CEO of affordable housing nonprofit cherishes beating the odds

EAH Housing CEO Mary Murtagh

In an industry in which five out of every six projects never get off the ground, Mary Murtagh still loves her job and can laugh about it.

“Affordable housing is Murphy’s Law incarnate,” says Ms. Murtagh, who has been with the affordable housing organization EAH Housing for over twenty five years. “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

Mary Murtagh on the balcony of one of EAH’s affordable apartments.

 

As its president and CEO, Ms. Murtagh is the force behind EAH, which has built or renovated nearly 1,400 units of housing in the North Bay, and over 5,000 total in 12 counties and two states- California and Hawaii during her tenure with the San Rafael-based nonprofit. The agency is Marin County’s largest affordable builder, and second-largest in the North Bay to Burbank Housing.

The nonprofit EAH used to be known as Ecumenical Association for Housing, owing to its faith-based roots. The company employs about 350 people, the majority of whom work in Marin County.

Ms. Murtagh grew up in rural New Hampshire, near Dartmouth College. She’s a self-described former hippie, who now loves to build infill developments that are good for the environment. She has an undergraduate degree in art history and philosophy from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and a master’s in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Those degrees, she said, did not prepare her for what she would encounter at a job with the Los Angeles Redevelopment Agency where she grew interested in real estate development – specifically finance.

“Up until then you can kind of picture me as a totally naive rube wandering around with my mouth open,” she said. “The first time I went to New York though, I thought the whole thing was a terrible mistake and a terrible thing to do to the planet. And when I finally started studying real estate finance, it suddenly all became clear … I started to understand the city and urban economics.”

In Los Angeles, Ms. Murtagh became what she says was the translator between the real estate office at the Redevelopment Agency and the Office of Housing and Urban Development in Washington. And when the first grant she ever wrote – to expand a Pep Boys in inner city Los Angeles – was funded, Ms. Murtagh said she felt like she was empowered to effect change.

Ms. Murtagh moved to San Francisco in 1984 and worked for a political consulting and market research company. While there she helped orchestrate the approvals for the renovation of the Arlington Hotel, a residence for recovering alcoholics still viewed as a model development in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.

In 1986, she was hired to direct EAH, an affordable housing organization that at that time was licking its wounds from two money-losing projects and considering getting out of the building business altogether.

EAH Housing CEO Mary Murtagh celebrates the opening of the largest affordable housing solar installation in the nation.

“Obviously, that was a serious issue but I said to them, ‘If you don’t want to build anything, don’t hire me. That would be a mistake for both of us because I love to build things,'” she said. “The smell of sawdust is what makes my day. That and curing concrete.”

Ms. Murtagh set out to make her first big project at the head of the organization a success. She negotiated for two acres on Corte Madera Creek and you can hear the pride in her voice today when she talks about it.

She said 760 people applied for residency in the 28-unit development that turned out “beautifully.”

“Opponents compared it to the Exxon Valdez during the hearings,” she laughs. “And I was getting my feet wet and finding out what opposition meant in Marin County.”

Setbacks are a fact of life when it comes to building almost any kind of housing, including affordable units.

“You have five deals fall through for every one that ever sticks. Maybe more,” she says. “I don’t try and think about that ratio. It’s too discouraging.”

She said in her over 20 years with EAH, affordable housing hasn’t gotten any easier. Getting the approvals is still just as difficult. Opposition is as vocal, if not more. Funding is hard to coordinate and unexpected things change.

CEO Mary Murtagh accepts an award on behalf of EAH Housing.

And just when she says she feels like she’s “trying to sweep the ocean back with a broom,” something encouraging will happen, like the passage Proposition 1C, which opened up $2.9 billion for affordable housing.

Ms. Murtagh said her future attention will be on continuing to strive for a permanent state funding source and more partnerships with private developers.

Rental applications for Rice Camp Senior Apartments now being accepted by EAH Housing

LIHUE — With the first phase of the Rice Camp Senior Apartments set for completion in March, rental applications are now being accepted by the project’s management company, EAH Housing.
Rice Camp, a 60-unit affordable housing community, is situated on two parcels on Hoala Street behind the Lihue fire station.
Rice Camp is being developed by the Vitus Group in partnership with the County of Kauai and EAH Housing.
“Providing affordable housing for our residents is a top priority for us. We are focusing a lot of effort in this regard, and are very pleased that 60 affordable rental units that are in close proximity to senior services will soon be available to our kupuna,” said Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.
“We are extremely excited and thankful for all the partners and support for this project, from the county, state and federal agencies and legislators to the private developer, contractors and lenders that will make Rice Camp available to Kauai’s seniors this March,” said Kauai County Housing Director Kamuela Cobb-Adams.
Rice Camp consists of one- and two-bedroom apartments organized in six single-story buildings and one two-story building.
The one-bedroom units will rent for $766 a month while rent for the two-bedroom units will be $921 a month. Utility costs are included in the rents.
The amenities for Rice Camp include: Energy Star appliances; water-saving fixtures; ceiling fans; accessible walkways throughout the property that lead to community garden plots; and a community center with management offices and a space to hold social and community activities.
Applicants must meet all eligibility requirements including HUD income limits — $38,160 for one person and $43,620 for two people.
“Vitus Group recognizes the incredible need for affordable rental housing on Kauai, and we are working diligently on the planning for the second phase of Rice Camp,” said Makani Maeva of Vitus Group, Inc.
“EAH Housing is pleased to once again work with our friends at Vitus Group and Makani Maeva on a community that provides our kupuna with a sense of independence and freedom,” said Kevin Carney, vice president of EAH Housing. “We look forward to future partnerships to create more housing for those in need.”
The Rice Camp Senior Apartments are in line with the mayor’s Holo Holo 2020 vision for Kauai. His vision calls for all organizations, businesses, residents and visitors on Kauai to be part of creating an island that is sustainable, values the native culture, has a thriving and healthy economy, cares for all — keiki to kupuna — and has a responsible and user-friendly local government.
The land was purchased by the county for $2.3 million from San Mateo, Calif.-based Westridge Properties, LLC in October 2012 to specifically address affordable senior housing needs.
The county leveraged the land ($2.3 million) and $1.25 million of HOME funds to compete and win an award of federal and state Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) from Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation. These LIHTC resulted in about $15 million of investment from private entities which was used to fund the development of Rice Camp Phase 1.

This article originally appeared in The Garden Island.

How EAH housing helped one woman reduce her commute by 90 minutes

Moving to Centertown affordable apartments by EAH Housing allowed Anelyn to reduce her commute to a 2 minute walk.

Anelyn Gallego, a mother of four grown children, emigrated from the Philippines when she was 15 years old and has since lived in the Bay Area for over 35 years. She currently lives at San Clemente Place, an affordable apartment complex in Corte Madera managed by EAH Housing, with one of her daughters.
Anelyn works for the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in Corte Madera as an office assistant, and her daughter is a preschool teacher in Novato. Anelyn’s current commute is a two-minute walk to the CHP office down the street.
But Anelyn’s commute wasn’t always so short. Until last fall she was living in Fairfield in Solano County and her commute into Marin would sometimes take three hours round-trip. To avoid the worst of the traffic, she would often take evening organ lessons at her church in Novato, returning home at a much later hour.
When the long commutes became unbearable, Anelyn started looking for a home closer to her job with the CHP. She spent a great deal of time looking for an apartment she could afford in Corte Madera with no success.
“This is a very affluent area; I never thought I would be able to afford to live here.”
She then applied for an apartment at San Clemente Place and was accepted. “I am so grateful to be able to live here. The Lord answered my prayers, giving us an affordable, quiet and safe place to live.”
Moving to San Clemente Place has also drastically reduced her carbon footprint.
“The best thing about living here is being close to my job. I’m just two doors down the street and I can walk to work. I don’t have to pay for gas much anymore, because I walk everywhere. I’m walking distance from the supermarket, my gym, restaurants; everything is convenient.”
But she does understand that there are many more like her who need an affordable place to live near their job. “It would be really nice if there were more affordable homes here so people don’t have to drive so far.”

EAH Housing announces Shelter Hill is going green

Affordable housing is going green as solar retrofitting and other efficient technologies are being utilized in the refurbishing of a complex in Mill Valley. Shelter Hill, a 75-unit housing complex in Mill Valley managed by EAH Housing, is going solar starting this month.

Shelter Hill gets a green energy upgrade from EAH Housing.

The solar installation will provide predictable energy bills and reduce the utility costs paid by the residents each month.
The complex, which hosts four four-bedroom, 40 three-bedroom and 27 two-bedroom apartments, also includes a community room with a kitchen, a computer learning center and outdoor play areas for kids.
Of the 275 to 300 residents who call Shelter Hills home, many are lower income or living on fixed incomes. Reducing the ever rising energy costs will provide a welcome reduction of out of pocketing heating, cooling and electrical costs, EAH officials said.
Built in 1975 and in need of a redo both aesthetically and to bring the property up to modern standards, the planned greening of the complex was something EAH was very interested in.
“It is a mission of our company. We want to make the units green as we can as well as the common areas as it benefits everybody,” EAH project manager Dave Egan said.
The upgrades will include a new solar electricity system, which will be installed by Berkeley’s Sun Light & Power. It is made up of 138 Trina 280W solar modules on the roofs of the buildings.
The cost of green rehab pays for itself in utility savings while reducing energy usage by 25 percent for the entire property. Each unit will be installed with hydronic heating and cooling systems, energy efficient double glazed windows, low flow water usage toilets and new refrigerators.
Sun Light & Power has installed solar electricity as well as solar hot water systems at other EAH Housing communities. The company recently completed its largest affordable housing solar installation Crescent Park in Richmond.
“Shelter Hill was a property built in the mid 1970s in southern Marin. It has been operating as affordable housing ever since. Now it is time to refresh the property to bring it up to modern standard,” Egan said.
The property will also be getting other upgrades as part of the redo which will consist of the installation of energy efficient appliances, high-efficiency water heaters, dual-pane windows, water-saving fixtures and native-plant landscaping. Over half of EAH properties have been retrofitted with green technologies and the other half have received energy use audits.
Established in 1968, EAH Housing manages 102 properties in California and Hawaii.

Solar’s Year of Action in the US

Utah, USA -- May 9 was a big day for the solar industry. Forget big — huge. It’s a rare occasion when the most powerful person in the world takes to the bully pulpit to sing the virtues of a particular industry, and even rarer when that praise is backed up by action and dollars. But that’s precisely the gift that advocates of the U.S. solar industry were given when President Obama announced a massive, $2 billion federal funding package in combination with executive orders and hundreds of private and public sector commitments to drive forward one of the most rapidly growing renewable energy industries in the nation.
Breaking Down the Plan
The President’s five-point plan will be bolstered by executive actions that will drive investments in solar energy upgrades for government and private sector buildings, improve appliance efficiency standards, strengthen commercial building codes, encourage innovative financing, and create jobs by developing a skilled solar workforce.
In answer to the call — and in answer to the increasing demand for more widespread availability and improved affordability for solar energy — more than 300 organizations across the private and public sectors have announced commitments that fall in lockstep with the President’s vision to make 2014 “a year of action” for solar. The organizations include affordable housing developers, rural electric cooperatives, state and local governments, and a variety of retailers in the commercial sector. In combination with a number of stated administration initiatives, the commitments made will result in the deployment of over 850 MW of solar energy. They will also result in investments in energy efficiency that will decrease carbon pollution significantly, save billions per year on energy bills, and ready tens of thousands of prospective job seekers for careers in the solar industry.
Rhone Resch, President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), called Obama’s announcement “the most significant speech the President has ever made about solar” and said it would go a long way toward educating the public about the many successes of the industry and how corporations around the country are embracing it.
Resch added that he believes the projected 850 MW of solar deployment that will result from the President’s announcement is just the tip of the iceberg. “These are programs that will have multiplying effects and could result in literally tens of gigawatts of solar deployment,” Resch said. “The list of companies is going to grow massively. The amount of commitments will also continue to grow.”
Minh Le, director of the Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, said the large number of announced private sector commitments — including those from corporate giants like Walmart, The Home Depot, Apple and Google — are crucial to demonstrating that solar investment has come of age as an energy alternative that makes strong business sense.

“This really highlights the underlying premise of the SunShot Initiative,” Le said. “When the initiative was launched, we posited that in order for solar to be a pervasive part of our nation’s electricity supply, it has to make economic sense. We’re seeing that now. We’re seeing businesses make those commitments to use more clean energy. Likewise, we’re seeing more homeowners make those commitments.”

Tackling Increased Solar Deployment through Innovative Financing
In the President’s speech, he announced that five leading financial institutions — Citi, Goldman Sachs, Boston Community Capital, and the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority of Connecticut — have committed to large-scale investments and the development of innovative lending programs to further solar deployment. Boston Community Capital and Connecticut’s Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority will each focus on funding and developing solar projects in their respective states, while Citi and Goldman Sachs have said they will focus their efforts on nationwide solar investments through certain financing mechanisms and the formation of partnerships with private and public entities.

Walmart and SunEdison completed the installation of new solar power panels on the Walmart store in Kapolei, HI. Walmart is one of the of the many commercial sector leaders that made solar commitments as part of Obama’s Year of Action solar speech. Credit: Walmart.

But it’s the inroads being made on the federal side that Resch believes could prove the most impactful when it comes to fostering exponential growth for the U.S. solar industry. This includes building on the proven success of the Defense Department’s renewables program by enabling the General Services Administration (GSA) — which owns and operates all federal government facilities — to take advantage of innovative financing options that will lower energy costs and increase renewable energy production through the sharing of resources.
“What this means is third-party ownership,” Resch said. “This would allow the biggest energy consumer in the world to be able to use some of the more innovative financing techniques developed in the solar industry to deploy literally gigawatts of solar on government-owned facilities throughout the country — from federal courts, to VA hospitals, to post offices. The list goes on. Literally every county in the country has some type of federal facility. That alone is a very important piece.”
Additionally, it was announced that the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service will work to clarify the manner in which certain investment rules apply to renewable energy installations, and specifically to real estate investment trusts (REITs).
“The Treasury Department and the IRS will be considering how to update rules and how they treat REITs,” Resch said. “This is massive, because if you open up the REIT structure of financing for third-party ownership, it could be the Holy Grail for financing solar projects around the country.”
Le said further discussions exploring new solar financing models were held at the recent SunShot Grand Challenge Summit. He pointed to a keynote speech by Billy Parish, founder and president of solar project finance company Mosaic, as indication that creative discussions surrounding the development of innovative financing options abound. “Parish announced a new program that Mosaic will be taking on which will make it as cheap, or cheaper, for consumers to get solar loans as an alternative to relying on solar leasing,” Le said. “This is one of many really exciting opportunities that will be forthcoming in the next few years.”
Bringing the Economic Benefits of Solar to the Underprivileged
Another important component of President Obama’s far-reaching solar plan focuses on lowering out-of-pocket energy costs for American families and businesses. To jumpstart those efforts, the administration has called upon a number of leaders in multifamily affordable housing to look to increased solar deployment with the intent of not only lowering bills for tenants, but also to bring much need economic boosts to low income communities.
EAH Housing, a nonprofit housing development and management corporation, is among more than two dozen multifamily affordable housing leaders who have made commitments to expand the use of solar in their properties. Currently, 37 EAH Housing properties have 2.3 MW of installed solar capacity and two more projects are expected to be completed in 2014. In coming years, EAH Housing has expects to add 10 MW of solar capacity in its effort to provide 10 percent of the White House’s Climate Action Plan goal of 100 MW of installed capacity at federally subsidized housing.
“Solar has become a key tool in our strategy to support our residents and affordable housing communities,” said Laura Hall, COO for EAH Housing. “By upgrading existing communities, we can extend the long-term affordability of a property for the benefit of working families, their children and a growing senior constituency.

Solar is a feature on some of EAH Housing Units at the Avena Bella Development in Turlock, California. Credit: EAH Housing.

Hall said the energy savings achieved through solar investments allow more resources to be applied to enriching the lives of low-income housing residents. She added that EAH Housing communities feature “resource coordination services that connect residents to local services in the form of afterschool activities, nutrition programs, resume development and on-site tech lounges.” The company’s net energy savings are expected to increase annually, reaching $18 million over 25 years.
In addition to encouraging affordable housing leaders to make use of solar technology to power their multifamily dwellings, it was also announced that Fannie Mae has joined forces with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to provide financing that would enable property owners to make energy-saving enhancements.
Promoting Job Growth through the Building of a Skilled Solar Workforce
One of the key implications of the President’s “Year of Action” announcement can be summed up in a single, powerful word: jobs. In specific, and of utmost appeal to American workers suffering the ill effects of stateside jobs migrating to other countries, are the creation of jobs that cannot be outsourced. This consists not only of hands-on solar installation employment opportunities that will come as a result of increased solar deployment throughout the U.S., but also those that will result from planned training programs offered by community colleges across the nation.
With the stated aim of helping 50,000 workers enter the solar industry by the year 2020 — and building on the SunShot Initiative’s track record of having trained 22,000 people for solar industry jobs in the last four years alone — the Department of Energy’s Solar Instructor Training Network (SITN) has committedto supporting increased availability for training programs on community college campuses.
Newly participating community colleges include San Francisco City College, Oglala Lakota Community College, Kankakee Community College, St. Phillips College, Forsyth Technical Community College, and Greenfield Community College. These five add to the nearly 400 existing community colleges in 49 states that already work with the SITN to provide instructor training and courseware to students interested in pursuing careers in the solar field.
Le said training focuses not only on providing the skills necessary to be able to perform solar installations, but also encompasses training in related fields. “We’re moving beyond typical solar installer training programs to include training in other related fields, such as real estate appraisal,” Le said. He pointed to recent reports that found homes with solar installations selling for more than their equivalent counterparts as evidence of the importance of a more well-rounded approach to solar education. Le said coursework would also be made available to local government code officials responsible for permitting solar systems, so that they will have a better understanding about the intricacies of residential PV systems.
“This announcement recognizes that solar is one of the fastest growing sources of new jobs in this country,” Resch said. “Last year, the solar industry increased employment by 20 percent. We now have 145,000 people employed in the industry and that number is going to continue to grow by 20 to 40 percent per year. We need more people to become trained. That means creating opportunities for those who are unemployed, those in other industries that have struggled, and perhaps most importantly creating job opportunities for our returning troops.”
This post is excerpted from an article that originally appeared on Light Beam Electric. To read the full article click here.

Many Americans priced out of rental market

An affordable apartment complex in Emeryville, CA built by EAH housing.

There were 42,447,000 renter households in America in 2013, according to the new data for that year from the American Community Survey. Of that number, 10,384,000 paid more than 50 percent of their income for rent.
About 3,658,000 paid 40.0 to 49.9 percent of their household income for rent. That's a total of more than 14 million households that pay more than 40 percent of income for rent.  That is one-third of all renter households.
The median rent for all occupied rental units (excluding those for which no rent was paid) was $905.
The 2013 American Community Survey provides a multitude of statistics that measure the social, economic and housing conditions of U.S. communities. More than 40 topics are available with the new data release, such as educational attainment, housing, employment, commuting, language spoken at home, nativity, ancestry and selected monthly homeowner costs. Also released were two reports providing analysis on income and poverty for states and large metropolitan areas.
The data on income and income inequality has a few surprising and disturbing tidbits of news. There were no major declines in household income.  However, income inequality increased in 15 states.  It only declined in one state, Alaska.
Income
According to the report Household Income: 2013, which compares American Community Survey statistics from 2012 to 2013:

• For 2013, median household incomes were lower than the U.S. median ($52,250) in 28 states and higher in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
• In 2013, the states with the highest median household incomes were Maryland ($72,483) and Alaska ($72,237), which were not statistically different from each other. Mississippi had the lowest ($37,963).
• Median household income among the 25 most populous metro areas was highest in the Washington, D.C. ($90,149), San Francisco ($79,624) and Boston ($72,907) metro areas.

Income Inequality
Household Income: 2013 also examined the Gini index for states and large metro areas. The Gini index is a summary measure of income inequality, ranging from 0 — complete equality — to 1 — complete inequality.  This index, names for a man named Gini, is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income distribution of a nation's residents.
Among the findings:

• Five states and the District of Columbia had Gini indexes higher than the U.S. index of .481.
• Thirty-six states had lower Gini indexes than the U.S. index of .481.

• The Gini index of 15 states increased from 2012 to 2013. Alaska was the only state to have a decrease. All other states saw no significant change.

This article was originally posted on Partnership for Sustainable Communities.
Read the Press release
Click for access to detailed data on housing and other topics

A Passion to Promote Low-Income Housing
This article appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle

An impish grin spread across Mary Murtagh's face as she drove her silver Prius down Magnolia Avenue, just past downtown Larkspur. "See if you can guess where the affordable housing is," she said. "Look, there's a beautiful complex over there, two beautiful complexes on the right, a historic red-brick winery on the left."

 

EAH Housing CEO Mary Murtaugh at one of her company's affordable properties.

Edgewater Place - the first project Murtagh shepherded after taking the reins of San Rafael affordable developer EAH Housing a quarter-century ago - was one of those complexes, a cluster of attractive garden-style apartment buildings nestled among flowering pear trees alongside Corte Madera Creek. With charm, persistence, grit and "a lot of good Irish luck," Murtagh, 65, has devoted her career to building low-income housing throughout California and Hawaii that defies expectations.

Groundbreaking for EAH housing built affordable apartments in Hawaii.

 

A gift of gab, a knack for navigating red tape and a passion for social justice underlie her success in dealing with Byzantine regulations, massively complex funding sources and NIMBYism.

 

 

Dingy Apartments

 

 

As a graduate student in architecture at MIT, Murtagh spent a semester working at an old-school housing project, a hulking structure where the dingy apartments had cinderblock walls and the elevators were broken or filthy. "I had expected a gracious class, perched at a desk, drawing plans, and we ended up swinging hammers and hanging out with residents at the worst public housing development in Boston," she said. "They were great people - smart, capable, tough - and they were

trapped in this hideous environment because it was all they could afford. People were being robbed and held up regularly.

"I had an insight that there had to be a better way to help people through housing than to put them in these God-awful places."

 

 

83 properties

 

 

That epiphany has carried her through a career over seeing the building of more than 6,800 units of affordable housing at 83 properties in California and Hawaii. EAH generally rents to people making between 30 and 60 percent of area median income. In Alameda County, for instance, that's $93,500 a year for a family of four. A family making $28,050 (30 percent of

median income) might pay $550 a month for a two-bedroom apartment at EAH's Camellia Place in Dublin, while a family making $56,100 (60 percent) might pay $1,131 for a similar two-bedroom. All its properties have multiyear waiting lists. New complexes get deluged with applicants and hold lotteries to select residents. "It's a hand up, not a hand out," Murtagh said. "Everyone in our buildings pays rent, and everyone is working unless they're disabled or retired." Some 20,000 residents - families, seniors, students, people with disabilities - now have roofs over their heads thanks to EAH. "But we're still sweeping the ocean back with a broom compared to what the need is," she said.

 

 

Murtagh grew up in small-town Hanover, N.H., home of Dartmouth College, where her doctor dad taught medicine and her homemaker mom, a former social worker, acted in the theater troupe. "I had a wonderful childhood running around and falling out of trees, putting dams across streams, taking cows to pasture in front of our house, hiking and skiing," she said.

 

 

'60s idealism

 

 

At elite all-women's Wellesley College, she majored in philosophy and art history. It was a heady time, as previously sheltered young women discovered feminism, civil rights and the antiwar movement, said Priscilla Heilveil, a close friend from those days. "I don't think 'Murt' has ever lost her '60s idealism," Heilveil said. "She's very gifted and could have made

a fortune as an architect, but her passion is social justice."

 

 

As seniors, Murtagh and friends wanted a student speaker at graduation to offset the conservative senator slated to talk. The college president refused, so they "said the hell with this," Murtagh recalled, and organized a protest until the administration capitulated. Picking the speaker was easy: The class of 1969 had a megastar named Hillary Rodham.

"Everyone on campus knew her," Murtagh said. "She was super smart, very engaging and involved in government issues even then."

 

 

White House reunions

 

 

The future secretary of state "gave a real barn burner" of a speech, landing her photo in Life magazine. As first lady, she hosted class reunions at the White House. Murtagh went on to MIT, where she had the fateful encounter with public housing.

After grad school, she worked for the Los Angeles Redevelopment Agency on inner-city job creation programs, showing a talent for landing federal grants. She studied real estate financing at UCLA and became fascinated with the idea of being a developer, even though the only ones she knew "were white guys with matching ties, briefcases and calculators."

 

 

She moved to the Bay Area in the early 1980s with her future husband, biochemist Fred Jacobson. They

now live in Berkeley and have two sons. Adam, 22, is a computer science major at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore.; Aaron, 17, is a junior at Berkeley High.

 

 

Nonstop careers

 

 

Jacobson, she said, is "hot on the trail of a new drug for breast cancer" at Genentech. Their dual nonstop careers can make for a harried home life. "Let's not talk about the state of housekeeping at my house," she

said.

 

 

In Murtagh's first Bay Area job, she worked with St. Vincent De Paul and the San Francisco Department of

Public Health to acquire and rehab a Tenderloin hotel to house recovering alcoholics. "Mary is a small Irish lass who is like a pit bull when she gets onto something," said Mark Buell, a philanthropist and Democratic fundraiser who was her boss on that project, and later served on EAH's board for a decade. "She leaves no stone unturned. She will use every contact she has any time there's a hint of change in the very complex rules around affordable housing."

 

 

In 1986 she started as head of EAH, then a small struggling nonprofit crammed into an office behind a

San Rafael church. Nationwide, funds for affordable housing, ravaged by cuts under former presidents Richard Nixon and

Ronald Reagan, were at a nadir. But that year saw the introduction of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which gives companies big tax write-offs for investing in affordable rental complexes. "All of a sudden - poof! bada bing! - there was a huge, flexible funding source," she said. "It was the biggest expansion in affordable housing that had ever happened."

 

 

Her first coup was sweet-talking a developer into selling the Larkspur land for Edgewater Place at a huge discount for the tax break. Edgewater received its planning permits in May 1989 - the night before her first son was born.

 

 

Tax exemption

 

 

Early on, she successfully lobbied for California legislation that gave a property tax exemption to the owners of housing for families making below 80 percent of area median income. That provided an ongoing financial boost for developers of affordable complexes.

 

 

Murtagh soon realized that EAH should expand beyond the "stony ground" of development-averse Marin. As she worked to build affordable complexes throughout the state and later Hawaii, she spearheaded the inclusion of quality-of-life amenities such as after-school tutoring, GED programs and tax-preparation assistance. She pioneered computer learning centers, something that's now commonplace. "Mary is visionary," said Amie Fishman, executive director of the East Bay Housing Organizations. "She pushes ideas before they're popularized, and only later do they become the obvious thing."

 

 

She was an early proponent of green building. In 2005, EAH put enough solar panels on Richmond's 378-unit Crescent Park complex to generate almost a megawatt of electricity, then the largest such installation on affordable housing anywhere. "Solar now is on everything we do," she said.

 

 

Dense housing

 

 

She's also an advocate of dense housing located near jobs and transit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Her newest passion project is a college scholarship fund for EAH residents created this year. "We have so many worthy kids who deserve to go to college and don't have the money," she said.

 

 

"Against a strong headwind of opposition that always arises around individual projects, she has been able to maintain for decades a sense of optimism and purpose," said Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey. He recalled a project at Point Reyes Station that neighbors resisted. "Mary and her team stepped back from the idea on the table, pulled out a clean sheet of paper and said, 'OK, let's talk about what you want to see in affordable housing here.' She opened it up and had a community advisory vote. In the end, there was substantial support for the project."

 

 

Now, as affordable housing faces the worst financial climate in decades, Murtagh "is helping to identify the next generation of funding opportunities," he said. California's elimination of redevelopment agencies slashes about $1 billion a year from affordable housing construction. Creating a double whammy, state bond-backed subsidies for affordable housing expired

about 18 months ago. EAH brings in two-thirds of its revenue managing complexes - about 330 of its 400 employees are involved in on-site work - so it will survive, but new construction of desperately needed housing is likely to grind to a halt.

 

 

Recording fee

 

 

Housing advocates back SB1220, which would impose a $75 recording fee on real estate documents, generating around $700 million a year for affordable housing. The California Association of Realtors opposes the bill on the grounds it increases the cost of buying a home.

 

 

"So many people erroneously think the foreclosure crisis solved the housing crisis," Murtagh said. "Even at their discounted rates, foreclosed-upon houses are beyond the reach of people in the income ranges we

serve."

 

 

Darlene "Dollie" Moore, 73, a resident of EAH's Rodeo Gateway senior housing, exemplifies that. Retired from her electronics quality-assurance job, she lives on about $1,000 a month from Social Security. She pays $227 a month for a modest one-bedroom apartment and enjoys the "wonderful people," Bingo games, computer room and proximity to stores.

"This was just God's blessing," she said. "Otherwise, I would never have been able to live in the Bay Area near my grandchildren, who are the light of my life."

 

 

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

csaid@sfchronicle.com

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Read more:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/31/MNQ81NNOCV.DTL&ao=all#ixzz1qud1IXtU