Leadership Profile: Danielle Foster seeks to provide affordable, safe housing for all
Sacramento (March 15, 2021) Danielle Foster, the first person to hold the newly created job of Housing Policy Director, is the second woman leading change in the City of Sacramento whom we are highlighting here in our series for Women’s History Month. Read our first profile on Dr. LaTesha Watson here and watch this space as we continue to feature the amazing group of women changing how Sacramento ‘s approach to policing, transportation, housing, homelessness climate change and other important areas.
Name: Danielle Foster
Education: Bachelors of Science in Community & Regional Development from the University of California, Davis; Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California (USC) Sacramento Center
Years in Sacramento: Lived in Sacramento since 2006, Worked in Sacramento since October 2019
Years in the position: 1.5 years
What do you view your mission as the head of Housing Policy? To make sure all Sacramentans have an affordable, safe and decent place to live.
In your mind, what would Sacramento look like in 10 years? There is a range of housing types, affordability, and opportunity, linked well into service rich areas, culture, open space, and transportation, further developing a sense of community and interconnectedness. The local continuum of care system is well-coordinated and Sacramento has achieved functional zero on homelessness with the standing up of more prevention programs, system connections, behavioral health and addiction services, and permanent supportive housing units.
What is the biggest challenge you face in your position? A lack of resources for all of the program and project opportunities.
What is the biggest opportunity? Working in the capitol of California, in the seat of an international powerhouse and policy leader. It affords me the opportunity to both help more people within the context of a large city, while also providing avenues to influence housing policy on a larger scale.
Describe a memorable experience or person that had an effect on where you are today? For me, it has always been about helping others through my work, directly and indirectly, and in ways great and small. I devote time to this important work because it matters and it changes lives. I learned this lesson more than 20 years ago at my first affordable housing quality standards inspection.
Home from college for the summer and with a new, unproven major, my mom said incredulously to me, “Find a job where you can use this community development degree.” After a week on a fundraising job, I switched to an internship with the City of Carlsbad Housing and Redevelopment Department.
In a few short days I was getting trained under HUD’s housing inspection standards and was sent out into the field to conduct my affordable housing assessments. My first stop was at a senior affordable housing development, full of unnecessarily anxious tenants awaiting my arrival. Over the course of the next couple of hours, inspecting a sampling of housing units, I connected with tenants and listened to their concerns, gratitude, and stories while completing my inspection of the units’ maintenance.
While I received all inquiries and statements with great care, it was their gratitude that stayed with me then and still today. In particular, one woman with dark curly hair and a smile that enveloped the whole room repeatedly told me how grateful and relieved she was to be safely and comfortably housed. She kept saying she wished she could give me something in return. In that moment, I knew housing policy and provision would be my service and contribution to the world.
