As vice president and Southern California market leader at Enterprise Community Partners, Jeff Schaffer oversees Enterprise’s programs advancing the development of affordable housing in Southern California. In addition to training and capacity building, policy leadership, and delivery of financial products, special initiatives of the Southern California office have included the launch of Restore Neighborhoods L.A. (RNLA) a new agency partnering with the city of Los Angeles in its foreclosure response efforts, and the New Generation Fund, a $100 million property acquisition and predevelopment lending facility. Jeff serves on the boards of RNLA, the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing and the L.A. Business Council.
Mr. Schaffer's lecture focused on current trends in affordable housing development and preservation in Southern California through an exploration of the work of Enterprise Community Partners. Since 1982, Enterprise has raised and invested nearly $14 billion to help finance 300,000 affordable homes across the United States. The discussion focused on how Enterprise helps channel capital to communities, as well as the role Enterprise plays as a leader in the affordable housing and community development policy arena, and touched on topics including affordable housing finance, green building, and transit-oriented development.
The UCLA Distinguished Speaker Series in Affordable Housing brings leading industry experts and scholars to UCLA to engage students on the critical issues related to urban housing markets, and housing policy and sustainability, particularly the housing needs and outcomes of low-income and workforce households. Leading business practitioners and policymakers discuss the current trends in affordable housing development and preservation in Southern California. Lecture topics include: affordable housing finance and development in California in the wake of the dissolution of redevelopment agencies, community economic development, transit-oriented development, permanent supportive housing, green building and approaches to creating more sustainable neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
The lecture series is jointly sponsored by the Howard and Irene Levine Program in Housing and Social Responsibility at the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate, and the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law.