PULL QUOTE FROM BRIAN D’ANDREA: I had a hard time figuring out what to do with my theology degree. I knew I didn't want to be a priest. I wanted to serve others. And so it took a couple of steps through different industries for me to ultimately discover this world of affordable housing. And it's a wonderful marriage for me of my desire to make this world a more just and better place.

BRIAN MAUGHAN:  This is BUILT, the podcast where you meet creative leaders in the commercial real estate industry and hear how they do what they do.

I’m your host Brian Maughan, Chief Innovation and Marketing Officer with Fidelity National Financial. In our fourth season of BUILT, we’re taking a closer look at the community impact of real estate revitalization and development. We’re interested in the neighborhoods that surround commercial spaces and the locals who work in them.

In this episode, we’re talking to Brian D’Andrea. He’s the Senior Vice President at Century Housing, a nonprofit lender and developer that strives to build affordable housing for those in need.

Century Housing is based in Culver City, CA and operates primarily in Long Beach, where the need for affordable housing has reached its boiling point.

Brian D'Andrea: California has so much to offer. Obviously we have our fair share of challenges and problems and we're squarely mired in trying to address those with the work that we do here at Century Housing in terms of the housing crisis, but we love the sunshine. Los Angeles and California has something for everyone.

Brian Maughan: Century Housing’s background is unique in the real estate sector, and its history informs its mission: To finance, build, and operate exceptional affordable housing so that the people they serve may have a dignified home, a healthy and hopeful future and attain economic independence.

Brian D'Andrea: So, going all the way back to the beginning, there was a large freeway planned here in Los Angeles, the Century Freeway.

And through the planning of the freeway, the freeway would ultimately result in the displacement of thousands and thousands of homes and businesses primarily impacting communities of color. There was a large environmental justice lawsuit that was filed, in the early seventies, and it took a number of years to work its way through the court system. The federal judge that was overseeing that lawsuit, his name was, judge Harry Pregerson. He was a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals appointed by President Carter.

Judge Pregerson ultimately helped to settle that lawsuit. And a consent decree was entered into, which required the formation of a state agency called the Century Freeway Housing Program. And that program was tasked with going out and replenishing close to 3,700 affordable homes in a band around the 105 freeway.

By the early nineties, the agency was in the process of being sunsetted. It had fulfilled its original charter. But Judge Pregerson, who was certainly an activist judge, and a judge that had a real passion for serving the community and vulnerable and marginalized populations, he wanted to see that agency's charter live on.

And so what he did is helped to orchestrate a privatization of that state agency into a private 501c3 nonprofit organization, which we today know as Century Housing Corporations.

So we were birthed from the state of California in 1995. We have been around now for 28 years, and over that time period we've helped to develop and or finance more than 55,000 affordable homes. We've invested more than $2.3 billion in the creation of affordable housing throughout the state.

Brian Maughan: Brian’s work as Vice President at Century, entails overseeing the housing division, which is the team that’s responsible for both building and rehabilitating affordable housing.

Brian D'Andrea: We also have a captive management company. And we also do a wealth of community engagement and community development activities within our division. I have a counterpart that runs Century’s lending business, and we are very active lenders to affordable housing developers up and down the state of California.

Brian Maughan: His journey with Century Housing began 17 years ago, when he began searching for a way to make a meaningful impact through the world of real estate.

Brian D'Andrea: I had just graduated from the Anderson School at UCLA. I knew I wanted to be in real estate. I actually took a job out of business school at a big home builder back east and learned a lot on the job. It was probably an inopportune time to be entering the home building sector as we were just, on the precipice of, the financial crisis of the mid two thousands.

I was fortunate enough to be able to transition out of that industry and found this niche world of affordable housing that I frankly knew nothing about when I started at Century.
I've learned a lot over the years and I'm really passionate about the work that we do and the lives that we're able to touch and transform, through this mechanism of affordable housing and all the services that come with it.

Brian Maughan: Were you always drawn to the affordable housing, supportive housing niche, or was that something that you discovered yourself?

Brian D'Andrea: It certainly was not on my radar when I either went to college or went to grad school. I will say that growing up my mother really instilled in me an appreciation for giving back and serving others. That was solidified when I went to college in Boston, I went to a Jesuit University, Boston College. That really challenged me and inspired me to give back and to serve others in a very meaningful way.

I had had a hard time figuring out what to do with my theology degree. I knew I didn't want to be a priest. I wanted to serve others. And so it took a couple of steps through different industries for me to ultimately discover this world of affordable housing. And it's been a just a wonderful marriage for me of my professional interests, along with my values and my desire to make this world a more just and more equitable and a better place for our communities.

Brian Maughan: So let's talk a little bit about the more philosophical issues that might be addressed with affordable housing. How does affordable housing kind of impact the community of Los Angeles today?

Brian D'Andrea: There are by the most recent count, more than 60,000 persons in households still experiencing homelessness on any given night in Los Angeles County. You can't drive down the street or the freeway without seeing people suffering, the human tragedy is on full display.

Beyond that, there are very significant percentage of our renting population is overburdened with rent paying 40, 50, 60 plus percent of their income in any given month on their rent payment. That leaves less money for them to secure healthcare, to buy healthy foods, to drive to and from work, to help put their kids through school, to buy clothing, right? All life's basic necessities, people just have less resources to work with when they're paying 60, 70% of their income on rent any month.

We just don't have enough housing in Los Angeles County. And so Century is definitely kind of on the front lines of trying to produce more affordable housing, to alleviate the burdens and pressures that our households and communities are feeling.

Brian Maughan: One of the largest projects that Brian has worked on to date is located in Long Beach, CA.

Brian D'Andrea: The villages at Cabrillo we like to think of as kind of the crown jewel of all of our housing assets that we've developed over the years. It's a community that Judge Harry Pregerson, who helped to form Century, was intimately involved with back in the day, but the history of the villages goes back to Long Beach as a Navy town.

Long Beach was home to the shipyards for decades. By the early nineties, the federal government had decided to move the shipyards out of Long Beach, transition them down to San Diego. And that represented a very major upheaval of the local economy. Tens of thousands of, both military and civilian households, worked in and around the shipyards.

With the transfer of that property or the, with the transfer of the Navy operations to San Diego, hundreds of acres of property were available for disposal by the federal government.

Brian Maughan: The McKinney Act requires pieces of the larger conveyances to be set aside for the benefit of people who are unhoused.

After the act was passed, 27 acres of the former Naval Housing property were awarded to Century Housing, which Brian and his team have been redeveloping since around 1997. Today, The Village is home to about 1500 residents, with about 700 of those being veterans.

Brian D'Andrea: We have families, we have children. We have a small Native American population. Century, as the owner of the real estate, we kind of see ourselves as the backbone of this larger endeavor of trying to help people transform their lives. We have pulled together a collection of about a dozen agencies that have a presence on site, childcare providers, healthcare providers, the VA. Operates a substance use treatment program. They also operate an outpatient clinic for veterans. We have transitional housing programs for women. We have transitional housing programs for families.

All these different operators have been essentially co-located within this community that we call the villages at Cabrillo to meet our residents where they're at, providing them with the skills, the tools, the resources they need to transform their lives. It takes a lot to run this community. We have an amazing staff of about 50 individuals across our property management and residential services operations. Not to mention the several hundred staff that work across this universe of other providers that operate at the campus.

Brian Maughan: So are the villages at their final stage right now? Or how many phases will it get to when it's fully complete?

Brian D'Andrea: We are under construction on our sixth phase of the development called the Cove. We envision upwards of an additional 500 homes to be developed at the villages. What we'll do is take down some of the Old Navy housing that has been, adaptively, rehabbed back in the initial phase of development. Those buildings will come down. They'll be replaced with new, beautiful, energy efficient, sustainable housing. So we'll continue to build out the affordable and supportive housing that we've been building over the past 20 years.

Brian Maughan: The hope is that all of this will serve as a larger roadmap to help re-imagine what transitional and affordable housing can be and look like farther in the future.

Brian D'Andrea: 26 years ago it was a very different time. At that time there was this notion of kind of a continuum of housing and an individual had to go through a shelter or transitional program before they were deemed ready by their case manager to move into affordable housing. That model, it still works and we still have remnants of that model, certainly at The Villages where we have great shelters and transitional programs that are working with clients to get them ready for housing.

But increasingly, our industry has moved to the model of housing first, getting people right into affordable and supportive housing and meeting them there in that place of housing, where their health needs can be met, where their mental health issues can be addressed, we're trying to remove and reduce barriers. And housing is one of those fundamental needs. It's very difficult to address mental health issues or physical health issues from a place of homelessness. And so by getting someone into a home and surrounding our residents with those services, we can aid in their recovery.

Brian Maughan: When did you first see The Villages?

Brian D'Andrea: So when I joined Century, I immediately stepped foot into the villages as a junior project manager, we were under construction with our third phase of development at the time. And, it was a tax credit deal. I couldn't spell tax credit at the time. I learned a lot through that experience, the importance of being placed in service deadlines and lease ups, and the flow of credits. And so I've certainly taken many of those lessons. I learned from that very first transaction through the affordable housing world.

Brian Maughan: One of the things that we're talking about this season on Built is the impact that these type of programs and projects and commercial developments have on the greater community. If you take a little bit of a broader view and go wider than just the development itself, what has this specific affordable housing project done for the that Long Beach area?

Brian D'Andrea: We have taken an underutilized, abandoned piece of property in West Long Beach and injected a tremendous amount of resources into it and begun this revitalization of the West Long Beach area. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested to date at The Villages. We have a lot of, a lot more activity to do. But you know, the housing that we're creating at The Villages, it's beautiful. It's sustainable, it's LEED certified, it's award-winning.

Our most recent development at the Villages won the HUD AIA secretary's award for design. So it's some of the nicest housing that's getting created in our local communities and, and we like to think of affordable housing as an asset. It's an investment.

Brian Maughan: What are some of the challenges that you have experienced as you've worked on the villages, whether it be political or local or just working on physically helping to revitalize an underutilized property?

Brian D'Andrea: Well, we're fortunate at The Villages in that, the city of Long Beach, thanks to our electeds and the staff at the city have historically been just a wonderful partner and incredibly supportive of the effort there. That's not always the case. We've got other projects and other jurisdictions where you have opposition from the neighborhood. You have opposition from electeds and those NIMBY opponents can make it challenging to move a project forward. One of the other big challenges we have in California is the cost of producing affordable housing in the system for producing affordable housing.

By that I mean, there's not one or two sources we go to, to raise the capital to develop a project. Typically, an affordable housing deal will have 6, 7, 8 sources of financing. Every one of those sources comes from typically a public agency that has a competitive process, and so you're competing with other developers for scarce resources.

And it's not uncommon to have to apply one or two or three times for a particular source before securing a commitment. And then you take that commitment and you apply to the next source and you just layer and stack and layer these sources together until the last remaining source you need is the equity that comes from the sale of tax credits and the issuance of tax exempt bonds.

Brian Maughan: This time-consuming work can be incredibly frustrating when your end goal is to get people housed. Brian is a proponent of thinking of other ways to finance affordable housing, instead of having developers compete for resources.

Brian D'Andrea: What if we were to think about funding sponsors? Providing capital to sponsors like Century, for instance, as an affordable housing developer, and allowing those sponsors to figure out how to best stretch those public resources to produce as much housing at as low a cost, at as high a quality as possible.

There are examples of this sponsor based funding that we've seen limited examples both here in California and other places throughout the world. But we would like to see efforts taken at the state level and even at some of our local funding agency levels to explore alternative methods. It just takes too long to build housing.

Brian Maughan: Is there a path with the current process to ever really get a handle on some of this? Or do you always see the demand outpacing what's available?

Brian D'Andrea: The demand is insatiable. It will be very difficult for us to achieve a supply-demand balance. That's not to say that we don't continue to act with urgency. Our development team here consists of 10 professionals that are working furiously to create as much housing as we can. We like to think of ourselves as hummingbirds at Century.

Brian Maughan: That may sound a little unusual but the notion comes from an old parable with roots in South America and other countries. Brian explains:

Brian D'Andrea: There's a big forest fire and all the animals are escaping and they see this hummingbird dipping its little beak into a pond of water and taking that little drip of water and dropping on the forest fire. And, and the animals say to the hummingbird, well, what are you doing? And the hummingbird says, I'm, I'm doing everything I can.

And so we kind of see ourselves in that same, in that same vein here at Century. On a deal by deal basis, are we moving the needle? You know, the numbers are disheartening. I think what we like to think about and where we draw energy and support is the notion that every unit of housing we create is going to positively affect someone's life.

That's ultimately why we're here. We're here to address the needs of community members that have suffered. So while it's, it is discouraging to look at this more broadly and look at the numbers and the deficit that we have, we know that every home we create is a mini miracle when you think about the effort that goes into creating it.

Brian Maughan: If you look back to the villages and maybe what was originally entitled to you is, is the footprint the same or has the footprint expanded, meaning physically, land, space?

Brian D'Andrea: The original conveyance from the Navy was 26 acres. We acquired an extra acre along the western perimeter of our campus from the city of Long Beach a number of years ago. So we're at 27 acres. That's probably where we will remain. What I will say though, Brian, is that while our physical footprint has remained fairly static at the villages I'd say our portfolio footprint has expanded because of the work at the Villages.

So one of the newer communities that we're involved with is the West LA VA, which is a 388 acre campus on the West Side of Los Angeles sandwiched between Brentwood and Westwood. Some of the most valuable real estate in LA County sits in this geography. It's the largest VA medical center in the country. Serves six counties, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of veterans under their jurisdiction.

Brian Maughan: Century Housing has also developed a community plan that took their original master plan, and adapted it to the world of affordable housing. When all is said and done, their hope is to have housing for about 3,000 more veterans. By the end of this year, they estimate that 700 of those homes will either be completed or under construction.

Brian D'Andrea: It's kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity. An amazing piece of real estate and obviously a mission that we all feel passionate about. Century today is, is led by a veteran. Our CEO is Ron Griffith. He served in Vietnam. Our founder, as I mentioned earlier, judge Harry Pregesson himself was a wounded World War II veteran. So serving our veterans has always been an intimate part of Century's mission, and we're just thrilled that we have an opportunity to work on this project and give back to our veterans in this way.

Brian Maughan: What would it take to get more of these big ideas actually in process?

Brian D'Andrea: Yeah, well, land helps. It's not every day that you stumble into 388 acres of underdeveloped properties. I'd say it's also public will. I think there is certainly a sense of urgency around addressing the needs of our community members that are suffering and experiencing homelessness.

There's also frustration, why does it take so long to build the housing? Why does it cost so much to build this housing? We need the support of our electeds. Big projects like this don't necessarily fit nicely into the boxes and the requirements that the traditional affordable housing financing programs require. So we've had to do a lot of advocacy.

Brian Maughan: You know, you have a unique role because you have this ability and this position where you can kind of sit and see it all happening. You see someone enter their home for the first time, or you see this, you know, resident who's been able to take advantage of the community and now they transition out as we described. Is there anything that comes to your mind?

Brian D'Andrea: Veteran homelessness is a travesty. The fact that we continue to have 4,000 veterans who honorably served our country that do not have an affordable home. It's an outrage. I think of a veteran and his wife that moved into Anchor Place.

Brian Maughan: Hank and his wife Kathy had moved into Anchor Place at the Villages and spoke at their grand opening in November, 2017.

Brian D'Andrea: And Hank had served in Vietnam and left the service and worked in the upholstery industry for a number of years, but became homeless and he and his wife were living on the streets and in their car for a number of years until they had this opportunity to move into a beautiful new apartment at the Villages.

(ARCHIVAL - HANK GRAND OPENING CLIP)

Hank: Well, good afternoon. I'm one of the residents here, with my wife Kathy. Moved in about two weeks ago and did not know what to expect. Come to find out, this is a fantastic place to live. The help that you get from the staff over here is unsurpassed. The only way I'm ever gonna leave here, it'd be in a body bag. Cause I'm staying. (laughter) That's, that's, that's about all I, I can say. (Laughter, applause)

Brian D'Andrea: You know, at the time it sounded crude, but he said,
you know, I'm not leaving this place. I'm gonna live out my years here. And about two years ago, Hank passed away peacefully in his home. And I think he had a place where he could live out his years in dignity. He had a place where he and his wife could eat together, could spend time together, could live together. They weren't forced to remain in their cars or on the streets. And he didn't leave. And, and that's a beautiful thing.

And every one of these homes is just an amazing gift to, you know, the people that ultimately will, will occupy it. And we have a great responsibility to them, to maintain this community, maintain our buildings, promote wellness and allow our residents a sense of pride in the place they call home.

Brian Maughan: I love it. I am so glad that he and his wife had a place to do that. It is a basic need, but it's so unfortunate that so often it goes without that. I was wondering, as you think about the future, what is changing in the way that you're building these communities?

Brian D'Andrea: We will certainly continue to construct beautiful buildings. That is certainly the product that we want to put out into the market. We've come to think of ourselves at Century as being more than just constructors of affordable housing buildings. It's not just about the sticks and bricks that go into the building, but it's creating places and spaces for our residents to engage with one another.

BM: Addressing homelessness is a very complex undertaking. Century Housing has played an essential role in confronting this issue by amassing the capital they need and designing the homes that people will live in, but they know that’s not enough.

Brian D'Andrea: Populations that have experienced traumas and have gone through homelessness can oftentimes isolate. And we see it as our role to encourage them to engage with their fellow neighbors and with their, with staff members and with the larger community and, creating those moments and opportunities, whether it's a spring health fair, or a career fair in our social hall or, you know, gardening opportunities, walking clubs, we really see it as our responsibility to bring together those resources and programming to facilitate that kind of engagement.

Every one of us that works on our development team at Century has a passion for building beautiful buildings, LEED certified buildings. But ultimately we want those buildings to play a role, that they're kind of means to an end. And what is that larger end? That larger end is healthy, happy, productive residents. And so, you know, I think we see ourselves more than anything as community builders.

Brian Maughan: To the younger commercial real estate interested individuals to get them to understand that this can be a fulfilling career, or that it's a lot more than maybe what meets the eye, what would you say?

Brian D'Andrea: I wish I had discovered affordable housing a little bit earlier in my career. I'm encouraged that today there are classes in the business school and in public planning school, urban planning schools and in public policy schools about affordable housing development, affordable housing finance. I think you're seeing more of that.

Affordable housing is an incredibly rewarding place. Everything you could ask for in terms of intellectual stimulation, we have. Whether it's finance, marketing, construction, you get to touch all aspects of a project.

You know, lease up and marketing and working through our coordinated entry system, to ensure that we have proper referrals into our housing. We have to worry about applying for financing. So you, you get to touch every aspect. Of a deal.

These deals take a long time, the gestation period can be three to six plus years, but the end result is just remarkable in terms of gratification. And then when you get to see someone receiving the keys to their apartment and moving in and see a community blossom as it, a building is filled up, it is just one of the most rewarding aspects of the work we do.

There's a ton to learn here. We have lots of opportunities to improve how we do things, so we need new, fresh talent, new ideas to challenge us and push us. So please consider working in affordable housing.

Brian Maughan: Thanks Brian for taking time with us today. We really appreciate you walking us through what Century is doing and all the good that you're doing for the community.

Brian D'Andrea: Yeah. Thank you Brian. It's been a pleasure talking to you and if anyone ever wants to, to visit us out in California, please look us up. We're happy to give tours of our work and yeah, thank you.

Brian Maughan: Thanks for tuning into Season Four of Built! We have more great stories coming up…with our next one in two weeks.

You can find all Built episodes wherever you get your podcasts. If you like the show, please give us a rating or review on whichever podcast platform you use. It helps new listeners find us. 

Built is a co-production of Fidelity National Financial and PRX Productions. From FNF, our project is run by Annie Bardelas. This episode of Built was produced by Morgan Flannery. Our Senior Producer is Genevieve Sponsler. Audio mastering by Rebecca Seidel.

The Executive Producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzales.

The archival clip you heard in this episode was courtesy of Century Housing. The music was from APM Music.

I’m Brian Maughan.

And remember, every story is unique, every property is individual, but we’re all part of this BUILT world.