Vision Makes a Difference

Vision has played a pivotal role in the San Diego Housing Commission’s (SDHC) emergence as the region’s leading provider of affordable housing opportunities.

Over the past 30 years, SDHC has benefitted from a succession of leaders who put people first. I am eager to carry forward this tradition. The agency's priority will be people: the families struggling to make a better life and the public who understand and support our mission.

To live up to our constituents’ expectations, SDHC must conduct business in a fiscally prudent fashion with maximum transparency. At the same time, we must ensure we are delivering quality services that benefit the greatest number of San Diego residents.

As an agency, we have embraced an entrepreneurial spirit that places a high value on forging quality partnerships with both nonprofit and for-profit developers of affordable housing. By adopting the business savvy of our private sector counterparts, we have developed a new housing authority model that can better adapt to changes in society, the economy, and federal support from Washington D.C.

In late 2009, we put together a strategy - innovative for a public housing agency - to leverage equity from our real estate portfolio. Thus far, the capital funds we generated has created 810 new affordable housing units.

We also intend to be at the forefront of the transit-oriented development movement in which new affordable housing will be created in urban areas where workers can take advantage of mass transit facilities. We’ve also been asked to play a larger role in the city’s quest for permanent housing for the homeless living in the downtown area.

While we exist in large part to assist low-income residents of San Diego, our agency is also committed to ever-evolving special programs aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty.

In the journey toward excellence, we must listen to the people we serve and the public who have invested in us their trust. The key to staying on course is to look for unique, San Diego-based solutions that address local affordable housing needs.

Richard C. Gentry

President & CEO

San Diego Housing Commission