Susan Friedland: The Development That Changed My Life

Susan Friedland is CEO of Satellite Affordable Housing Associates (SAHA), a leading nonprofit based in Berkeley, California.

During her freshman year in college, she took an urban studies class and started seeing the intersection between the physical environment, policy, and social change. From then on, she wanted to build affordable housing.

Friedland began her career at Fifth Avenue Committee, a community-based development organization in New York City. She reflects on the first project she worked on and why it remains important to her today as she leads SAHA, which provides affordable housing and services to more than 4,000 households in Northern California.

Development: Frances Residence

Location: Brooklyn, New York

Briefly describe the development:

I started my first job in affordable housing in 1998 at the Fifth Avenue Committee. Brad Lander, currently the New York City comptroller, was my boss. He told me about a local soup kitchen run by an amazing, compassionate, and powerful nun who had a bold idea to build supportive housing in an old building she was operating out of in Brooklyn. Sister Mary wanted to create a safe home for pregnant women to have their babies and stabilize their lives. It seemed kind of impossible, but we didn’t know enough to be defeated. We cobbled together local public and philanthropic funding and some volunteer help to renovate the upper floors of the soup kitchen to create Frances Residence. Operated by nonprofit Community Help in Park Slope (CHiPS), it still exists all these years later.

Your role in the project:

This was the first affordable housing development that I worked on. After getting my master’s in city planning, I moved to New York City. One day, I walked by the storefront of Fifth Avenue Committee and knocked on the door to see if they had a job opening. They asked if I could work on the funding application. I started as a consultant and was then hired to be on the staff about a month later. I remember writing up the funding applications, creating some financial projections using Lotus 1-2-3, making photocopies and riding the subway to deliver a giant three-ring binder to the agencies. I was able to be there every step of the way with the incredible Franciscan nun, Sister Mary.

Why is this project meaningful to you?

It still inspires me to this day—that kind of vision, tenacity, and ability to see the possible. Why couldn’t we do this? When there’s a will, there’s a way. In housing development, there’s a million reasons why something can’t work. You may have a great idea for a project, but there’s the competitive funding, the tricky zoning, the relentless neighborhood opposition. But, then there’s someone like Sister Mary with the grit to say, “It will work. We will figure it out.” That mentality she had, even on this small scale but against the odds, is still inspiring all these years later.

What lesson did you learn from Frances Residence, and how has it influenced your work?

It taught me the importance of finding a way to yes and always finding that path to making something possible and not getting discouraged. It also gave me the incredible satisfaction of taking an idea and seeing how it tangibly changes people’s lives. You start with an idea for housing, you work on it for years, you make it happen, and then you see the impact it has on people, especially those who have experienced hardship and need this opportunity. It has kept me doing this work. It’s seeing the ultimate product of your labor.

At a time when the industry has grown and become more complicated, it’s good to remember what was at the core. Affordable housing didn’t start as an industry, it started as community work done by people in the community. It’s amazing we now have the capacity to work at scale and do neighborhood-changing buildings and have the incredible brilliance of everyone in our field. But, our field started out with projects like Frances Residence.

There’s also the joy of meeting people along the way—all the committed, warm, smart, and funny people you encounter in this work. The people who do this work are constantly inspiring.