11th Annual Sacramento Regional Affordable Housing Summit

Panel Descriptions

Panel 1: The Road Ahead: California’s New Housing and Homelessness Agency

9:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.

California’s newly established Housing and Homelessness Agency represents a pivotal step in centralizing and coordinating the state’s response to the housing and homelessness crisis. This panel will explore how the agency is expected to impact regional efforts—what changes local leaders and service providers can anticipate, how stakeholders can engage, and what the plan looks like in the near term.

Hear directly from representatives involved in shaping the legislation, who will offer insight into the agency’s goals, realistic expectations, and its role as a collaborative—not standalone—solution. The conversation will also highlight the agency’s role in cross-department collaboration, including work with HCD, TCAC, and implementation of AB 2006 to streamline housing and funding processes. With leadership hires underway and interagency coordination in motion, this session offers a critical look at how this structural change could influence outcomes across California communities.

Panelists

• Marina Wiant, Executive Director, California Tax Credit Allocation Committee
• Sasha Kergan, Deputy Secretary of Housing and Consumer Relations, State of California Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency
• Tony Sertich, Executive Director, California Housing Finance Agency

Moderator

• Anya Lawler, Managing Director, Public Interest Advocates

Panel 2: Addressing Homelessness in a Time of Change

11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Local efforts to provide affordable housing with robust on-site services are evolving. This dynamic is responding to changing circumstances locally, at the state level, and federally. Be part of an interactive discussion to share how current funders, service providers and affordable housing developers are responding, and how people with lived experience must be part of this effort. Hear how our health care systems contribute to solutions, how local housing provider are responding, and how Sacramento Steps Forward is administering helpful resources.

The panel will share information about their current programs and strategies as well as their perspectives going forward.

Panelists

• Amber Kemp, Vice President, Medi-Cal Strategy, Execution, and Engagement, Health Net
• Erica Plumb, Regional Director of Supportive Services, Mercy Housing California
• Joe Smith, Sacramento Continuum of Care Board
• Lisa Bates, CEO, Sacramento Steps Forward

Moderator

• William Pavao, SHA Affordable Housing Development Advisory Committee Chair

Panel 3: Advancing our Equity Agenda in Troubling Times

1:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Building power and community through anti-displacement and community benefit agreements, can help us effectively navigate through federal attacks on equity. This panel will share both the successes and challenges the Sacramento Investment Without Displacement coalition faced when fighting for a community benefits agreement with the City of Sacramento and the University of California Davis.

This work resulted in $50 million for affordable housing development and $10 million for anti-
displacement programs, among other things. It will also focus on efforts to get the City of
Sacramento to adopt a city-wide Community Benefits Ordinance. Information about CBA work in other communities and the components of effective CBAs will also be shared.

Panelists

• Kim Williams, Director, Sacramento Investment without Displacement
• Tamika L’Ecluse, Director, Sacramento Community Land Trust
• Tiffany Wilson, Research and Evaluation Consultant

Moderator

• Cathy Creswell, President Emeritus, Sacramento Housing Alliance

Panel 4: One Region, Shared Goals: Elected Officials on Housing and Homelessness

2:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Join mayors and county supervisors from across Sacramento County for a timely conversation on regional collaboration to address housing and homelessness. While homelessness response is often driven by county-level and service provider efforts, cities play a critical role in affordable housing production, from planning and zoning for new housing to setting development fees and enacting local incentives and ordinances.

This panel will explore how jurisdictions are working to address shared goals to increase
affordable housing production, to seek new local, regional, and state funding resources for
housing and homelessness, and to increase cross-jurisdictional partnerships and coordination in service of Sacramento County’s residents.

Panelists

• Bobbie Singh-Allen, Mayor, City of Elk Grove
• Jayna Karpinski-Costa, Mayor, City of Cirtus Heights
• Linda Budge, Councilmember, City of Rancho Cordova
• Sarah Aquino, Mayor, City of Folsom
• Patrick Kennedy, Sacramento County Supervisor, District Two

Moderator

• Gabriela Herrera, Board Member, Sacramento Housing Alliance