How Housing Can Boost Economic Mobility In America | Cristian Ahumada

The Nick Halaris Show

This week on The Nick Halaris Show we are featuring Cristian Ahumada, the Executive Director of Holos Communities, one of the leading non-profit affordable housing developers in Southern California. Cristian, my friend of many years, is one of the most passionate, impact-focused leaders I’ve ever come across and has a decades-long track record of making a positive difference in the world. He’s developed over 2000 units of affordable housing, is completely dedicated to ending homelessness, and is a highly respected civic leader.

Cristian is someone who has been working at the forefront of the housing affordability crisis for decades and has an incredible depth and breadth of knowledge of the problems and opportunities there. I wanted to have him on the show to get his insider’s take on why we’ve gotten ourselves in such a mess when it comes to homelessness and housing affordability and what we might do to right the ship. As a for-profit multifamily developer who has barely survived the buzzsaw that is Los Angeles, I can attest firsthand just how impressive it is that he’s been able to have such a big impact on the world as a non-profit developer. Tune in to this inspiring episode to learn:

• Cristian’s compelling holistic vision for addressing homelessness, housing affordability, climate change, and racial inequity
• How the current system inadvertently creates a welfare state rather than providing economic mobility for individuals experiencing homelessness
• Why public transit investment and big zoning changes are the core of the solution to the housing crisis
• How economic segregation has come to replace racial segregation and what that means for the American Dream
• What we can learn from Vienna on how to create a country where housing is affordable for everyone
• & Much, much more

Stay tuned to the end to learn how Cristian’s experiences growing up in Chile with a mom who believed in a life of service and a grandmaster father, who taught him resiliency through chess, fueled his passion for trying to make the world a better place and taught him the skills necessary to thrive as a non-profit leader in the very competitive world of real estate development.

As always, I hope you all enjoy this episode. Thanks for tuning in!