Financing Affordable Housing In The Bay Area

Cynthia A. Parker, President & CEO, is responsible for the overall direction of BRIDGE Housing, a leading nonprofit developer, owner and manager of affordable housing. She joined BRIDGE as President and CEO in February 2010, bringing over 30 years of diverse and relevant experience to the organization. She previously served as Regional President for Mercy Housing and President of Intercommunity Mercy Housing. Prior to her tenure at Mercy, she was Senior Vice President of Seattle-Northwest Securities, a public finance firm, where she oversaw affordable housing, commercial and public facility real estate financing in five Northwest states. A partial list of her real estate financial advisory clients includes: The Port of Seattle, Port of Olympia, City of Redmond and City of Seattle; the housing authorities of Portland, Everett, King County and Seattle (HOPE VI); the University of Washington, Pacific University, and the University of Portland; and the school districts of Edmonds, Seattle, and Portland. In Alaska, her clients included the Municipality of Anchorage and the Alaska Railroad. Ms. Parker established the Housing Office of the City of Seattle and served as the City’s Director of Housing under two separate mayors, with responsibility for the City’s housing investment strategies, $100 million annual capital budget and $824 million loan portfolio. Ms. Parker previously developed over 3,500 units in Oregon and Alaska with mixed financing. She assisted the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation with the design of both taxable and tax-exempt housing bond programs and has provided syndication services for tax-credit placements. A former director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Ms. Parker has chaired the Sound Families Initiative for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and currently serves as a director of the National Affordable Housing Trust, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, Housing Partnership Network, Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future, the Beneficial State Foundation and the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, and is on the Board of Governors of the California Housing Consortium. Ms. Parker is a graduate of Portland State University.

Larry brings over thirty years experience in real estate, community and economic development in both the public and private sector to Burbank Housing. Most recently Larry served as the Director of Housing and Intergovernmental Affairs for Napa County. He managed Napa County’s affordable housing programs as well as the county’s Housing Authority and community and economic development activities. Prior to joining Napa County Larry spent over ten years in the private sector, co founding a development company specializing in adaptive reuse of underutilized industrial property and overseeing some of the company’s largest development projects in the San Francisco Bay Area including the redevelopment of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and Treasure Island. While in the Northeast Mr. Florin oversaw a 2,000 unit urban mixed use development project along the Hudson River across from Midtown Manhattan. He has over 15 years experience working in senior management positions in San Francisco including executive level positions in the Mayor’s Office, Redevelopment Authority and Port. He also served as the first Executive Director of the Treasure Island Development Authority. Throughout the years Larry has served on the Executive Board of the Association of Bay Area Governments, the Governors Task Force on Military Base Conversion, the State of California Housing Element Working Group and California Forward’s One Million Homes Initiative. He has received the San Francisco Business Times Real Estate Transaction of the Year Award and the San Francisco Mayors Manager of the Year. Larry has a Master in Urban Planning from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Purchase State College.

I am originally from Fresno, then went to Pennsylvania and played D1 baseball at Bucknell University from 2000-2004. My wife and I met while living in Baltimore, then we moved to San Francisco in 2008. Ever since graduating college, I’ve been involved in real estate in one way or another. Before joining Mission Housing, I managed real estate assets for union pension funds and various union locals throughout Northern California. I started with Mission Housing in December 2011 as an Asset Manager, then Director of Asset Management and became Executive Director in September 2013. I oversee the administration of all Mission Housing assets, programs, and services. I also make sure that each and every day our mission, and the short and long-term vision for Mission Housing are achieved. Every day is different! I am often in meetings at City Hall and throughout various San Francisco communities pushing for more support of the Affordable Housing industry. On other days, my time at Mission Housing might be spent with issues like human resources, operations, budgets or board meetings. Working in Affordable Housing is very rewarding, and I’m very thankful for finding Mission Housing. The most satisfying part of my job is watching our employees represent Mission Housing in the community, interacting with and supporting our residents and our neighbors in the Mission. Since 2012, our staff has grown from eight people to 25 people! Seeing how we can make change for the better is very gratifying. I love working on behalf of the current and future residents of the Mission. The people before me who paved the way for Mission Housing sacrificed a great deal. I’m reminded of their hard work whenever I look at one of our 35 buildings, or meet one of our residents. My wife and I enjoy seeing live music and going to Giants games. I’m also happy to play pool at my local bar and not do much else. San Francisco is such an amazing city, I’m lucky to be able to simply hang out in North Beach or the Mission all weekend, enjoying an awesome burrito!