Eden Housing's Parrott St - getting affordable housing right in San Leandro

Kate Blessing-Kawamura is a Senior Project Developer with Eden Housing’s Real Estate Development Department. She is responsible for originating, coordinating and implementing all aspects of the development of affordable housing projects. This may include new construction, rehabilitation, Eden-owned portfolio resyndications, and joint ventures with other developers. She helps evaluate potential project sites and properties and manages a workload of multiple projects. Before joining Eden in 2018, Kate got her master’s degree in public policy and a certificate of real estate development. Prior to graduate school, she worked in higher education policy research at MDRC, a nonprofit firm best known for pioneering the study of social policies through randomized controlled trials.

 Alyssa Santos is Eden Housing’s Community Engagement & Volunteer Programs Manager. Her career started in youth education at her local Boys & Girls Club where she oversaw and lead youth programming development for 10 years. Over the last eight years, she has since transitioned into community engagement, volunteer management, and program development. Currently, she has supported the transition of in-person programming to virtual programming as well as increased Eden’s corporate partnership visibility using online fundraising strategies. Her passion for helping others and volunteering has helped her manage Eden’s portfolio-wide volunteer program.

Eden Housing is one of the oldest and most experienced affordable housing non-profit organizations in California and is based in Hayward. Since our inception in 1968 (53 years in operation), Eden has developed, acquired, or rehabilitated more than 11,400 affordable units and currently provides homes to more than 24,000 lower-income residents in 15 counties. As a mission-driven non-profit, we serve low- and moderate-income families, seniors, and people living with disabilities. Incomes of our residents typically range from 20% to 60% of the area median income. Eden Housing has been recognized as one of the Top 50 affordable housing companies in the nation every year for the last 14 years by Affordable Housing Finance Magazine, the leading national  publication that ranks and reviews affordable housing. Eden also offers an integrated operating company – having both property management and resident services under one roof – and therefore brings a combined package of experience and expertise that covers the spectrum of activities involved in developing, owning, managing, and servicing a high-quality rental housing development. This combined experience assures that the quality design and construction of the project is preserved through the careful long-term maintenance of the property and ongoing care and service to residents.