Smart, Equitable, and Sustainable Housing: Meta's Lindsay Haddix on Systems of Governance, Regional Approaches, and Public Service
Lindsay Haddix on the Cowiche Canyon Trail.
By Julia Gamolina
Lindsay Haddixis the Housing Initiative Program Manager at Meta (fka Facebook) where she is focused on advancing the investment and policy priorities associated with the company’s $1 billion commitment to help address the affordable housing crisis. Prior to Meta, Lindsay was at San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) where she oversaw the real estate development of housing, shelters, and service sites. Lindsay worked at the San Mateo County Department of Housing, nonprofit developer BRIDGE Housing, and the New York City Housing Authority - the largest public housing authority in North America.
She started her housing career at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) - the nation’s largest municipal housing agency. Lindsay also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 2004 to 2006. She has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Brown University and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her interview, Lindsay talks about working to solve the crises of homelessness and housing affordability, advising those just starting their careers to engage in public service.
JG: Tell me about your foundational years - where did you grow up and what did you like to do as a kid?
LH: I was born and raised in Yakima, a city in Central Washington known for its bountiful agriculture and plentiful sunshine. My high school was surrounded by apple orchards and had pig barns on the school grounds. My father worked for the City of Yakima in various roles — as a Planner, Acting Airport Manager, and Acting Transit Manager, among others. My mother started out as a part-time bank teller and worked her way up to become the Vice President of a local community bank.
It’s probably not surprising that I was interested in public service and institutions at an early age — I was elected class treasurer in ninth grade and participated in the local YMCA’s Youth & Government program for all three years of high school. I thought it was important to understand how the systems of governance worked — whether within the halls of West Valley Junior High or at the State Capitol in Olympia - in order to impactfully affect change.
What did you learn about yourself in studying the environment? How did you decide to pursue studies in city and regional planning next?
When I showed up at Brown as a freshman, I enrolled in “Introduction to Environmental Studies” taught by the Department Chair Professor Harold Ward. I had become environmentally conscious at a young age — trying to implement as many things from “50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth” as I could. But my coursework as an Environmental Studies major shifted the focus of agency and responsibility away from the individual and onto the policies, infrastructure, and politics that determine environmental, and public health, outcomes.
It was during my time serving as an Environmental Education Volunteer with the Peace Corps in Ipala, Chiquimula, Guatemala that I decided to apply to planning school. Two main factors led me to this decision. The first was that I fully realized how privileged I was to be able to access some of the best graduate school programs in the world; I felt I had an obligation to receive an education of a caliber most people can only dream about. The second was that the house I was renting was located next to a metal workshop, causing me to develop environmentally-triggered asthma. It was scary and awful, and I began to appreciate the planning regulations of my home country in a whole new light — as well as acknowledge that for many communities in the U.S., the fight for environmental justice continued.
Lindsay with collegues from the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and Public Works at the opening of the Bryant Street Navigation Center in 2019.
How did you get your start in the field?
After finishing my studies at Carolina, I decided to move to New York City, and I have Christine Coletta to thank for that! She and I were both Environmental Studies majors at Brown, and after we graduated she moved to New York to work for the City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). She introduced me to so many amazing housing colleagues, many of whom I now count as dear friends, and convinced me to apply to positions at HPD.
I was very fortunate that HPD offered me a Senior Project Manager position right as the mortgage crisis was catalyzing a larger financial system meltdown in NYC and across the country. My job was to manage three large-scale projects on a site that was declared an Urban Renewal Area (URA) in 1965 on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. The Arverne URA had a long and fraught history before I joined HPD — as do most neighborhoods that were targeted in the heyday of Robert Moses-style planning. I felt it was my responsibility to try to move the project forward as best as possible for a community that had been waiting decades for the City to make good on its promises.
From there, tell me how your work evolved, and you with it.
I spent six years at HPD in five different roles. While each role had its ups and downs, the most pivotal positions for me were on the Distressed Assets Financing Team — where I got to address the mortgage foreclosure crisis in real time — and then when I moved on to serve as the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Commissioner of Development. It was a huge job, and I learned a lot about how to navigate within a large institution.
After HPD, I joined the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). One of the projects I worked on with the Chair’s Office was to “adopt practices of design excellence to improve the quality of NYCHA’s interior and exterior spaces.” Many of NYCHA’s 328 developments are fashioned after Le Corbusier’s “Tower in the Park” model, and the goal in the strategic plan was to integrate NYCHA’s ~2,250 buildings into surrounding communities.
“At this point in my career I’ve worked for municipal and county housing departments, a public housing authority, a nonprofit affordable housing developer, a homelessness department, and now a private sector company...What is on my mind is that we need to continue large scale investments in all of these areas of housing development.”
In 2015, I decided to leave Brooklyn and move back to the west coast. I chose San Francisco for a lot of reasons, including the Bay Area’s robust affordable housing community and having a strong foundation to build out my personal and professional networks. I joined BRIDGE Housing Corporation because I thought that after seven years of public service, it would be good for me to sit on the other side of the table and to experience deals from the perspective of a nonprofit affordable housing developer.
After BRIDGE, I went back to the public sector and joined the San Mateo County Department of Housing (DOH). DOH was a great experience because I got to work on a wide variety of projects from a Regional Assessment of Fair Housing to the development of a master plan for an underutilized County-owned site. I left DOH to work for the City and County of San Francisco’s Department of Homlessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) managing the expansion of the City’s shelter system by 1000 beds, including the widely discussed Embarcadero Navigation Center. It was the first time I’d worked on transitional shelter projects, and there were some familiar obstacles to overcome — NIMBYs, budgetary constraints, ambitious construction timelines — as well as some unfamiliar ones, like using construction types such as modular and tensile, and designing for congregate living.
How did you get to Meta? What is your role?
In October 2019, Meta — formerly known as Facebook — announced that it would be committing $1 billion to help address the affordable housing crisis in California. I joined Meta a couple months later as the Policy Program Manager for the company’s Housing Initiative. We are doing this work in partnership with nonprofit organizations, policy makers, and other companies statewide in order to develop and implement impactful solutions.
Among other responsibilities, I currently oversee the first housing investment fund Meta created - the Community Housing Fund (CHF). The CHF is a $150 million fund which launched in December of 2020 and invests in housing projects in the Bay Area that include units for extremely low-income households. The CHF, which is managed by CDFI Local Initiatives Support Coalition, has already funded thirteen projects which will create over 1500 units of affordable housing, and we are hoping it can serve as a model for other potential funders who want to support the creation of housing for Bay Area residents earning the lowest incomes and those who are experiencing homelessness.
Lindsay at the summit of El Volcán y Laguna de Ipala, Guatemala in 2005 during her time as a Peace Corps volunteer.
Lindsay with sister Kim Haddix at the NYC Marathon bib pick-up in 2017.
Where are you in your career today? What is on your mind most at the moment?
At this point in my career I’ve worked for municipal and county housing departments, a public housing authority, a nonprofit affordable housing developer, a homelessness department, and now a private sector company. I’ve overseen the new construction of small homes, a homeowner foreclosure prevention program, capital projects, multifamily occupied rehabs, transitional shelter construction, and a large investment fund. I feel so fortunate to have a perspective that is informed by all of these roles.
What is on my mind is that we need to continue large scale investments in all of these areas of housing development. We need bold financial commitments and policy solutions that support the creation of new housing for all income levels, preserve existing affordable and the public housing stock, help homeowners facing foreclosure, and assist people who are at risk of or currently experiencing homelessness.
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you manage through a disappointment or a perceived setback?
The biggest challenge in my career was leaving New York for San Francisco. It was the right decision, but at the time, I probably underestimated how difficult it would be to simultaneously build up a new professional network while learning all the pieces of a new complex housing development ecosystem — from advocacy organizations to land use laws to financing vehicles. I got through it by reminding myself to be patient, and that with time, I’d first, find like-minded colleagues, and second, put enough of the pieces together to be able to contribute to the affordable housing community in an impactful way. I’ve definitely achieved the first goal; the second one is an endless pursuit as the industry continues to evolve.
What are you most excited about right now?
I am excited about the move towards regional approaches to solving the dual crises of homelessness and housing affordability in the Bay Area. More people and organizations are realizing that collaboration and coordination across the political boundaries of the 101 jurisdictions of the Bay Area through public, private, and nonprofit partnerships is paramount for lasting, structural change. This embrace of regionalism is embodied in organizations like the new regional Bay Area Housing Finance Authority and the Partnership for the Bay’s Future - both of which Meta support.
“To me, success looks like: homelessness at functional zero; all households paying less than a third of their income towards housing costs; a mitigation of the devastating impacts of climate change; and a reversal of decades of housing policy decisions which have led to racial segregation and income inequality.”
Who are you admiring now and why?
I have had the privilege of working under the leadership of or directly with many amazing women over my career. The list of women I admire is too long to print so will just mention a few - RuthAnne Visnauskas, Commissioner of the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal; Shola Olatoye, Director of the City of Oakland’s Department of Housing & Community Development; Tomiquia Moss, Founder and CEO of nonprofit All Home, and Mai Thi Nguyen, Professor of Urban Studies and Planning and the Director of the Design Lab at UCSD. All of these women have used their incredible talents and passion to serve others while working in challenging environments in the public and nonprofit sectors. I am a better professional for having worked alongside each of them!
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?
I am passionate about smart, equitable, and sustainable housing and community development. I want everyone to have access to safe, decent, affordable housing — and for that housing to be in close proximity to economic and educational opportunities, a healthy environment, public transit, and community and cultural institutions. To me, success looks like: homelessness at functional zero; all households paying less than a third of their income towards housing costs; a mitigation of the devastating impacts of climate change; and a reversal of decades of housing policy decisions which have led to racial segregation and income inequality. And I won’t stop working at it until we get there.
Lindsay with parents John and Laura Haddix at Ocean Beach, San Francisco.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
Consider public service! In my experience, public agencies strive to hire a workforce that reflects the community that they serve, and this can be a very refreshing work environment — especially when working in fields where women, and other groups, have traditionally been underrepresented. Also, public sector salary ranges and titles are more transparent, and fixed, which can relieve the pressure of having to engage in salary negotiations in the earlier stage of your career. There are many public agencies which employ architecture, engineering, and planning professionals, and it can be a great place to get your start. It certainly was for me!