Linda Mandolini
Linda Mandolini has served as the Chief Executive of Eden Housing since 2001. Eden Housing
(www.edenhousing.org) is one of California's oldest and most successful non-profit housing developers and
owners. Linda oversees affordable housing production, resident support services, and property
management components of the organization, and a staff of more than 400 employees. She is guided in her
work by Eden's active volunteer board of directors, and together they just completed an ambitious 5-year
strategic plan to build or preserve 10,000 affordable homes in California over the next ten years.
Under Linda’s leadership, Eden Housing has become one of the most productive and successful nonprofit
affordable housing developers and owners in California and is nationally recognized for its work. To date,
Eden has developed or acquired approximately 11,000 affordable rental apartments in communities
throughout California, providing homes for more than 22,000 low-income residents from all cultures and
backgrounds. Eden currently has an additional 4,000 units in its pipeline.
The organization has received numerous awards including being named as one of the Best Places to Work
2015-2017, and one of the Healthiest Employers in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Journal for
the past nine consecutive years (2012-2020). Annually since 2006, Affordable Housing Finance Magazine
has named Eden Housing as one of the Top 50 owners or developers of affordable housing nationally.
Linda joined Eden in 1996 as a Project Developer and was promoted to Associate Director of Real Estate
Development. In 1999 and 2000, she worked with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group as Director of
Transportation and Housing Policy. She then rejoined Eden to serve as Director of Real Estate Development
and was named President in 2001.
Linda has received a number of awards including being named the Housing Champion by the Housing Trust
of Silicon Valley in 2020, inducted into the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame in 2017; named to the
San Francisco Business Times' Forever Influential Honor Roll in 2016; Bay Area's Most Influential Women in
Business in 2011, 2014, and 2015, Northern California's Real Estate Women of Influence in 2011; and
awarded the Affordable Housing Management Association's (AHMA) Pioneer in Affordable Housing in 2011.
She was also honored by the East Bay Business Times as a Woman of Distinction in 2008.
Under Linda's leadership, Eden Housing has completed three portfolio mergers and acquisitions, and has
launched a number of initiatives to increase affordable housing preservation and to promote sustainable
practices. Eden was among the first of its peers to implement a portfolio-wide green retrofitting and
resident conservation program. Linda is often called upon to share Eden's best practices at regional,
statewide, and national forums.
In 2018, Eden Housing celebrated its 50 year anniversary with a 50 Years/50 Stories Campaign with video,
podcast and photo-stories; an ambitious effort spearheaded by Linda to demonstrate the positive impact
affordable housing has on people and communities.
Linda is known as a leader in housing policy on the local, state and national level. She serves or has served
on and held leadership positions on the following boards: The California Housing Consortium (CHC), where
she currently chairs the Policy Committee, the National Housing Conference, the Housing Partnership
Network, the Housing Partnership Equity Trust, the ULI Terwilliger Center for Affordable Housing, the UC
Berkeley Terner Center Advisory Board, The Factory OS and Catalyst, Advisory Boards, the Housing Trust of
Silicon Valley, Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California (NPH), Enterprise Communities'
Community Leadership Council, and the International Housing Partnership Exchange.
Linda was one of the affordable housing leaders who worked tirelessly for the passage of Proposition 46,
Proposition 1C, and Propositions 1 and 2, three California Housing bonds that collectively generated $10
billion for housing. She has also helped lead local housing initiatives, including most recently the Measures
A and A1 Housing bonds in Santa Clara and Alameda Counties respectively, that generated $1.5 billion in
local funding for affordable housing. In early 2020, she helped lead the passage of a local sales tax in San
Jose to support affordable housing.
Prior to relocating to California in 1996, Linda held various community development positions in Boston.
Linda received her AB degree from Wheaton College in Massachusetts and earned an MBA from Boston
University, with a concentration in public and non-profit management. She also completed the Harvard
Kennedy School/NeighborhorWorks, Achieving Excellence in Community Development program.
In her free time, Linda is an avid bicyclist and frequently rides for charitable causes including the Leukemia
and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training Program, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the Michael J.
Fox Foundation in support of research for cures for Parkinson's disease.
Eden Housing
President