for inviting me to participate and for the NACP to be a partner in this endeavor. And of course, our first vice president, Dria Davy, is going to enlighten you all to a level that you can’t even imagine. But that’s the good news and the great news. The NACP advocates in many, many areas, housing being one of the primary areas in economic development is a separate effort on our behalf. But I’m happy to see the Deltas doing this event is very much needed and we can’t get the information out there too much. And I know that Lessler is deep into the public side of it, and so thus it’s going to be a good program. I plan on staying the whole time and get enlightened myself. So thank you on the behalf of the Stockton branch, N-A-A-C-P that covers San Joaquin County for inviting us to participate and be here this afternoon.

Melyssa Barrett:  Thank you so much. I am Melyssa Barrett and I am the Economic Development Committee chair and we are just excited to have you all here to join us and I just appreciate the committee and all that they have done to kind of pull this together and even some of my other Soros as well. Many thanks to our partners and esteemed guests for joining. And as we navigate the complexities of housing insecurity, it’s really essential that we work together to find sustainable solutions that uplift and empower our communities. So today’s discussion will shed light on opportunities, resources, strategies to secure our future through affordable housing and stability. So we’re honored to bring these phenomenal experts who are passionate about creating pathways to equity and resilience, ensuring every family has a place to call home. So let’s engage, learn, and collaborate for a lasting change. And I have the pleasure of introducing, just giving you a few short brief nuggets about the power of the speakers that we have on the call and I would encourage you to look them up, research them because they are phenomenal.

So first up, we are going, let me introduce you to Lester Patrick, who is a commissioner of the Housing Authority of the County of San Joaquin. He is a member of the California Association of Housing Authorities covering all housing authorities throughout California and a current member of the board of the Pacific Southwest Regional Council of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials covering the states of California, Nevada, Oregon, Arizona, and Hawaii. He is also an author of a book called Weak Start, unapologetic Present, and a new one called Inspirational Moments Open and Meaningful Conversations with God. We will also have Rhodesia Ransom, who is a former city council member for the city of Tracy. She is the candidate for state assembly and has worked in a variety of appointed positions in the community. So many, I probably can’t even count, including the San Joaquin County Civil Grand Jury, the Planning Commission, and she was a founding member of the Tracy Community Homelessness Task Force.

Kimberly Nash is a licensed realtor since 2002, brings over two decades of experience and specializes in down payment assistance programs at the city, county, and state levels. She also works closely with home ownership initiatives, helping clients break through financial barriers and secure long-term financial stability through home ownership and Deidre Davey. Last but not least for certain, with nearly two decades of experience, Deidre Davey has guided clients in buying, selling, and investing in real estate across Central Valley. And as a former planning commissioner for the City of Stockton, her knowledge of land use and zoning has enhanced her ability to assist clients with their real estate needs. She’s also served as the chair for the City of Stockton Community Development and Charter Review Committee. She is currently the first vice president of the N-A-A-C-P Stockton Branch and the housing committee chairperson for the California Hawaii N-A-A-C-P State Conference and a board member for the National Association for Real Estate Brokers narab, which is the premier network for black real estate professionals. So with that, I just want to say thank you to all of our speakers for coming and I will turn it over to our moderator, D’Adrea Davie.

D’Adrea Davie:  Thank you Melissa, and thank you for the invitation for today’s conversation and good afternoon and welcome everyone to today’s discussion on securing our future pathways to affordable housing and stability. Again, my name is Dera Davey and it is my honor to serve as your moderator for this important conversation. In addition to my role today, I also have the privilege of serving as the first vice president, as you heard, with NACP Stockton Branch and the housing Committee chair for the State of California and a CP where we are deeply committed to advocating for policies that address housing equity, affordability and stability across our state and beyond. This discussion today is an opportunity to engage our experts and policymakers who are working on the front lines of housing challenges. We will discuss the current landscape of housing, the policy shaping it, and the resources that are available in our development to help ensure affordable housing becomes a reality for more individuals and families.

In California, we find ourselves at a crossroads when it comes to housing. The affordability crisis has left many community struggling with high rents, housing shortages, and rising homelessness. The California Hawaii NACP has taken positions on two key ballot propositions that will significantly impact the future of housing in our state. So the first is Proposition five, the California Hawaii A CP supports a yes vote on this proposition. Proposition five seeks to lower the vote threshold required to pass local bond measures for housing projects and public infrastructure from 66.67% to 55%. By lowering this threshold, we can more easily fund housing initiatives and infrastructure projects that are critical to building affordable homes and supporting our communities. This change will allow more flexibility in securing resources to address the housing crisis. On the other hand, we urge a no vote for Proposition 33. This measure proposes to the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which currently prohibits rent control on single family homes and homes built after February 1st, 1995.

While rent control may seem like a quick fix for housing affordability, repealing the cost of Hawkins could have unintended consequences, it could discourage new housing construction and further exacerbate the housing supply shortage, making it harder for people to find housing or affordable housing. So our goal today is to engage in a deep conversation on housing, equipping attendees with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions when evaluating candidates propositions and their housing policies. We need innovative and sustainable solutions that ensure housing is not only affordable but also accessible to all. So again, thank you for joining us today and I look forward to a productive and insightful conversation. So let’s get started. We are going to start with Mr. Lester Patrick who brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to today’s discussion. Mr. Patrick will provide valuable insights on the housing resources available in San Joaquin County, the current state of housing and the role the housing authority has. He will also touch on critical topics such as rental assistance and other important information for both tenants and landlords. Please join me in welcoming Mr. Lester. Patrick.

Lester Patrick:  Thank you. Good afternoon everybody. My name is Lester Patrick and I am excited about being here today to say the least. First of all, I’d like to compliment the Deltas for this project that you have put together to share this information. It’s so important. And also the N-A-A-C-P-I would like if I could do a high level overview of what we do at the housing Authority, some of the projects rather that we have done some of the things that we are we have on the planning board that we’re going to be doing or we are in process of doing, I should say. And also some of the reasons for homelessness and who’s impacted. First of all, we are the House of Authority of the county of San Joaquin and we consist of seven commissioners, an executive officer, general counsel and staff. We’ve been around for 82 years and we support countywide roughly 19,000 residents throughout this San Joaquin County.

We also have a budget operating budget of over $92 million and we own and manage 986 public housing units and we have some multifamily affordable units where we’ve used low income housing tax credits. We also have permanent supportive housing that are non low income housing tax credit projects. We have a broad accumulation of resources, housing resources such as 17 market rate housing units. We have 31 year round farm labor housing units and 288 seasonal agricultural migrant housing units. We also administer a housing choice voucher program whereby we are currently administering 5,495 housing choice vouchers of different types. We are authorized body housing and the Urban Development Act of 1933 and we yearly have to enter into a consolidated annual contribution contract with hud. And this contract basically allows us to agree that we’re going to apply with HUDs regulations, its policies, its guidelines, and administering HUD programs by that contract.

It gives HUDs the ability to monitor our performance in a number of ways and a number of areas such as our adherence to the Fair Housing Act, the housing opportunity without regards to race, color, religion, sex, national origin and so forth. And it also allows HUD to do assessments and audit to ensure that we’re effectively managing the federal funds that have been allocated to us. And just to make a last comment about hud, they also monitor roughly 3,350 authorities across the country. One of the things that I want to share is that the fact that we are a member as a housing authority, we’re a member of the National Association of Housing Redevelopment Officials and it’s commonly called nara. And NARA is the leading housing community development advocate for affordable housing. It was there from day one. It drafts bills. We do a lot of advocacy.

NARA is broken up into regional areas. We happen to be in the Pacific Southwest Regional Council or the region rather. And we are the Pacific Southwest Regional Council. I’m a board member of the Pacific Southwest Regional Council of California, Nevada, Oregon, Arizona, and Hawaii. We are also a member of the California Association of Housing Authorities and called kaha. And KAHA is consists of all of the housing authorities from across California 395 households are represented by kaha. When we say households, we can be talking about two to six or maybe eight members of a given household. And then we’re also a member of the Public Housing Authority Directors Association, which consists rather of primarily cos and other managerial people associated with housing, some 1900 member housing agencies representing over 1.9 million low income housing units throughout the United States.

I want to talk now about some of the public and subsidized housing programs won’t go, we won’t go into any depth, but I want to introduce to you some of the things that we do in that area. First of all, as part of our goals, we’re here to ensure that low income people have safe and secure housing. Congress has not been authorizing the same amount of funds that they had done in the past. And as a result of that back in mid 1980s, there was a law that was passed that authorized low income housing tax credit and that allows housing authorities to work somewhat out of the box. In the past, we were referred to as a housing projects and all of the resources came from hud, but today we’re able to set up partnerships with private investors and build housing, low income housing and Congress has stipulated that these houses or these projects that build these low income housing have to be available to low income renters over a course of 30 to 40 years depending on what is negotiated between the housing authority and the other investors.

Or we also support a home ownership program, multiple home ownership programs, one of them being a home ownership voucher program and these obviously are ways to allow low income people to purchase home. So we’re able to allocate a certain number of vouchers. I’m not sure exactly how many we have now, but we have been involved in this program in the past and we’re currently involved in it. And then there’s also the mortgage loan insurance homeownership program that we implement whereby we encourage or we negotiate with mortgage insurers to reduce or eliminate mortgage insurance. There’s also the down payment assistance, which one of the major hindrances of purchasing a house is the down payment and most low income people or many low income people don’t have a down payment. So this down payment assistance program gives grants and loans for that purpose. One of the things that we always want to ensure that doesn’t happen is that homeowners don’t become homeless.

And in relation to that, what we offer is a home buyer education and counseling program to help people who might have problems staying in their houses to remain there. Then there’s also the Section eight project-based rental assistance that we provide. One of the other public and subsidized housing programs that we’re involved with is the moderate rehabilitation program whereby the housing authority partners with landlords to not rebuild but renovate properties to meet the standards of the housing authority. And once that’s done, we provide rent subsidy. And I said earlier we manage a voucher program with multiple types of vouchers, the most commonly one being the housing choice voucher program, which is the section eight, but we also administered emergency voucher programs that were very popular. For example, during the COVID-19 period, there’s a Project-based voucher program, which some might be familiar with, but this is really an important voucher program because unlike the other voucher programs, this voucher does not move with the individual.

It’s associated with the building or the project that’s been built or the rental house that’s been rented. So if a person leaves, then that project-based voucher is still active. Then of course there’s veteran Assistance services and we do a lot of things in working in conjunction with the VA to support veterans at the housing authority. We are very, very interested in not only building low income housing, but we want to do as much as we possibly can to prepare people to move out of low income housing. We have self-sufficiency, which means services. One of them is section three, the section three program that allows people who are part of the housing authority or part or currently taking advantage of the program, that housing authority office as well as businesses from the area that are located in areas where housing authorities are found to be part of the process and to benefit.

So it encourages employment and business in general. There is a family self-sufficiency program that allows the housing authority to work with various community partners to do things like help people who are living in low income housing to gain employment. For example, we have roughly 40 vendors who businesses who work with the housing authority. Currently in this program people are trained, people get jobs and in some cases they are able to move out of the housing authorities. One program that’s not included here, well, I’ll talk about that later. Then there’s a supportive housing programs that I mentioned earlier down payment assistance programs, supportive housing for individuals with disabilities particularly there’s a special program for example for AIDS victims, partnerships with service providers such as healthcare organizations, mental health agencies, substance abuse treatment centers, community-based organizations, and a host of others and hopefully as time permit I will talk about some of those.

We know that homelessness is a major problem here in San Joaquin County and across the country, and I know homelessness is going to be talked about in a second. So I just want to emphasize two things and why do people become homeless in San Joaquin County? Obviously the high cost of rent and a lack of enough affordable housing, but who are those who are most affected by it? And usually it’s the mentally ill, the working poor veterans, people suffering from PTSD. But the housing authority also has and participate in homeless programs with partnerships to support transitional housing programs, emergency shelters by way of emergency shelter grants. There’s also a home buyer education and counseling, and that might be a repeat. We are currently in the process of implementing multiple projects across the county. The first one shown here is Danny Drive here in Stockton, whereby we are going to build 110 units in two phases and another one a French camp VA surplus built on VA surplus land whereby we’re going to build 232 units and then a senior living development in Lodi, and that’s going to yield basically 110 units in two phases.

And Sierra Vista, everybody’s familiar with Sierra Vista. Well, we’re going to do a phase three in Yosemite Senior living in Mante or cavi quarter. If I could just, I’ll wrap it up in 30 seconds, but I want to make a special comment about this cavi quarters we’re going to be opening very soon. One of the most vulnerable group of people to become homeless are young people who age out of foster care. This project is built for them. And so this is the old Motel six and it’s going to give, I think 169 units and we have about eight different organizations that’s going to be working with them. It’s going to be opening very, very soon. So it’ll provide permanent housing for that group of people and hopefully we’ll be able to do more of that. And then of course there’s Park Center that’s downtown. We’re working in conjunction with mental health services and I’m going to go ahead and wrap it up from there. Thank you.

D’Adrea Davie:  Thank you so much Mr. Patrick for that insightful presentation and also those examples of the affordable housing projects that are in the works.

Before I move on, I wanted to just also touch on just a brief update of the homeless situation across the San Joaquin County. So according to the 2024 point in time count, we currently have 1,254 sheltered individuals and 3,469 unsheltered individuals. Several cities in the region have been actively working on solutions to address this crisis, which Mr. Patrick actually touched on a couple of the projects that I was going to mention. So I will not repeat that, but it’s important to know that there’s projects in the city of Stockton, Lodi, the city of Tracy Manteca, and they’re not all by San Joaquin County Housing Authority. Some of them are private individuals as well, but there are projects that are in place to help provide shelter for our unhoused population. And I would say if your city is not doing projects, if it’s not one of those cities I mentioned, then that’s definitely a conversation that needs to occur with the leaders of those cities.

So now it is my pleasure to introduce our next speaker, which is Mrs. Rhodesia Ransom, a leader with deep experience in both policy development and community service Today. She’ll be speaking about the state of housing policy, what’s working, what isn’t, and the impact on our unhoused population and Rhodesia, if you can also touch a little bit on what a housing element is. I know that that’s your thing. So if you can just give us a little bit about that and then we can have further conversations from there. And then I’ll also say too is we will provide opportunity for four questions. If you have any questions, feel free to put ’em in the chat or later on you’ll have the opportunity to ask the questions yourself. Okay? So please join me in welcoming Mrs. Rodia Ransom.

Rhodesia Ransom:  Good afternoon. Thank you so much for the introduction. Thank you for the presentations that we’ve seen thus far. I really appreciate being here because I definitely intersect with all of the different folks. I’m a member of 25 year member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, who’s our host. Thank you for hosting. I’ve also been a licensed real estate broker for over 20 years. Had the opportunity to serve not only on the city council, but also on a planning commission. And my message today is really going to be about how we work with our local government and hold people to what is necessary to create housing affordability and how we really need to pay attention to policies as well as ballot propositions and engage in a way that makes sure that we are creating more opportunity, not stifling opportunity. So one of the things I want to start off by talking about is just really how we can work with the community.

There’s so much. We have a housing crisis. It’s not just the state of California, it’s not even just national. It’s an international housing crisis. And we really have to do our part to ensure that we are creating an environment that creates housing at all levels. Anyone who’s watched me when I was a city council member as well as a planning commissioner, I would always vote no against certifying our City of Tracy’s housing element. And the reason for that is because by state law, you are supposed to have a plan that actually looks at every level of needed housing, not just market rate housing for folks like some of us on this call who maybe have moved from different areas and can pay a little bit more than the people who live here previously. We also want to make sure that we’re not pushing people out of our community, whether it be seniors.

We also want to look at our young people. I have three adult children and we want to make sure that our children who go to school grow up, do all the things, can move back to their community. And so it’s really important that we look at what’s happening on our councils and on our planning commissions. The housing element is supposed to secure housing at every level, and oftentimes we are not doing that. We’re only relying on our real estate developers, which we do need our real estate developers, but we cannot just rely on them to build housing because they have to build to their bottom line and you cannot be upset with them for the fact that their businesses. We have to also work with places like our housing authority. I was able to work with Mr. Peter Ragsdale, who was the executive director of the San Joaquin County Housing Authority and look at ways that we can actually provide that threshold of lower income housing as well as housing that will keep people from homelessness.

There’s people who are on the brink of homelessness. Yes, we have substance users. Yes, we have people who have mental illness and then we just have poor people. So we need to see what we can do to provide those social housing opportunities. And so here in Tracy, we were able to have conversations about infill projects and the fact that we can modernize our social housing and add more social housing. Believe it or not, I had people protesting because we were going to add more low income housing and Mr. Ragsdale was actually willing to put a community center in that social housing so that folks who are low income can have safe places to keep their kids safe. But unfortunately, there’s a knot in my backyard mentality that we have to fight within our communities and folks protested because we were going to not only increase low income housing through the housing authority, but also and provide them with a community center.

We cannot just put the housing requirements, the needs that we have on one group or another. We can’t just put it on developers. We also need to make sure that we’re reaching out to our legislators and creating a positive atmosphere. So when you’re looking at your current propositions, thank you Ms. Davy for bringing that up. Prop 33 is one that we really have to watch out for because when we talk about things like rent control, we have to think about how that impacts people as individuals. It is not our job to provide social housing for everyone. And how many times do we tell, especially African-American people that go ahead and become a homeowner and build your wealth. So you can send your kids to school, you can build your equity, you can do all of those things. Well, it’s not right for us to tell people that you’ve made this investment for your family and now you may not even be able to pay your mortgage because we have all of these things that the government is requiring you to do.

So it’s going to be really important. That’s why I’m looking to go to the state legislator. What I’m looking to do is to work with people to say, what can we do to create more opportunities? How do we bring back a redevelopment opportunity? We used to have things where the government would provide opportunities for communities to be able to make those investments, to create opportunities at every level. When we look at social housing, and when I say social housing, people like to say, oh, well, you’re talking about bringing back projects. I’m not talking about projects. We can have very nice low income housing. You can call it whatever you want, but we want to make sure that people have access to housing at every level if we’re going to ask our developers to do something. What I was able to get done in the city of Tracy, myself and a couple of other folks, had to fight the not in my backyard people to create the first affordable housing project in over 50 years in our city.

We had to work with our developers and say, can you please, in your market rate project, can you carve out a piece of this project for people who cannot afford the market rate? And so those are the type of collaborations that we need more of, working more with folks to say, Hey, we understand it’s expensive for you to build, but we really, if you’re going to be building in our community, please make sure that you keep other folks in mind because we cannot keep pushing people to the side. We also need leaders who are going to be collaborative with our governor. You might’ve saw yesterday that there was a huge allocation for counties to deal with homelessness, but San Joaquin County was not on the list. How is the 13th largest county in the state of California not on the list to fight homelessness? And so what’s recently happened is there was a court decision that we now can go back to arresting people for being homeless and criminalizing homelessness.

And so what we have to do is make sure that we are fighting for those resources for our community so that we are not having to criminalize people. Just because you can does not mean you should. It’s not a good use of our criminal justice system to pick up people who really are not well, whether they’re mentally ill or are substance users or just poor. It’s not okay to just pick them up and have nowhere to take them because they’re returning back and it’s a cycle that’s not being helpful. So we really have to make sure that we are bringing those things to both our city council, to our county supervisors, and then making sure that we have the ear of the people in Sacramento to say, we want funding for that. And not only do we want funding for it, we need to track the funding.

Those of you who may have been paying attention might be appalled that there is no accountability for billions of dollars that has been spent on the issue of homelessness. And so we really need to know how these dollars are being spent and where things are being effective so we can invest in things that are effective as opposed to just throwing money at a problem and thinking that it’s going to be solved because that’s just not how things work. So I appreciate us for coming together to have this conversation. I really implore and just ask, and really, I just really want to ask people, get involved in your local government, go to a planning commission meeting, ask about your housing element. Ask Well, how much housing do you have planned for low income for very low income? Those are very important questions. And you really, when you see that on the agenda, you need to make sure you’re in those meetings and in the audience holding your councils and holding them accountable. Same thing with your board of supervisors. What are they doing with money that they’re getting from the state? What are we doing with tax credits? How can we work with our housing authority? We have to, this is not one person’s problem and it’s definitely not private individual’s problem to be able to solve. So we have to work together to create a community and an environment that will have housing for all. So I hope that was helpful. Thank you so much.

D’Adrea Davie:  No, that was wonderful. And we definitely need to continue that conversation on how people need to be more engaged when it comes to being at the planning commission meetings because those are just as important as you attending your city council meetings. And a lot of times, if I must say, a lot of your city council members are not aware of a housing element, what’s inside of it, how to hold the city accountable to what is inside of the housing element. So for a person like Rhodesia who has been in city council, been a planning commissioner, that is a true skill and information that a lot of our city councils do not have. And I always say, if you’re going to be a city council, you should definitely have served on the commission for your planning department. Did you want to say something else, rod?

Rhodesia Ransom:  I was going to say I wholeheartedly agree with that. Looking at every level of government and now going into the state, this is a level of education that you cannot buy. It’s very important that not only are you learning about the housing element, you’re learning how to build healthy communities in ways that look out for things like our environmental impacts. What kind of air are we building homes next to? How are we actually building a safe community? It is the best education. If you ever have an opportunity, please do apply to be a decision maker on your planning commission, planning commission and weigh in. But definitely anybody who’s going to serve in a public office and make decisions about a community best education ever. And Deidre was also a planning cur chair.

Lester Patrick:  Could I also piggyback on what you just said? I could not agree more. We have to be more involved. The housing authority, for example, we’re going to do what we can do with the resources that we get. But at the same time, and that’s one of the reasons that I wanted to, I know my slides were very, very full, but I wanted to make sure that there is some understanding of all of these different things that are out there because people need to come to the meetings and ask for some of these things. We can do what we plan to do, but working together, we can do a lot more.

D’Adrea Davie:  Absolutely. I agree wholeheartedly. So thank you Rhodesia for your valuable information and insight. Before we move to our next speaker, I just want to highlight some important home ownership data. In 2023, California’s home ownership rate reached 55.8%. The highest has been in 13 years. However, this rate remains low compared to other states, largely due to the state’s housing shortage. California has been building fewer homes than needed for decades, which contributes to the high cost of housing. There’s an organization that’s called the National Association of Real Estate Brokers that advocate for black real estate professionals and black homeowners. And their whole thing is fighting for democracy and housing. So they are currently raising the concern about the potential impact of the recent National Association estate, excuse me, the National Association of Realtors settlement. The settlement alters the commission structure in real estate transactions requiring home buyers to pay their agents’ fees directly. While this change aims to introduce fairness, it may disproportionately affect black families and individuals already facing barriers to home ownership. Now we are going to move forward and I’m going to introduce Ms. Kimberly Nash, a highly experienced realtor with over two decades of expertise in the real estate industry today. She will discuss the current state of the real estate market and share valuable insights on how down payment assistance programs can help make homeownership more accessible. So please join me in welcoming Ms. Kimberly Nash.

Kimberly Nash:  Hi. Thank you so much for the invite here. And before I start, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated and in a CP for putting on this organization such important topics to talk about. So just starting off, overview of the current housing market. What’s going on today? So there’s been a shift in the last couple months or actually the last month where rates have dropped, which it’s a good thing because it has allowed for more buyers to enter back into the market when rates are at 7%, six and a half to 7% buyers that were previously approved had to exit the market because of our current housing pricing. It made it difficult when interest rates increased for a lot of buyers to the market. And so with the current interest rate drop, it has allowed for more buyers to enter into the market, and that is a good thing.

They’re not down to where to the three and four percents, but it has helped. So our current inventory, of course, we have a lack of inventory. And so the analogy I think that I like to use is probably one where I tell my buyers is imagine a plane with a certain amount of seats and everybody wants to board this plane, but there’s only a certain amount of seats for people to sit down. And so that’s kind of how I would, that would be my analogy on the market right now. There’s not a lot of inventory and there’s more buyers that have entered the market, and so it does make it difficult for buyers that are entering the market to purchase.

I made notes just so I can stay on target. There has been. So one of the things that’s really important is the programs that are available for first time home buyers. And as realtors, we all specialize in working with first time home buyers, but specializing in working with buyers that may have a difficulty in putting down payment down because of the high rents that are in the, that’s in California. And so there’s programs that do help with down payment assistance and closing costs. And so that’s been probably out of all of the purchases that I have closed this year, I think 80% of them I have used down payment it and it was needed down payment and closing costs assistance. And so Cal HFA is a great program. There’s CHDC, community housing development, that is a great program. The BWI Initiative, black Wealth Initiative is an awesome program for down payment assistance.

And also one of the things that I also refer buyers to is house keys. There’s BMR low market rate properties that are in each county. And so those are some of the programs that are available. One of the other things that I wanted to just talk about is, is, I’m sorry, what is happening with buyers as they’re coming into the market? New buyers. And so what they’re finding, what I’m finding is that when it comes to the loan approval part, and I’ve worked in both sectors. I’ve been in the real estate and lending sector for the last 20 years, and I spent 11 years at JP Morgan as a lending specialist, and I came over to the real estate side. And so what I’m seeing is as one of the obstacles is student loan when it comes to debt to income ratio, it would be the student loan debt combined with other debts.

And so that makes it difficult for buyers to enter into the market. And so having these programs, we’ve used down payment assistance that has helped buyers to bring down their debt to income ratio by paying off some of their creditors and then also helping them to put down a down payment. And so that’s been crucial to some buyers. And so there’s a lot of buyers that I’ve spoke with. One of their concerns is that they can qualify for the mortgage payment, but they have a difficult time putting down payment. And so the down payment assistance has been a key in making sure that we get buyers into homes. And so it’s really important to take, and throughout this presentation, I’ve saw the information on making sure that you take, or I’m sorry, where is it? Oh my goodness, I lost my train of thought. Oh, it’s right here.

Okay. So making sure that you take the classes that talks about that helps you with budgeting. And so that’s, Cal HAFA offers that. And so I saw it, I think in the presentation with Leicester, I was taking notes. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of making sure that you make a budget for yourself and that you work with a HUD counselor to go over your budgeting and to make sure that when it comes to certain things that will come up, whether it be having to replace a hot water heater or a roof, those things are built into the budget. And it’s important that you also work with your realtor when it comes to looking at the property and looking at the inspections to see is that something that’s going to come up in the next year or two? Or when it comes to purchasing a condo, will there be a reassessment in the next year?

And if so, will those HOAs go up? And so it’s really important to make sure that when interviewing a realtor, when speaking to a realtor, utilizing a realtor that they understand they look at your budget and your budget has been covers the next three to five years, and that when you’re purchasing a condo or a place where there could be some adjustments in there, does it fit into your budget? Because sustainability is important. And so we saw in the oh 6 0 8 where there were a lot of home buyers that lost their housing. And so sustainability is really important. And so making sure that you’re working with an agent, a real estate agent, a loan officer that works with your HUD counselor, and that they understand your budget and that the housing that you’re looking at making an offer on that, you will be able to sustain the increases in the property taxes.

And I think that’s really it for sellers. If for sellers that’s looking to sell, one of the things that makes the home sell at the highest price is of course staging, working with a real estate agent that’s in that area that understands the market working, being open to all different type of programs, even if you don’t understand it. I know that sometimes when looking at an offer for sellers, you want to look at, even if they down payment assistance programs, does not mean that it’s going to be a delay in financing. So just being open to looking at all offers and working with your real estate agent, it’s really important to work with your realtor and lean on them and understand that they have specialized in this market and they’re professional. So their intake on when reviewing the offers is important. But I would just say overall, I think’s it that that’s really it.

The market is rates have dropped. It’s a great time to enter the market if you can. I read a for review. That said, right now, the average rent that most buyers are paying is the same that it would be for a mortgage payment. And so if you can, and I know that the challenge is saving while paying rent here in California, which is expensive. So it’s important to work with an agent that understands that down payment assistance programs and to understand that some of them are forgivable, some of them are, you will have to pay a little bit back in your equity. And I think that’s really it.

D’Adrea Davie:  So thank you Kimberly Nash, for your invaluable insights on the real estate market. Can you elaborate a little bit on the current market and why it may be a good time for buyers to enter it during the fall winter season versus maybe the spring summer season?

Kimberly Nash:  Well, if you can, I always say if you can afford your debt to income ratio is right at 40% or 43% and you can afford it, then it’s a good time. Whether it’s regardless of what season it is, if you can come out of renting and purchase a property and if you can use these tools that are available for you, it’s the right time. I know some people, these studies that say in the spring or in the spring or in the summer or in the winter, I always say the right time is when all the boxes are checked. Is there, do you have enough for closing calls, a grant that’s available? And if yes, that box is checked, do you have 3% to put down or can you get a gift for 3%? And if yes, that box is checked, is there down payment assistance that can help with bringing down the mortgage payment or the principal balance? Yes. Are you at 40%? Yes. So if all of these boxes are checked, it’s time to start looking. And so I don’t know if there’s really, it’s when the buyer is ready.

D’Adrea Davie:  Thank you again, Kimberly Nash, we appreciate your expertise.

Melyssa Barrett:  Thank you for joining me for part one of this important conversation on securing our future pathways to affordable housing and stability. We’ve only just begun exploring the critical issues of housing and economic stability with insights from our distinguished panelists, be sure to tune in next time for part two, where we’ll continue diving deeper into the strategies and resources you can use to make a real difference in your community. Until then, I’m Melissa Barrett and this is the Jali Podcast. 

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