As our team at the Housing Federation has adapted and heard the concerns of the Resident Service Coordinators and Supportive Housing Operators we have continued to team up with the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) and LeSar Development to host a series of COVID-19 response related webinars since back in March and will continue to host these webinars throughout the year. Our twice a month webinar’s have been attended by an average of 150 professionals in the affordable and supportive housing sector each time.

June’s webinars focused upon striking the right balance between keeping the guard up and re-opening during COVID-19. This session also discussed the challenges and solutions for working with challenging tenants through the eviction moratoriums. We had a welcome from our Executive Director of the San Diego Housing Federation, Steve Russell and a WebEx quick orientation from Simonne Ruff, the San Diego Director at CSH. Andrew Gonzalez the Community Wellness and Partnership Manager for Champions for Health discussed the specific precautions buildings should be mindful of when re-opening their offices and amenities.

Michelle Sites the Vice President of Southern California for ConAm (pictured right), discussed the extensive re-opening plans she had developed for the ConAm properties and administrative offices during COVID-19. This was especially helpful to attendees as it laid out an example of what reopening looked like and could be used when planning their own reopening precautions.

Evan McAvoy the Community Services Program Supervisor at Home Forward - Portland, Oregon’s housing authority, presented on addressing challenges with tenants during eviction moratoriums, with a focus on collaboration between service providers and property management to figure out the best solutions for everyone involved. As always towards the end of the webinar we held a question and answer segment and opened up the discussion to all attendees who appreciated the opportunity to engage with one another.

The San Diego Housing Federation has been gathering information on resources available which can be found on our website here. The Resident Services Support Network and Supportive Housing Learning Network are cornerstones of the SDHF mission on educating and collectively gathering the affordable housing sector in San Diego County.