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Now in her fifth year in charge of tracking the money coming in and going out of Mutual Housing California, Julie Goldfine has been honored by the Sacramento Business Journal as the newspaper’s CFO of the Year in the nonprofit sector.<\/i><\/p>\n
Julie, who is actually the Chief Financial and Operations Officers for Mutual Housing, will be honored at a luncheon Thursday, July 19, at the Hyatt Regency.<\/i><\/p>\n
A fourth-generation Sacramento resident, Julie is an expert in all aspects of accounting. She came to Mutual Housing in 2014 after spending eight years as the chief financial officer and chief operations officer for the affordable housing for-profit developer St. Anton Partners. She has spent more than 20 years in accounting since obtaining her degree from the University of San Diego and then obtaining her CPA license.<\/i><\/p>\n
When Julie started at Mutual Housing, she inherited a department that hadn’t had a leader for some 9 months since the previous CFO went out on a medical leave. She staffed up her side of the firm with four accountants and a supervisor to quickly get the financial side running smoothly again.<\/i><\/p>\n
Besides accounting, her responsibilities include oversight of asset management, human resources, administration, information technology, legal, insurance, and risk management – in short just about everything you can think of to support the Mutual Housing operation that houses approximately 3,600 residents in more than 1,000 homes in 19 communities.<\/i><\/p>\n
Julie, who has been married for 15 years, lives in the Sacramento area and enjoys skiing, hiking and closer-in outdoors activities such as walking the dog by the river and backyard barbecues with friends.<\/i><\/p>\n
She answered questions in this interview that was conducted by Mutual Housing California communications consultant Andy Furillo.<\/i><\/p>\n
This is an organization where the tenants are at the center of almost all of the decision making. What kind of challenge does that present from your end, coming at it from the financial angle?<\/b><\/p>\n
I think that as an organization, we still have to kind of balance it out on both sides. We are very resident driven, and that’s one of the things that makes the organization unique. We serve our residents, but we do still have to keep our properties up and operating. We have to find a happy medium between the resident-driven aspect of it and maintaining enough profitability so that we can keep the lights on. Recently, I worked with all kinds of people in putting together a rent increase policy. The residents come first, and in developing the basic premise of that policy, we wanted to set limits on how much we should actually increase rents. It’s not that we want to increase rents just to increase rents. We do it because expenses are increasing, so we can continue to hold onto the housing and continue to sustain it for the long run for our residents.<\/p>\n
Do we run a profit? Does that even matter?<\/b><\/p>\n
We do run profits some years, and some years when we’re not running a profit, we’re close to breaking even. I think it’s helpful that we continue to stay profitable because of the fact that if we want to continue to build the organization, we need to have a strong balance sheet to demonstrate to the lenders that we’re worthy of the construction loan. It’s not just for trying to pad our pockets. It’s so we can be viable in the long run and can continue to build and provide more affordable housing.<\/p>\n
You’ve described Mutual Housing as collaborative, diligent, engaging, and dedicated organization. Where does the resident fit into all of that?<\/b><\/p>\n
One of the things that attracted me to working here was the fact that we don’t just say it. We do it. And the fact that 50 percent of the residents on our board of directors are from the community — it’s not just saying that we want to develop leaders and say we want to hear from you. We have demonstrated in the by-laws we established for the organization, which sets the makeup of our board of directors.<\/p>\n
A lot of what happens on the financial and accounting side tends to get lost in Mutual Housing’s more high-profile story of resident-oriented management, leadership programs, educational programs and the like. Can you describe the importance of the financial and human resource side of the agency to its overall success?<\/b><\/p>\n
Without human capital and the right people in the right places, we’re not helping to move our organization’s mission forward. Accounting is one of those necessary evils. We perform a very valuable service in informing our stakeholders about how the organization is doing. We provide our department heads with budgetary reports to help them with understanding of the money they’re bringing in and how the decisions that they’re making impact the expenses of the organization. Accounting is always like a behind the scenes type of function. I don’t think people going into accounting think they’re going to be in the spotlight. But we do provide other services that actually do truly benefit the organization, such as human resources and employee development and training.<\/p>\n
You’re bringing human element to something that can be impersonal?<\/b><\/p>\n
Exactly.<\/p>\n
What do you think are the major accomplishments that merited your honor from the Sacramento Business Journal?<\/b><\/p>\n
I would say I’ve never been stagnant in a job. I always try to bring something new to the table. Not just one thing, but multiple things, and I work really well with my team, I want to build a good team, and I want to work with the organization so that I can help to make a difference. Whether it’s a policy improvement or a new employee benefit plan, there are just different things I’ve done that have helped further the organization and hopefully make it a better work place for our staff.<\/p>\n
You could probably be making a lot more money if you worked for a Big Five accounting firm or if you had gone to work in the accounting department of some huge corporation. Why did you go the nonprofit route?<\/b><\/p>\n
Well, at the end of the day, money doesn’t buy happiness. Even though I work on the money side of the business, I appreciate a good work life balance and being able to make a difference. I’ve been working on housing for a long time, primarily for for-profit companies, and I was doing well there. I like my career, but I also like my life outside of work and I want a good balance.<\/p>\n
What does it mean to be in a “strong cash position,” as Mutual Housing has been described?<\/b><\/p>\n
One way NeighborWorks looks at it is, how much cash do you have on hand, which means that if you stop bringing in more money, how long is your cash going to help sustain the organization? We usually have 12 to 18 months of cash on hand. Real estate is a cyclical business. To the extent we’re not developing, our revenue kind of goes down, because that’s where we are bringing in the large dollars to help sustain the organization. Having more cash on hand just helps us to be able to sustain during longer down cycles in the real estate market.<\/p>\n
What do you think is the potential reach for Mutual Housing California?<\/b><\/p>\n
Depending on the capital we want to throw at it and the risk we’re willing to take, I’d say it could be statewide. We could easily look at doubling our portfolio (to 36 communities). The last company I was with, they doubled they’re portfolio during the time I was there. Some of that can happen through acquisitions. We’re not seeing as much of that now, but during the downturn, there were a lot of similar companies, and they kind of wanted to get out of it, so they were actually selling off all their assets. There could be opportunities for us to increase significantly in size. We just have to be cautious in how we go about doing things so we’re able to sustain what we have and build going forward.<\/p>\n
How do you do that? How do you get bigger? You see something you like, you raise the money and buy it?<\/b><\/p>\n
Yeah, you can grow organically like that. That’s going to take longer. Usually we only have one or two projects under construction. So if we’re looking to double, that would take like a 10-to-15-year horizon. If we did it through acquisitions or merger with a similar nonprofit, you can do that in a much shorter time frame.<\/p>\n
So you have 19 different properties and 45 different entities that you have to keep tabs on, plus the overall Mutual Housing California organization. It seems pretty monumental. How do you stay on top of it?<\/b><\/p>\n
Each one of the properties is a different limited partnership, and each one has to one has to have a stand-alone audit. So, it all really starts with the accountants, and they do a lot of the leg work. I’m kind of more on the reviewing end of the product.<\/p>\n
Do they get days off?<\/b><\/p>\n
Yes.<\/p>\n
What is your take on what society, what government, needs to do to increase affordable housing?<\/b><\/p>\n
I’m not as well versed as others, but the abolishment of the redevelopment agencies was the first nail in the coffin of affordable housing funding in California. That was such as key funding source for organizations like ours. That was really a shame to see that go away. I’m hoping with some of the cap and trade money, or with some of the other funding sources, like the $4 billion Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond on the November ballot – that will all help. The tax credit program is very unique, to have that public-private partnership where you’re bringing in large institutional investors who probably otherwise wouldn’t be investing in affordable housing. I don’t think that government can do it by itself.<\/p>\n
Mutual Housing California endorses the Vets and Affordable Housing Act (Prop 1). Click here<\/a> to learn more information.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now in her fifth year in charge of tracking the money coming in and going out of Mutual Housing California, Julie Goldfine has been honored by the Sacramento Business Journal as the newspaper’s CFO of the Year in the nonprofit sector. Julie, who is actually the Chief Financial and Operations Officers for Mutual Housing, will… <\/p>\n