Day two of the Brick by Brick (BXB) Fellowship is complete! Last week, the BXB Fellows gathered at Solaire Apartments to learn about the first “P” of affordable housing: production. Fellows were exposed to presentations, panels, self-care/resiliency practices, games, introspective exercises, and a tour of Solaire Apartments.
Day two of the Brick by Brick (BXB) Fellowship is complete! Last week, the BXB Fellows gathered at Solaire Apartments to learn about the first “P” of affordable housing: production. It was a packed day filled with many special guests who showed BXB Fellows the ropes on what it takes to advocate, plan, design, fund, and ultimately build affordable housing. Fellows were exposed to presentations, panels, self-care/resiliency practices, games, introspective exercises, and a tour of Solaire Apartments, an affordable housing apartment that includes permanent supportive housing located in San Jose near Diridon Station and the Children’s Discovery Museum. Here’s a snippet of last week’s itinerary:
- Welcome/Presentation by Sarah Vaccaro with Architects FORA on designing Solaire Apartments
- Affordable Housing Production Presentations & Panel with:
- Randy Tsuda — President and CEO of Alta Housing (and SV@Home Board Member!)
- Manuel Salazar — Planning & Production Associate of SV@Home
- Matt Huerta — Founder and CEO of Matt Huerta Consulting, LLC
- Affordable Housing Production & Planning Jeopardy with Manuel Salazar
- Book Club of The Four Pivots
- Individual Development Plan Presentation and Discussion with our very own Alison Cingolani.
SV@Home is proud of how committed this cohort of Fellows are to learning and taking action to bringing affordable housing to all throughout the Silicon Valley. And thanks to our partners at Destination:Home, we were able to sponsor five Fellows to attend the NPH Conference the week before. Our vision is to expand the Brick by Brick Fellowship to go beyond training sessions. We wish to provide the opportunity for future fellows to embark on one-to-two year-long systems changing projects with our partners, as temporary SV@Home staff. It will take some time for this vision to come true, but we can get to it sooner with your support. Please consider donating with love to building our diverse, lived-experience future of tomorrow who can bring housing justice to Santa Clara County.
Special thanks and shout-out to:
- Dixie Baus, Director of Real Estate Development with Eden Housing for helping us book the community space at Solaire Apartments, along with securing Architects FORA and operations staff to speak and lead the tour.
- Our speakers/panelists for the day, Randy Tsuda with Alta Housing, Manuel Salazar with SV@Home, and Matt Huerta with Matt Huerta Consulting, LLC.
- Destination: Home for being our partners/sponsor
- Bank of America, members, and our donors for funding this program