Affordable Housing Finance

SPECIAL REPORT

2008 YOUNGLEADERS

Young Developer Makes Her Stand in the Tenderloin

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE • September 2008

Editor’s Note: AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE has selected 15 outstanding industry leaders under the age of 40. These 15 individuals are being featured in the June, July, September, October, and November issues. For a complete list of the 2008 Young Leaders, go to http://www.housingfinance.com/news/exciting_and_inspiring_times051408.htm.

BY DONNA KIMURA

SAN FRANCISCO - Diep Do is helping to change the city’s tough Tenderloin neighborhood one building at a time. As director of housing development for the nonprofit Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. (TNDC), she has managed several completed projects and is overseeing another 10 in the pipeline.

What’s more impressive is that TNDC’s developments are far from ordinary. The group focuses almost exclusively on serving extremely low income and formerly homeless households in a city with notoriously high development costs.

Armed with 10 years of experience and an enthusiasm for community development, Do, 34, is getting tough deals done. These factors help make her one of AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE’s 2008 Young Leaders.

Housing holds special significance for Do, who was 2 years old when her family emigrated from Vietnam just before the fall of Saigon in 1975. Her family, which included her parents and seven children, settled in San Diego. Despite working hard and saving what they could, her parents were still challenged to find housing, and the large family lived in crowded surroundings.

“I saw that struggle,” Do said. “They instilled in me the meaning of home. A home is more than a structure. It’s a place for family gatherings.”

Working in the Tenderloin

Do began her career as an intern at the Skid Row Housing Trust in Los Angeles and also worked as a consultant at the Culver City Redevelopment Agency in Southern California.

She joined TNDC in 1999 as a project manager. Promoted to director of housing development at the end of 2005, Do oversees a team of eight project managers who are responsible for nearly a dozen development projects that are in the works.

“She has taken on an incredible load of responsibility at a young age, handling it with singular aplomb and great courage,” said Don Falk, TNDC executive director.

Do managed the development of the Curran House, the first family housing project developed in the Tenderloin in the past decade. Many people don’t think of the area as a neighborhood for families, but 3,500 children live in the Tenderloin. The 67-unit Curran House, which has earned 10 national and local awards, is helping to serve many of those families.

Do also worked on the complicated rehabilitation of The Dalt Hotel, an aging 179-unit residential hotel occupied by very low income individuals. The rehab work, which was done while the building was occupied, included a seismic retrofit, safetycode upgrades, unit improvements, and the creation of a new community room.

During this project, Do worked closely with residents who were suspicious of TNDC’s intentions and wanted to be left alone. It was a difficult and tense situation, but she stuck with the project, slowly building good will and developing relationships with the residents.

She didn’t try to sugarcoat the situation. Do told the residents that the rehab wouldn’t be easy and their lives would be disrupted.

“The deft way that Diep handled it was beautiful,” Falk said. “Her whole style is understated and modest, yet she is dynamic and even charismatic, and because her commitment to affordable housing comes from such a deep place, she simply persevered in listening to people, responding to their concerns, fashioning a project that would minimally impact them, and altogether winning them over.”

Do’s involvement stretches beyond TNDC. She serves on the board of the Non- Profit Housing Association of Northern California (NPH), an advocacy and policy group that serves as a voice for developers and others in the affordable housing business. She also serves on the board of the Council of Community Housing Organizations and is a volunteer at Hospitality House, a social-services agency in the Tenderloin.

“She’s clearly committed to this field,” said Dianne Spaulding, NPH executive director, noting young leaders are especially critical now because a large number of nonprofit executives are nearing retirement.

The loss of leaders is a big issue for the overall nonprofit sector. Nearly 2,000 executive directors of nonprofits of all kinds in eight cities said they did not plan on being in their positions in five years, according to a 2006 survey by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and The Meyer Foundation.

Do not only has nuts-and-bolts development experience, she’s got the right academic background for her field, Spaulding said. Do has a master’s degree in urban planning and a bachelor’s in urban studies, with an Asian-American studies minor, from the University of California, Los Angeles.

“She can sit and listen to a policy discussion and really understand how it’s going to affect her in an applied setting,” Spaulding said.

Do serves on a new NPH task force that will examine issues surrounding developer fees.

Seeing the good

For Do, TNDC has been a good fit. “What has kept me here is the people,” she said, praising her colleagues. She said together they share similar values and a common mission to provide housing.

She has also grown fond of a neighborhood that many people ignore or know only by the bad news coming from its streets. Behind the stigma that is attached to the neighborhood, there is a close-knit community, Do said.

“People who don’t live and work in the Tenderloin don’t see the good aspects,” she said. “It is a good community.”