_14297_34265589.png){kind=logo}
It didn’t take long for Jessica Ison to roll into action once she arrived at Mutual Housing as our 2020-21 intern from California Coalition for Rural Housing. Right away, she jumped into the Lavender Courtyard by Mutual Housing project, learning the financial side of what it takes to build affordable housing. She’s also helping out on the earliest stages of Mutual Housing at 5th Street in Davis and Mutual Housing on 46th Street. A third-year community and regional development major at UC Davis, Jessica was born in San Francisco and raised in Fairfield and has only recently focused on nonprofit affordable housing development as a possible career option.
She spoke recently with Mutual Housing communication consultant Andy Furillo:
Q: As a student at UC Davis, you’ve been an activist and an advocate on several issues. With this internship, it seems that you have decided to focus on housing as the area where you wanted to apply it in the future. Is that correct?
Ison: Definitely. Growing up, I saw the important ways that housing impacted my family members’ lives. We took in one of my cousins so he could attend a community college nearby. Just by having that housing, my cousin was able to work on himself financially, mentally, and also on his education. In college, I experienced it first-hand. I’ve been privileged enough to not have to struggle with rent, but I have friends who do struggle. Sometimes, they can’t commit themselves to their school work as much as they could because they have jobs. A lot of them don’t even know what affordable housing is. As a Filipina, it’s very important for me to see my community thrive, to see other communities thrive, and the issue of housing drives it home. If you have a stable home, then you can work on almost every other aspect of your life, like job stability, or your education. That’s why I’ve been interested in housing. I think that’s the way I can help my people and other people like me, to break that cycle of poverty.
Q: What kind of work do they have you doing on your internship?
Ison: Right now, I’m working in the housing [development] department on Lavender Courtyard. Worked on the loan closing, and I’ve been tracking invoices, a lot of data entry stuff. I’m also going to be working on the 46th Street project soon. With the closing now done for 5th Street (in Davis) and Lavender Courtyard, we’re going to move on to 46th Street. I’ve been sitting in on meetings, getting myself familiar with Mutual Housing, as well as the folks on the team.
Q: It sounds like you’re basically getting grounded in the nuts and bolts of the building side of things.
Ison: Yes. Adrienne (Gemheart, the Lavender Courtyard project manager) has been a lot of help with the financial aspects. Even by tracking the invoices, I’ve been able to see what aspects tend to be more expensive, and how the payment cycle works.
Q: What are you doing on the 46th Street project?
Ison: Not too much yet. Parker (Evans, the 46th Street project manager) has caught me up on the project, and I’ll be sitting in on some meetings that have to do with the design aspects. They still have to get approval for all the financial aspects. So, we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to get the money. We’re hoping that in a year, we can do the same closing procedure we’re now doing for Lavender.
Q: How far have you come since you started the internship, in terms of understanding these kinds of details that go into getting an affordable housing community built?
Ison: In these first [few] months I feel like I’ve learned so much. There are so many moving parts, so much funding that needs to go into this. It’s more complicated and more of a niche field than I thought. I think I’ve learned a lot in regards to transferrable skills. People have encouraged me to ask questions, and just being able to sit on those meetings has been beneficial.
Q: Did you choose to go into the housing development department? Did you think about community development or other aspects of the Mutual Housing operation?
Ison: I actually didn’t put that much thought into it. When I applied for the internship, I didn’t know about all the different departments, asset management, things like that. I’m glad, though, that I ended up with Holly’s (Director of Housing Development Holly Wunder Stiles) team. That’s a great starting point, and I think I can still get a taste of other things, like resident services. I’ll probably be talking to other folks in other departments, but I think I’ll be more concentrated on housing development.
Q: Reading your resume, you struck me as more of an activist type who would have been interested in working more directly with residents.
Ison: It’s pretty surprising. In my past positions, I’ve worked mainly with people. I do enjoy working with people. This is new to me, but I’m still very excited to be in this role. I’m excited to explore how I like it, the work environment.
Q: It’s interesting how you can be going in one direction and then an opportunity comes up that bumps you in another direction. Is that kind of what’s happening to you?
Ison: Definitely. When I first started at UC Davis, I was set on being a professor. Now I’m in a field that is so new to me, and I didn’t even know about affordable housing field until recently. While career exploration is a little bit daunting, it’s also exciting to try out different roles and I’m excited to work with Mutual Housing in this one.
Q: Do you think you’ll go into the affordable housing business after you graduate from college?
Ison: I’m not completely sure. I’m hoping this internship can give me that insight.
Q: How important to you is Mutual Housing’s focus on diversity, equity and inclusion and how it might play into what you bring into the internship?
Ison: I think diversity, equity and inclusion are three different things, and fourth thing is justice. Diversity is having people from different backgrounds in the room and inclusion is including those voices. Justice is making sure we get to the root causes of why they were not in the room in the first place, and how we can uplift those voices and communities, including the multi-cultural, and multi-disabled, folks not just from different races but from different neurological spectrums and genders.
Q: Where does this impulse for diversity and justice within you come from?
Ison: Some of it stems from my own experience as a Filipina-American and not being included in the room. Some of it comes from ethnic studies classes I’ve taken at UC Davis that have taught us the importance of honoring other folks’ histories. I feel like it does make me more empathetic. I can see and understand where we’re falling short. I always think of the underdog, because I know that sometimes my own community is never thought of. If I can work to include someone else, that’s really important to me.”