SPEAKER_02 0:35

Good morning, everyone. And this is an unusual, wonderful morning because I'm Dr. Estee Hess.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

And I'm Dr. Ann Kirsch.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

And we are doing our podcast on and off the spectrum with two very special guests, and we're doing it this morning to work and accommodate everyone's schedule. We have with us incredibly special guests today. We have uh, I'm going to say, a congressional candidate, which is really our first quite an honor, Melissa Hernandez for District 14 in Northern California. Please welcome and thank you for agreeing to be on our podcast. And Susan Houghton. And Susan not only is a uh a good friend, but she is now the founder of an amazing foundation called Sunflower Hill, also in the Bay Area, that creates uh places and spaces, as they like to say it, for creating affordable housing and programming for the special needs community also in the Bay Area. So without further ado, this is really interesting. Stories in terms of how the two of you found each other and then how you also uh came to create this programming and opportunities to expand into Northern California, and we would love to hear the story.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Yes. Tell us everything from how it began. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

Well, everything is a long time, but I can go back to 2013 when I am the mother of a son with autism. I call him moderate autism. Okay. His name is Robbie, and he um lives in a world, quite frankly, that is Disney centric. He thinks Disney princesses are real. He wants them to be. I think we all should. Um, you know, he loves Disney analogies, he's an incredible artist. Uh, special Olympia loves just life in general. But as many of us know, the world of special needs, once you age out of the high school system, can be a shocking place. Um there are no IEPs, there are no federal mandates, you have to scramble for day programs. And so as Robbie was aging out of his high school years at age 22, the common question became where will he live? What will he do? And how will he be? And what will be his happiness? And I was with a group of parents who heard the options for housing and we didn't like any of them. We said, Where's the senior living type of concept for folks? I mean, we have housing centric to veterans, we have housing centric to seniors, we now have housing-centric to farm workers and very unique needs for folks and homeless. But there is very little thought of housing-centric to a population that is so innocent with IDD. So we started that back in 2013, and along that journey, I was fortunate enough to meet Melissa, and she was the fabulous mayor of Dublin at the time. I knew her before that as well.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

But just because we have, I'm apologizing, Susan, just because we have a worldwide audience, I'm saying that's Dublin, California versus Dublin in Ireland, because we actually have a very large UK viewership.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

That's a good point. Very good point. I'm sure Melissa would love to be the mayor of Dublin, Ireland as well. But in this case, in this case, it was Dublin, California.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Melissa could do anything she said her wanted to.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Yes, Dublin, Dublin, California, and Northern California. Um, and it's considered um in the Tri-Valley here in the East Bay.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

Yeah. So long story short, and I'll be happy to answer additional questions. Um, Melissa and I became joined at the hip when she is the mayor of Dublin, saw the need for affordable housing and recognized that she could help make a difference. And she was able to secure almost two acres of land for a community that we now have under development called Sunflower Hill at Grace Point. And when fully realized, it'll offer 48 units, one and two bedroom units at 30 to 60 percent AMI or the area median income, and it'll have wraparound services of activities and all the things you typically see at senior living. So Sunflower Hill is an entity that develops affordable housing, and we are have a community already open in Pleasanton, and Dublin is our next big community that we're looking at, and then we do services as well for folks, and that's how I was fortunate enough to be able to work closely with Melissa.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

So the community that's open already in Pleasanton, how long has that been open?

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Well, actually, yesterday, in this is I don't know when this is going to be airing, but on September 17th, 2000, we signed our first lease. We thought it was important to open during the pandemic. Oh of course. I was being facetious on that. It's just when we ended, but we built it in Pleasanton. It's uh 1.64 acres. It offers 31 units at 30 to 60 percent AMI, and we signed our first leases for people to move in in during the pandemic. And we've been open six years, and we still have over 170 people on the list to try to get in.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

And it is great. That's an amazing success. That's really amazing and wonderful. And I really hope that for everyone who's listening, that that even though this takes an enormous amount of hard work, and we'll hear more about that, um, that this is doable, that there's land everywhere, like in Los Angeles. There's a lot of of open space, and there's a lot of conversation about doing something like this, but this hasn't happened yet.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

And um starting to happen.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Starting. There's there's one building.

SPEAKER_03 6:41

I think I think you're right. I I believe strongly in the power of public-private partnerships, and I know Melissa does as well. And you know, I think from Melissa's point of view, housing is a priority, and I'm sure she would like to elaborate on that.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

We'd love to hear because I think that for me the operative ward is affordable, because I mean the statistics are startling. One in every 33rd child now born in the US by the time they're eight are going to be diagnosed on the spectrum. So imagine now everybody's gonna be coming of age, and parents are hoping that those that are able can launch, and we're too weird too. So, Melissa, if you could address that element of affordability.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Yes, let me just add the journey that um Susan and I have you know worked really hard together. And I want to just clarify a couple things. Um, what you I meant I hear you said, um Ann with regards to open space, and I do want to make um the deferiation between open space and infill projects because a lot of folks say, you're taking my open space away, and that's not exactly what's happening. So in this particular project where we're we will be building Grace Point, it is an infill project. You had streets all around there, you had development all around there, and there's a little pocket of strip um that is called an infill project. A lot of cities do not own their own property, they own their governmental offices, they own their libraries, they own their police stations, they own their fire stations, and so on. But the majority of the land that's around in different cities are owned by you know private um uh individuals or family members or you know, uh groups that come together owning uh different types of land. But that being said, it was really important for us to bring a development like um Urby Ranch or any type of Sunflower Hill to Dublin, because Dublin, not only do we focus on all individuals, but we really also focus on um persons with disabilities and autistic children and young adults and so on. Um we have uh a School of Imagination here in our city of Dublin, which our prior, um, who's no longer with us, Janet Lockhart, really fought hard to be able to fight for some land for um from a developer working in partnership with um School of Imagination to be able to bring the first autistic um educational program for um residents here, not only in Dublin, but the Tri-Valley as well. And so seeing that not only do we have school, a school that's that's just for autistic children and children with disabilities, we also want to bring housing. We also provide jobs. We partnership, we know we have a partnership uh with, you know, whether it was Safeway or with other uh place of employments in order to provide jobs for um children with autism and also with um individuals with disabilities. So I really felt that it would be a full circle of not just having education, jobs, but also having housing. It's such an important uh topic for folks, especially for um you know children with disabilities, because like Susan said, we can have all different types of affordable housing for veterans, which we've completed an amazing, an amazing um, you know, 60-unit apartment for um our veterans, but also all types of units and levels and so on, but really honing down on saying how can we do a full circle? And that's exactly what we're doing here in the city of Dublin.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

I'm I'm also going to ask a question in terms of um whether you work with the regional centers. Uh the regional center, at least in the state of California, is a state funding agency. And I know that some of the housing that is available now through uh for individuals who are moderate to high functioning, or low actually across the board in terms of area of capacity for being on the spectrum, they typically are being funded uh with a regional center money, self-determination dollars is the newest uh uh uh I guess cash flow. And I was wondering in terms of the uh the capacities for your Sunflower Hill project, is that something that you're doing in conjunction with the state of California in terms of a regional center, or is the funding coming from a different direction?

SPEAKER_03 11:13

Um a little of both. So uh I would place a caveat, and this is why some of the um issues that Melissa is addressing as part of her congressional campaign are so important, because affordable housing is not really affordable. And people would be very surprised when they hear that the estimate for um Sunflower Hill at Grace Point is 60 million, 60 million dollars for 48 units. And that's a function that's happening at a lot of places in California, and we can argue the reasons why, but we rely on state and federal tax credits, county bond dollars, um, loans as part of that. The regional center does have you know some funds, it is somewhat limited. They are allowed as part of the DDS each year to recommend a project to put it in. It's usually about 1.5 million. We are have a very strong partnership with the Regional Center of East Bay, and they actually help provide the referral system for our residents. So, what we do is we prioritize in each of our communities based on what the community wants. So, for example, in Dublin, it might be that Dublin residents and families, if you live or work in Dublin, they get a priority point. Um, we did that in in Urby Ranch in Pleasanton. If you lived or worked in the Tri-Valley, you got a priority point. And then we worked with the regional center to actually make sure you were a regional center client. And we say that because not that we're trying to discount people who may have special needs but don't have regional center services. But there are many typical affordable housing communities that those residents can live in. And you know, you can go to a multifamily development and get a 30 to 60 percent AMI and qualify for that. But the people who are regional center clients, those folks in the middle, that's the population our families tell us we don't know what they're going to do. 80% of people with special needs live with their parents their entire lives or their family members. And so what happens when those parents die or the siblings cannot take care of them? That's the niche that we focused on. But to your point, Dr. Hess, we do have a lot of regional center collaboration and we have a very strong partnership with Regional Center.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

And I just wanted to add, Dr. Hess, with regards to the funding, there's so many different mechanisms, but a lot of other affordable projects are dipping into those mechanisms. So it actually lowers the amount that you're really trying to, you know, acquire to make these projects follow through. One thing that cities do do and can also be helpful, and also counties as well, is um in the city of Dublin, we have a bucket of funding for affordable um units, right? So almost every city, I don't want to say every city, but almost every city, um, when they are creating developments with a developer, they require the developer to actually bring online whether it's 10%, 12%, or 15% of affordable units, right? So a lot of those developers will come in and say, so Dublin, for instance, is you have to have you have to develop 15% of affordable units. Um, depending where they're at, depending how many units, depending what you act, not all units are created equal. I always like to say that. Um, so depending on what the formula is, either uh the developer builds the units at, you know, 15% of the units, or they could do build some units, or they can give you some NLU funding to put in into your coffers, and then you build up those coffers, and then you really turn around and become more robust because you have more money in those pockets. But I will tell you that Alameda County has done something um a little different than other counties, and we brought back in 2018, um we drove a uh a measure called Measure A, um A1, and that was for affordable housing. So every city in Alameda County was able to get a certain percentage of that sales tax revenue uh back into their city, and then those cities were able to turn around and distinguish where they wanted to put that money towards and which project. And so I know that um before I left the dais because I was terming out, uh, we were able to uh provide some funding for uh Sunflower Hill.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

That's right. So the city of Dublin, under Melissa's direction, gave Sunflower $5 million and half of it is pre-development dollars, which allows us to hire the architects to do the plans, to go submit through the planning commission. Can't do it without it. And then the other half is considered capital costs. And Melissa mentioning A1, we were fortunate back in 2018 to receive $7 million from the A1 bond for Pleasanton. So that's where coming back to what I mentioned, it's really a public-private partnership. You can have the nonprofit, but you've got to have the federal tax credits, you've got to have the cities and counties saying, yes, come build here and I will support you. It's not just talk the talk, it's walk the walk. And you have there's no way otherwise you can do it. I mean, there are, and we know there are families out there who are incredibly blessed financially and might be able to afford to build it. We looked at many of those models, and they're wonderful models all over the state and the nation that have private LLCs formed by parents and are doing it privately. But we made a decision as a board early on that we wanted everyone to have a chance and that you didn't have to have a million dollars to buy in, that this was a way that the rents to stay affordable. So my son Robbie is at a 50% AMI apartment. His rent is $1,200 a month for him at Irby Ranch. And he can pay for that with his just barely, but he can pay for it with his social security. And that's really what we wanted to have is whatever your social security check is, that would be able to use that to pay for your rent.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Amazing. That's truly amazing, and it's so uplifting to hear what you're both saying, because it certainly gives me hope for what can happen when in the future in a public-private partnership. Bravo.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

On a practical level, because I know that one of the things that we try to provide on the podcast is uh practical solutions or connecting people to other folks who might be able to give them a little bit more direction. If you have families up in Northern California who happen to be in the district of Pleasanton or Dublin or in that vicinity, how would uh typically a parent uh reach out to you and say, you know, can you consider my son or daughter for residency? And what is the criteria?

SPEAKER_03 18:17

Well, as I mentioned, we have 170 people on the waiting list for Urby Ranch. And it just shows a testament for how successful our model is, is in six years we've only had three vacancies, and those vacancies have only existed because families have moved out of state. So I I I say that because I want to calibrate expectations. And and quite honestly, we get emails and calls every day of and and it breaks our heart. And that's why the need and to, for example, Melissa's vision in Dublin is so important because we we have a mantra at Sunflower Hill that if you have land, we'll come and consider it. And so we get calls every day from cities all over the state who see our model and say we want to really, you know, see if we can make this happen. Melissa's point earlier about affordable housing and getting the funds in, you know, we need a state housing bond in California. We need that to pass next year because that's going to provide funding for affordable housing developers like Sunflower Hill and our partner in our cases, we have both Eden and Saha Housing, who are traditional affordable housing developers, and they do the bricks and mortar and we partner with them on these. But it's becoming increasingly competitive. And so until that system has a hard look at a national and federal way as to how they organize and disseminate funds, it's going to become increasingly hard to build affordable housing. And that's why I think some of the things that our municipalities and our counties are trying to do to streamline, whether it is by environmental regulations or by right by right to build, are so important because we're trying as hard as we can to build communities. We have Lafayette, another community in Contra Costa County, where we've received half of the funding so far. And then we have Grace Point on the dais coming up next. Um, but it's gonna take a village, a village of public-private partnerships, of city-county governments, and nonprofits working together to really address this crisis. And you mentioned a stat earlier, Dr. Hess, in set in Alameda and Contra Costa County, so the regional center clients of Regional Center of the East Bay, 26,000. So, and and people don't necessarily realize that there are more individuals with special needs, IDD, in California than there are homeless. And that's not to dish on the need for homelessness. I feel very strongly and have a strong support of that. But this goes to the need for thinking about all Californians and as part of the population and who is vocal for the folks with IDD, right? Because they can't often be vocal.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

So it's it's can you tell tell our listeners what IDD means?

SPEAKER_03 21:12

Intellectual and developmental disabilities. So when you think of it as a spectrum, it's now the the broad term. So it could be anyone from autism, it could be Down syndrome, it could be cerebral palsy with intellectual deficiencies. It's that broad spectrum. And sunflower communities focus on whether you're a regional center client. It can be SDC clients. We have many SDC self-determination folks who, for example, use our programs as well. We operate a garden at Hageman Ranch in Livermore, a one acre organic garden. And this past summer we had 60 folks attend a summer camp, and many of them were self determination clients who said, There are no programs, so I'm coming your way. And that's what we really have been trying to develop are the wraparound services and programs that go with housing. To just live your very best life.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Thank you for explaining that because I know that our listenership is very broad and wide, as Dr. Hess was explaining. It's worldwide. And um people might be thinking, is this just for people on the spectrum? And I wanted you to clarify that it is not. It covers just about everybody who could can be covered. So her question of how can people reach you? I kind of picked up that you have 170 people on your waiting list. Does that mean that you are not you're not wanting more people to call? Oh no.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

And I am very I believe strongly in paying it forward. So I often I often speak to board members of nonprofits trying this, to parents. I I will talk to anyone. I I do feel strongly about that because people helped me. And you know, I didn't know anything about affordable housing. My background is in public affairs, government relations. Um, I worked for Lawrence Livemore National Laboratory for most of my career. Oh so I knew people like Melissa and elected officials. And it I I wouldn't with Sunflower Hill would not have been here where it was if people didn't take chances on us. And they wouldn't, we wouldn't be where we are if we hadn't had advice of Sage folks. You know, I hired an affordable housing consultant to educate me because I didn't know anything about affordable housing. So I do believe strongly in paying it forward. So they can send an email to info at sunflowerhill.org and our staff will forward it to me. Um, and I take calls all the time. I just we feel so strongly when parents are so desperate. And and because we've been there, right? What do I do? Where do I go? And that's the problem is that I don't want to set up expectations that we have vacancies that they can just apply for.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

I want to compliment first off MOSA as a candidate for Congress. I want to compliment you that you are looking to an entire population of people and the special needs community that Ann and I work on uh are often underserved too dramatically. I very much the idea of affordable housing. I'm hearing a little bit of the program and including including uh you mentioned a gardening camp, which I think is so critical. We have so many families in our own individual practices or who are reaching out to us in terms of viewership who are saying, you know, can you address the challenge to launch? And uh, you know, because we it's already tough enough because our kiddos, our young adults are you know quite anxious about the the next steps, but when we ourselves as parents don't know what those next steps look like. And I'm appreciative as a uh thoughtful political person that Melissa, you're taking the time to say what who is in my population that I have to address. And so uh as a clinical staff, both and I want to thank you personally for being involved. And Susan, you touched which I think is a universal concept. It takes a parent, it takes someone who's been personally touched, a parent, a sibling, somebody who is who has had that experience and say, Well, you know what? The mouse chap has not been built yet, so I have to build it. And so I'm you know, again, very much appreciative from both of you that you are thoughtful and expansive in your views, and also despite a long wait list, have created the opportunity for people to reach out, and if nothing else, hopefully someone on our viewership will be inspired in their part of the world to take the next steps and create. I know we have a you know, a as Ann you were referencing, we have a fledging plug program in Los Angeles where uh there's housing on the on the top floors and potential retail spaces on the bottom so that the persons who are living in the facilities will be able to also work there. Because I do think this idea of wraparound it is housing and programming and structure. And so I'm appreciative uh both on a political and social economic level that you folks are addressing this very critical issue.

SPEAKER_03 26:34

Well, one thing to mention, too, you know, even though our housing is not accessible right now, our programs are. And so we it's our programs are not just for residents, and that is a need that we've found. So the 60 campers who came, they are from the community, and we welcome anyone with IDD. We have programs at Sunflower Hill on a daily basis that offer assistance on that launch, a program called Learning with Olivia, where our staff members talk about, you know, just life and how you can navigate things, financial things. We have a new program called the Sunflowers Club that was sponsored by our local Stanford Healthcare Trivalley that helps them make friends and allows them to pay it forward and be involved.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

Oh, that's huge. That's really big.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

And and we have, you know, then the normal karaoke and dances and arts and crafts and fitness. Anyone with IDD can sign up for those classes. You do not have to be a resident. So if your viewers in the Bay Area want to make the trek to Pleasanton, we welcome them. And we already have who we think will be future residents coming and just partaking in our sunflower community, the greater community. You know, the sunflowers are really the strongest flower in the garden, and they the symbolism of a sunflower is really what we envisioned when we named our organization standing strong together and helping all the flowers in the garden. Beautiful, all the individuals. That is beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

Well, Melissa. Dr.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Hess, the one yeah, the one thing I just wanted to add, and it really is a partnership between um really at the local level is trying to get everyone together to be able to accomplish and then see the fruition of an actual development. Because as you know, development takes a really long time. Even if you're building just um housing or or you know, affordable housing or other types of housing, um, it's many years in progress. And a lot of folks don't realize how long it does take and how much money it takes in order for you to actually see a project be complete. So when uh you know, we dedicated the land and then now and dedicated some money, we're still always needing that funding. And I understand the state says you have to build housing, right? I get that. We all understand that at this local level because we're at the locals' levels where you get it done, right? Um, the county can help with funding and so on, but at the end of the day, it really has to do with how can you acquire that money to be able to finish that project and get more of those projects done. And the last thing I want to I want to just add is, you know, when we talk about affordable housing, especially in the state of California, affordable housing is not necessarily affordable anymore. It's so expensive. You know, we're looking at, I have a uh going to have a 26-year-old and a 22-year-old, and we're right now having the conversations of how are we going to be able to help you get your foot, you know, into the next level, into another unit. And again, they're not going to have a you know two-story house or a huge, you know, house. They're going to start like we did in a small, you know, small single family home or small condo or town home. And I think it's really important for understanding for folks to understand the mechanism of what it takes to uh create units. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

It it has been such a pleasure. It's an education and it creates we don't believe in creating false hope, but creates real hope for the families who are dealing with this on a daily basis. The worries that parents have as they begin to see their children, as you pointed out, Susan, uh age out of the high school program and sort of hit that terrible ceiling in terms of what's next. And I don't want to fall off that cliff in terms of services. But we want to thank you both for coming on our podcast. And I appreciate Susan, do you want to mention one more time your website and so people can reach out to you?

SPEAKER_03 30:40

Uh it's sunflowerhill one word.org, and you'll see uh previews of our communities on there. You'll hear about our programs, you can hear our story. We have a video featuring Josh Groben of all folks that you can watch as well. And and I want to thank you for allowing me to be on the podcast with you. But you know, to be honest with you, it's the public-private partnerships and the leadership of folks like Melissa Hernandez who we need in order to make a difference. And um, as mentioned, we would not have Grace Point. We wouldn't have that development if a leader hadn't stepped up and said, Hey, we're gonna do this, and I'm there. Oh, wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

You're a great team. That's a lot to be proud of to be able to find each other and to be able to pay that forward to so many people. And I'm so glad that you talked about the fact that you have programs that are open for everybody, because that's a great entree to potential living environment, but just for the communities to be able to have all of this resource that is so sorely needed, um, because as both Dr. Hess and I have have talked many, many times, and as she mentioned, um, you know, we work with this community all the time. And teach, we do the teaching with the parents, with the grandparents, with these children of every age, wherever they are developmentally. How do you make friends? How do you, you know, it used to be a checkbook, now it's Dell or Venmo or whatever, but how do you do something that you no one has taught you how to do? I mean, no one taught me how to how to use a checkbook way back in the day. And so I went to a bank and they taught me. So there's there's just the fact that you can teach so many people and you're just one organization and you're doing so much, I think should give hope to everyone who's watching right now that you can do, if you can't do housing, you maybe you can do programming in your schools and after-school programs. Um, I know in Los Angeles there's always been a lot of after-school programming. I know in the Bay Area that's true too. Um, I think there's a lot of ways to approach this, and I'm glad that you brought that up. I'm so glad that both of you um became allies in this.

SPEAKER_03 33:30

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

Thanks for having us. We want to thank again congressional candidate Melissa Hernandez and founder of the foundation Sunflower Hill, Susan Howden, who joined us today in this very important discussion about the next steps in the launch of the special needs community. I'm Dr. Estee Hess.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

And I'm Dr. Ann Kirsch. And we thank you for watching. If you have any questions, please forward them to us. If you have uh if you are involved in something that you think might be good for our podcast, might be a good fit, please let us know. We are always interested in hearing from people who have something to offer us, because then we can offer it to the world.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

And if you liked what you saw this evening and this morning, please don't hesitate to reach out. We are uh we are based on all the social media platforms. Right. Please don't forget to follow us and subscribe. Again, this is on and off the spectrum. Have a wonderful weekend. Ladies, thank you again for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

Thank you.