California Community Blog

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Long on interest but short on time? See below for a summary of this newsletter:

Intro to our newest colleague, Greg;

Updates on our sponsored legislation;

ICYMI overview of a recent webinar;

Link to our newest national oped;

Another intro, this time to our superstar research fellow, Julie;

Update on what CCB’s staff is looking forward to now that summer is over.

Hello from CCB’s new Chief Strategy Officer, Greg Magofña!

Hi, I’m Greg Magofña. Nice to meet you. I joined CCB in the newly created Chief Strategy Officer position just about a month and a half ago, and I’m very excited to be here.

So, first things first, who am I?

Here’s a quick summary: I’ve dedicated my life to public service and in my career, I’ve been a teacher, an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer, a legislative aide to a former Berkeley Mayor, and a nonprofit worker many times over. In my personal life, I’ve been a staunch activist for social equity, especially around land use: as the co-founder and two-time Co-Executive of East Bay for Everyone, as a Berkeley Housing Commissioner, a Berkeley Environmental Commissioner, an Alameda County Housing Bond Oversight Committee Member, and way too many other things that I could get into, but then this email would be too long. Also, fun fact: I grew up a military brat, moving across the US and Pacific, but consider the East Bay and Hawaii — unfortunately, two of the most expensive places on the planet – home.

Next, why am I here?

CCB’s mission to close the racial wealth gap through housing and homeownership is one that I feel very personally. As a person of color raised in a first-gen, low-income family, I myself have been struggling to maintain stable housing in my home state of California, which is growing more expensive by the day and where the dream of homeownership is becoming even more just a dream. Also, if you haven’t heard, I got priced out of my own little community in Berkeley — while running for city council on a housing platform, no less — and I don’t want that to happen to one more person across the state. That’s why I’m here and why I’m motivated to get stuff done!

I’ve been a fan of CCB since I found out about its work years ago and even met with John Gamboa to see how CCB and East Bay for Everyone could collaborate. While the universe didn’t unite us at that moment, it had a longer-term plan for me and CCB. I stayed on the mailing list, followed along admiring CCB’s work, and eventually met Adam Briones. Years later, here I am with my sleeves rolled up. Thank you, Universe!

All of this is to say that I’m super excited to join the team and here is why:

• CCB’s mission to increase wealth and to compound that wealth generationally will create stability and open opportunities for low-income and immigrant families — opportunities that people like me didn’t even realize were a thing.

• CCB is focused on proactive empowerment and working on policies that are more than just a hypothetical discussion topic for a college classroom, but policies that have an impact on the ground and in everyday life.

• CCB is actively focused on uplifting the BIPOC community and leadership, and it focuses on making sure we’re representing ourselves in rooms that are oftentimes filled mainly with white decision-makers.

• CCB is full of great, creative, and did I mention *fun* people, who care deeply about making the lives of their family, friends, and BIPOC Californians in general better.

CCB is doing amazing work and I’m happy to be here to help shape the future of our work and get it out to you, policymakers, and everyday BIPOC Californians who know something is rotten in the state of housing. I wouldn’t be a good Chief Strategy Officer if I didn’t ask you to help us implement those strategies. Yep, it’s a fundraising ask. Please help us by donating to fund our research and reports, advocacy efforts, Leadership Academy and hopefully soon the expansion of our staff.

Our communities have largely been sidelined as this housing crisis has worsened over the decades, and we’re here now to do the work to get us a seat at the table to equitably get out of this mess. I’ve already gotten started, but we still have a lot of work to do. Let’s go!