When Dana Trujillo joined Skid Row Housing Trust as housing development director in 2013, she wasted no time in helping the Los Angeles–based nonprofit evaluate its portfolio and expand its geographic reach.
During the extensive review of the portfolio that serves formerly homeless individuals, she found that 14 of the Trust’s 25 buildings were past the tax credit compliance period. Many were lacking positive cash flow and in need of substantial renovations.
Trujillo developed a multipronged, five-year strategy to resyndicate the properties by bringing in additional capital and layering on different subsidies. An estimated 70 percent of the work will be tenant-in-place rehabs, with the remainder of the buildings being torn down and rebuilt.
“One of the components of resyndicating the 14 buildings is to grow our staff,” the 35-year-old Trujillo says. “The company is putting in place additional internal infrastructure and processes to maintain quality as we ramp up to take on these new challenges.”
In the next 18 months, her seven-person department will increase to 13 since the Trust will be tripling the number of projects in production during the five-year period.
The Trust also is expanding geographically with a focus on Los Angeles County. It closed its first deal outside of downtown Los Angeles in March and is looking to close its second deal in December.
“It’s really taking the product and services that we offer and that we’ve become good at doing and offering them to other areas that are in need of housing for formerly homeless individuals,” says Trujillo.
Prior to coming to Skid Row Housing Trust, the Southern California native had been a senior project manager at another Los Angeles affordable housing nonprofit, Abode Communities, and owned a market research business for the commercial real estate industry.
She and her husband have a 7-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter.
