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Since her arrival in California more than 35 years ago from Grand Rapids, Mich., few people in the Golden State have been as deeply involved on housing issues or been more committed to making it accessible and affordable than Mutual Housing California Board Chair Cathy Creswell. She worked for 25 years in the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development and became its interim director. When she left state service, she continued her career in housing as a volunteer and advocate, and she found a comfortable and compatible landing spot in 2014 when she was appointed to the board at Mutual Housing. It’s a platform that along with her appointed positions on boards and commissions and other community organizations has made Creswell one of the Sacramento region’s most respected activists when it comes to housing affordability and accessibility for people of all income levels. Creswell sat down recently to discuss her career with Mutual Housing communications consultant Andy Furillo.
How did you first get going on housing issues in Grand Rapids?
Creswell: I was doing community organizing, and one of the first projects I worked on was to get a truck route moved out of a disadvantaged neighborhood. It quickly became very clear that public policies that on their surface appear benign and objective, were too often being applied in a manner that harmed neighborhoods occupied by lower income people and communities of color. In doing that kind of community work, it became apparent to me that one of the most fundamental things that either strengthens or disadvantages a neighborhood and families was the quality and affordability of the housing they lived in. So many of the residents in that neighborhood were living in substandard housing. Kids could not really study or do homework because they had no place to do it, their houses were too small, or it was cold, and it was too hard for them to concentrate. Too often substandard conditions impacted the health of everyone in the household and families had to move often because of the high housing costs or conditions. It became very clear to me that if we really want to strengthen the capacity of families to be successful, we needed to fundamentally work on housing. Ever since then, I have dedicated my career and my other volunteer activities to try to ensure that everybody has access to a safe, affordable home.
You saw housing, then, as the linchpin issue that is crucial to resolving all of the other, like schools, and health care, and jobs?
Creswell: You can’t name an issue that people care about that isn’t fundamentally impacted by housing – education, health care, the environment, the economy. Housing is a foundation to the quality of life in our communities and for families, and yet it is one of the most controversial areas that we deal with in public policy. Housing is a bond that we all share, and yet it is an area where too many people who have a nice home don’t seem to be concerned about the lack of safe housing for their neighbors, or the fact that some people have no housing at all. I’ve tried to work on helping people understand that housing is fundamental, that it’s something that should be an innate right, that nobody should live in this country of such wealth and not have access to that most basic need. And yet we continue to struggle with that.
How did you make the leap into the housing governmental infrastructure?
Creswell: My husband (William Pavao, the former executive director of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee) had gotten a job at the state Department of Community Development. When we first moved to Sacramento, I did policy and legislative work for the Western Center on Law and Poverty and California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation. I thought it would be interesting to see if you could have an impact on a broader basis at the state level, and the state Department of Housing and Community Development happened to be hiring. So I got on a list and got picked up there to do Housing Element work. I found it absolutely remarkable that you had this state system that actually required local governments to plan for housing, and for affordable housing. It has really been an invaluable tool to improve people’s lives, and I was fortunate at the state to see it strengthened in its capacity to meaningfully impact housing in local communities.
I’m sure you had your opinions, and you had your community organizer background, and I would imagine you had to stifle some of your own impulses to work there pragmatically. Was it hard?
Creswell: Yes, but I never had to compromise my basic beliefs or values in doing the work. I felt that we could have gone further on some things, but having somebody with my background and beliefs strengthened our capacity to protect the important laws that were there. And I found with work, you could frequently find common ground with people who had other perspectives. Even if people disagree with you, you have to ensure people can fundamentally trust you. If they believe that you are honest and you are an honest steward of your position, department or agency, you can make things happen.
What were some of your best accomplishments with the state?
Creswell: We were able to get the only comprehensive revision of housing element law approved with consensus of all major interests groups. The reforms strengthened the capacity of the law to increase the development and preservation of affordable homes, especially for lower income families. We also were able under (former Governor) Gray Davis to get some of the first-ever general fund allocations for housing and housing planning including developing and implementing the State’s first incentive programs to promote jobs/housing balance and affordable infill development. I am also proud of the work during my last year at the Department to get the Brown Administration to reauthorize expenditures of the housing bonds that had been frozen during the budget crisis and were jeopardizing the development of critically needed affordable home communities.
It must have been very liberating in some respects when you left state government in 2012, to become a full-blown advocate.
Creswell: It was actually going back to what I started off doing in Grand Rapids. There’s no question, I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to do what I think is service at the state level, and to have had impact on communities throughout the state. And I met amazing people up and down the state. But working for the state, I couldn’t be involved in my local community, in housing activities, because we oversaw some of their programs. So the opportunity when I left the state to start getting engaged in the community in which I live again was absolutely empowering and exciting and wonderful. There are amazing people in this community whom I have had the opportunity to learn from – (former Mutual Housing CEO) Rachel Iskow, (community organizer) Tamie Dramer and others, to the Legal Services folks, and the Sacramento Housing Alliance. I feel like I’ve been strengthened to be able to continue making a difference in my community.
How did you come to Mutual Housing in 2014?
Creswell: Rachel reached out and asked if I was interested in serving. While I was at HCD, I had the opportunity to observe the great work of California nonprofit affordable housing developers and always appreciated Mutual’s focus on resident engagement and leadership development. So I jumped at the chance. I’d never been with a nonprofit development company. It was another opportunity to learn, to be a part of an organization that has had such a dramatic impact on the lives of thousands and thousands of members of our communities. It is a great privilege, and I also feel like I have another opportunity to contribute, to strengthen the lives of people that I care about.
What about homelessness: have you ever seen it worse?
Creswell: In my experience, no. You probably saw the recent report that Sacramento had 124 deaths of homeless people in the prior year, and then one more over the (Labor Day) weekend. What kind of society do we live in when we let people die on the streets, unprotected and unhoused? I don’t know how anybody can think that’s the society they want to live in. We can stop that. Proposition 2 (on the November ballot) can help make a difference there. It’s funding that voters already approved with Proposition 63 (in 2004) that would enable us to serve the housing needs of homeless people who suffer from serious mental illness. That is a huge need, and we know that permanent supportive housing saves money on emergency room visits and other kinds of local expenses, not to mention that it is actually saving people’s lives. And understanding that affordable homes are the ultimate solution to homelessness, we also have the opportunity with passage of Proposition 1 to provide $4 billion to increase the supply of safe, accessible and affordable homes throughout the state.
Is there anything you want to say about rent control?
Creswell: I believe rent control can be an appropriate part of an overall strategy to address our housing crisis. While I believe increasing the housing supply and increasing the supply of affordable housing is always a part of the solution, it is a long-term strategy that will not help people now. And in this community, we have the highest eviction rates we’ve had in a long time. Sacramento has had the highest rent increases in the nation. So, having an overall strategy to increase affordable housing and a rent stabilization program that both protects tenants from unfair eviction and unreasonable rent increase, while providing for a reasonable return on the investments for property owners, is an appropriate thing for us to do. From my experience, having lived in Berkeley and Los Angeles with rent control, I found that it helped create the stability families needed to achieve success and did not have a significant impact on housing supply. Who can say that in L.A. there is not a lot of construction going on? Every time you go to L.A. there are tons of cranes going up. So, the notion that putting in a reasonable rent control will stop development is not borne out to be true.
And now, you’re the Mutual Housing board chair. How would you sum that up in the context of your career?
Creswell: I am so happy to be part of an organization with as much success as Mutual Housing has had in building strong communities for the residents in the properties that we operate. We have so much capacity to increase the success and potential for those communities, for more people in California to be safely and affordably housed, to empower residents to take ownership and leadership of their communities. Affordable housing provides a platform for family stability, health and economic well-being as well as to support sustainable, thriving communities. I am so proud to be part of an organization whose mission is to achieve these outcomes and has a track record of success. I am confident Mutual Housing will continue this success in the coming decades and continue to strengthen our capacity to serve and support residents and communities.
Mutual Housing Board Chair Cathy Creswell introduces prospective board members at the recent residents’ annual meeting and picnic. Creswell is the former interim director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development. She’s been on the Mutual Housing board since 2014 and earlier this year was named its chair.