18. Effecting Change with Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramírez

Trying to solve complex social issues like affordable housing and homelessness would be too daunting of a mission for most people. However, for Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramírez, she sees it as an opportunity to effect real change and engage the community, while giving back.

In this episode of HiPERleadership, Secretary Castro Ramírez shares with us what it takes to be a servant leader, how she helped address a housing crisis in San Antonio, Texas by involving the individuals most affected, and how she is working to do the same in solving the homeless and housing crises impacting California. The Secretary provides us with actionable insights on how to earn trust, hire great people, and make change happen within a complex government system.

Transcript

David Morris  00:09

Welcome to season two of the HiPER Leadership Podcast. I am your host David Morris, CEO and founder of HiPER Solutions. At HiPER Solutions, our mission is to bring positive change to the world. Leaders today are faced with unprecedented change. And yet even the best leaders have had to toss out their standard playbook and think outside the box. Our intent with the HiPER Leadership Podcast is to share best practices so that you, our listeners, can gain some actionable and practical approaches to your next big-bet endeavor. Today, my guest is Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramirez, who oversees 11 entities under the California Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency. BCSH is an organization that helps to create equitable housing, address homelessness, supervise businesses, and administer civil rights laws in the state of California. Secretary, it is an honor to talk with you today.

Secretary Ramírez  01:09

Thank you so much, David, thank you for having me with you today.

David Morris  01:12

It's been really fun getting to know you across the last year and so much just amazing progress with California setting standards for frankly, the rest of the country in many ways, with what's been accomplished. One thing that I found so intriguing in our conversation was what got you here, and hearing about your history, I just was so intrigued with 2009. Back in 2009, when you join San Antonio, help us understand the state of the mission, when you joined in San Antonio, what you were asked to do.

Secretary Ramírez  01:45

So, 2009, marked a very transformational change for my family, for me, and also a change in my professional, not career, but professional responsibility. And so, I was tapped to serve as the CEO of the San Antonio Housing Authority, the seventh largest Housing Authority across the United States. This was my first CEO job at the age of 36, 37 at the time, and so just stepping into that role, having to relocate from LA to San Antonio was a significant change. But also, just a tremendous opportunity to be able to serve a community and serve with a mayor and the board, that were very focused on elevating and improving and enhancing the quality of housing that was offered through the Housing Authority, but also implementing a new way of engaging public housing residents.

David Morris  02:46

What was the scale of the challenge? What were you asked to do?

Secretary Ramírez  02:50

When I stepped in, David, it was clear to me that, for a number of reasons, the board and the staff were attempting to build a trust relationship with residents. But it was clear that there were challenges there. And so, the board made it very clear that they were, and this was a new board, that was appointed by the mayor who had stepped in to really lead a number of changes. And so, it was very clear to me from the beginning that I needed to really roll up my sleeves and get out into these public housing communities, meet with the staff, and understand you know, why we were having this disconnection, right? Why were public housing residents not trusting the entity, right, that basically was responsible for not only providing and managing their housing, but also coordinating and delivering programs? And so many meetings with leaders of these public housing communities, many meetings with our staff team, and also meetings with a number of stakeholders in the community, advocacy organizations, local elected officials. And that really propelled me to essentially bring forward a philosophy that I learned early on in the work that I've done in housing and community development. And that philosophy is starting from a point of strength and building communities inside out and very much recognizing that when we're trying to address issues or problems impacting residents or community members, or we're looking at community revitalization work, when we're looking at increasing housing affordability, we need to engage the people that are closest to the problem, and they need to be heard. And we have to establish a partnership that allows for us to co-create and also develop solutions that are created together and develop opportunities for us to build those relationships, build that trust, and also hold each other accountable.

David Morris  04:55

It almost sounds like you go slow to go fast.

Secretary Ramírez  04:58

Yes, I think it's very important to not assume that you have the solution to the problem. On the surface, it may look like something. But when you have the opportunity to sit down with people to listen to the issue, better understanding and more clarity. It's more complex than what it seems on the surface.

David Morris  05:17

For those listeners who aren't as familiar with community development and housing, what was the nature of the challenge when you really got down to the problem statement, even from a metric standpoint? What did the numbers sort of look like when you showed up? And then where did you take it?

Secretary Ramírez  05:34

We were experiencing a number of challenges. From a financial perspective, there was not good management of one of the key housing programs in section eight Housing Choice Voucher Program. And because of that, there were a number of households who had a voucher, which would enable them to move into a rental unit and receive housing assistance, we had to cancel those vouchers, because there was not enough funding to be able to support them. So basically, you know, we had financial challenges with administering these federal programs, we had a challenge with building trust with, you know, public housing, residents, and stakeholders in general. Internally, within the organizational structure, there were also challenges with regard to just having proper training, support, and development for staff. So those were the conditions, right?

David Morris  06:26

Yeah. What was the outcome after sort of putting your game plan together and engaging with the various constituencies? Where did it start and where did you leave it?

Secretary Ramírez  06:36

The first year was very much about listening, understanding the scale of the problem, and developing the overall solutions. By year three, our agency had a very different reputation with residents and stakeholders, we were no longer losing funding, we were not having to cut housing assistance. Instead, we were able to provide more housing assistance. And so, that trust relationship and that improved financial condition of the agency and also, the expanded partnerships that we were able to develop, enabled us to be a leader in this space, not only at the local level, but a leader at the national level. We began working very closely with the local United Way, with the local school district, with the mayor's office, with the economic development entity, and were able to develop a comprehensive community revitalization program that was centered in a public housing community in the east side of San Antonio Wheatley Courts. Very much began that effort from sitting down with public housing residents and this was a public housing community of about 450 units, that the conditions were inadequate. This was a public housing community that very much needed to have a number of capital improvements, but was also challenged with crime and a number of social concerns. So, we sat down with the public housing residents and began to ask, “What is your vision for this community? Do you see an opportunity for housing conditions to be better? And if we have the opportunity to go after additional federal dollars and redevelop this site, what are the priorities that you have for yourself or your children for your families?” And that led us to develop the Wheatley Courts community transformation plan that was eventually funded by year four of my tenure there by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, we received a $30 million dollar grant that enabled us to redevelop that site into a community that is now mixed-use, mixed-income, it has rental, homeownership opportunities, the local school that is in that neighborhood footprint has become a center of not just sort of educational academic excellence, but also a center that is serving the community. And really, this was all made possible because of the agency's commitment to engaging and working closely with public housing residents, stakeholders in you know, a number of partners.

David Morris  09:31

Tremendous. Now, in terms of engaging with the community members, the residents. How key was that in securing the $30 million? 

Secretary Ramírez  09:42

Very important. It was very important that the vision and the plan that was put forward was a plan that was shaped by resident input and resident ownership. And that enabled us to also be able to move to a different stage in you know, beyond the federal dollars, right, we needed to secure additional state funding and additional local funding. And so, residents were the advocates for this project. At one point, we had to go to Austin, to the capital, to be able to explain, right, for an application, for tax credits, why, you know, this project was necessary and needed, the individuals that did the best in terms of conveying that vision were these families that live in this neighborhood, who had, you know, basically developed the plans with us, and developed the vision for their own community.

David Morris  10:34

We've talked over time about the edge, and really being able to sort of engage at that level, as opposed to more centralized and it just seems to be a principle applicable here. Just as much as private sector. In all sectors, it's easy to skip this step. And I'm just curious to get your thoughts why perhaps in other projects in the past, they don't engage at this level.

Secretary Ramírez  10:57

David, what happens is, when affordable housing development is occurring, it's become very complex to finance affordable housing, and to put together deals and developments. And so, it's very natural, I think, when something becomes so complex to focus on getting the deal to pencil out, getting all of the financing and resources to make the project happen. And so, there's a tendency to dedicate more time to that. But I think that it's very important to not forget why we do what we do. And we do what we do, because this is about ensuring that the families that we're serving are able to access safe, affordable housing, but that they are also able to contribute to how this new housing is going to look, where it's going to be located, what amenities, you know, should be included, and to become advocates, right, and to share their own perspectives and stories. 

David Morris  11:58

It certainly was integral to getting the funding to do the project, and then the other piece of it you're getting into now is just how committed all the residents were once it was all constructed, right, and evolved. Because I would imagine sometimes with these community developments, it gets built, and then they're not utilized. But there's this whole other side, I'm sure it was embraced.

Secretary Ramírez  12:14

You're absolutely right. It's important when the design process is taking place. The design of the unit, design of the development, design of the overall footprint of this community that we're designing and developing with the community as that's what this is for.

David Morris  12:31

Perhaps you could share, in your current role in California, where you took that learning and applied it most because the scale of what you're tackling with homelessness and leading such a cross-functional group of stakeholders to help solve this problem is just enormous. So where is that principal in San Antonio become most relevant to current day?

Secretary Ramírez  12:52

In the state of California, we have an affordability crisis when it comes to housing and a crisis also in homelessness. This is a number one priority for our Governor, for Governor Newsom. And this is the priority for this administration and for the agency that I lead. And I'm so grateful that I am part of an administration and a team that is laser-focused on expanding housing opportunity, affordable housing opportunity, and laser-focused on addressing homelessness comprehensively, but also that is very committed to doing so in partnership with local governments, in partnership with the housing community, the affordable housing community, in partnership with residents that are in need of additional housing and supports that. The Governor put forward a very robust and comprehensive and historic budget that would enable us to be able to invest just over $9 billion to accelerate the affordable housing goals that we have, to preserve housing affordability, and to produce more housing. And he also put forward a $12.4 billion budget that was focused on addressing homelessness holistically, meaning investing in prevention and investing in solutions that will end homelessness, including building more and scaling up innovative programs that have been created really in response to this pandemic. One of those programs being the Homekey initiative, which enabled us to very quickly, in the period of six months, partner with local communities to leverage about $850 million. Use those dollars to acquire hotels, motels, and vacant buildings and turn them into permanent and interim housing. So, in that six-month period, we were able to acquire almost 6,000 units and these 6,000 units are now housing units for individuals for experiencing homelessness or at risk to become homeless, who now have a place to call home.

David Morris  15:06

Absolutely tremendous in terms of the scale of what's being accomplished in California. And observing this over the last year or so, what you have done, it just seems like there’s milestone after milestone and keeps getting rewarded by all sets of stakeholders leaning in and just taking on at a much larger scale.

Secretary Ramírez  15:26

Yeah, definitely, I think this global pandemic and public health crisis very much forced us to rethink the way that we approach solving issues. And in the housing and homelessness space, it really propelled us to be more nimble, more creative, and to deepen our partnerships with local communities. So, I was very excited that as we began to target resources to address specifically, I'll just mention in going back to Homekey, from the beginning, there was very much a priority for the Governor and for this administration, that we do everything possible to ensure the protection and the safety of some of the most vulnerable populations in our state. And that included individuals experiencing homelessness, that included individuals who are at risk of losing their housing, or becoming homeless. And so, we developed a task force that was focused on first understanding the scope and the scale of the problem. Second, looking at funding that was coming in from the federal government, but also funding that was being appropriated by the legislature and made available by the Governor. And then thirdly, working very closely with counties and cities to develop response programs and initiatives, that would enable us to protect, you know, some of the most vulnerable residents of California. And so, that task force and that ability to be able to be in one role, not just our agency, but our agency working closely with Health and Human Services, working closely with the state's Emergency Operations Center, working closely across cabinet, that level of inter-collaborative problem solving, working closely with local communities led us to be responsive, to build and expand the capacity at the local level. And to be more innovative. To develop innovative new models that we are now looking to scale. I mentioned, David, that the Governor has put forward a robust budget, a historic budget that would put forward about $12.4 billion to address homelessness. And one component of that budget includes significant funding, up to $3.5 billion to be able to scale and to expand the Homekey initiative, and to make the resources available to local communities to be able to create permanent and interim housing for individuals experiencing homelessness.

David Morris  18:05

Again, a testament to what's been accomplished over this year. I like to just close on understanding what got you into this space in the first place, in the field of Housing and Community Development. And how critical was it to have that experience at the local and federal level, to then do this at the state level?

Secretary Ramírez  18:24

I think, you know, David, what got me into this work was, frankly, I think shaped by my experience growing up. I’m the eldest of nine children. My family immigrated from Mexico when I was four years old. And as the eldest, I think I learned early on that it was very important for me to be sort of the advocate for my family, to learn the language, to be the bridge. And so, as I was growing up and doing that, I also realized that I had enormous opportunities afforded to me, through education, through the job opportunities that I had. And I realized that I had a responsibility to give back, to give back to my family, to give back to my community, and the field of community development and affordable housing seemed to be the right place. I found joy in working with people to solve complex issues. I was challenged, you know, when it came to working with diverse communities and seeking how to connect resources. I just sort of gravitated to this field. And in the course of my professional journey, I had the privilege of working with some amazing leaders in the field, starting with Rodney Fernandez, who was the CEO of the Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation, then spent 10 years working for the LA City Housing Authority. I had an opportunity, as I mentioned earlier, to lead the San Antonio housing authority and to work with just some amazing leaders in San Antonio, and then was very privileged to serve under the Obama administration at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. As I reflect on how I entered this field, it really started with my early experience with my parents and recognizing that as my family worked hard to get ahead, they worked hard to get ahead, to provide me with an opportunity to do better for myself and for our family, I felt a responsibility to give back. And I think that the way that I am attempting to give back is to serve, to be a public servant, to serve in the role of responsibility, but to do so always with a commitment to integrity, always with a commitment to understanding who we're working for what we're trying to solve for, and to work with individuals that have that commitment, and that are working just as hard as I am.

David Morris  20:50

Secretary, if you found yourself in the position of being the Governor, a President or even on a board of directors, and you were recruiting somebody to go lead a big game change, like what you've done in the past, what's the most important thing you would focus on? When you're evaluating that candidate?

Secretary Ramírez  21:10

I think the most important thing to focus on is understanding what drives that individual. And if there is commitment to making a significant change and difference, what are the values that guide you? And what difference do you want to make in the lives of the individuals that you will be serving? I think those would be the two key questions for me. And frankly, David, I feel so honored and grateful that I work with a team currently that has commitment to the mission, commitment to serving, but also the talent and the technical expertise to take on these tremendous challenges in front of us and ahead of us.

David Morris  21:50

Really a pleasure to learn more about your story today, Secretary.

Secretary Ramírez  21:54

Well, thank you so much, David.

David Morris  21:55

Thank you. 

David Morris  21:57

And to our listeners, thank you for your continued support and feedback. Stay tuned for more exciting guests that we have in store for you. Be sure to subscribe also to HiPER Leadership Podcast on your favorite platform, so you are first to know when new episodes are released. And if you have a big, transformational program you're leading, visit our website to learn more about how we help align stakeholders and teams for excellence at HiPERSolutions.com