Housing Leadership Day is San Mateo County’s premier housing policy conference, bringing together elected officials, business leaders, community activists, and the nonprofit housing community to design, refine, and build the public support needed for the policies that will address the root cause of the affordable housing crisis. Since affordable housing is a public health issue, housing instability has negative impacts on workers’ and community members’ health and quality of life, which is why the theme this year focused on the link between housing and health.
President Claire welcomed the attendees and stated that housing is major concern for students, faculty and staff. Don Horsley, San Mateo County Board President, opened the program, and an introduction was done by Michael Lane, HLC Board President, followed by a keynote address by Steven Sust, Child Psychiatry Co-Chief Fellow at Stanford.
Morning workshops included:
- What is the advantage of “stand alone” affordable homes?
- How rent stabilization impacts homeowners
- Creative and effective community engagement for housing
- Practical steps to developing teacher housing: How to plan and develop teacher housing on a budget
The afternoon session included a keynote address by Melissa Jones, Executive Director at the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII), a Faith Perspective by Pastor Paul Bains, and Project WeHOPE HLA Award Recipient, Speaker pro Tem Kevin Mullin and featuring workshops on:
- Inside the tech world: How and why big employers are building housing
- Unlocking the potential of single-family lots through big data and modular construction
- Health at a larger scale: Walkable Communities
