The elephant in the region.

<p><strong><a href= "https://evepicker.com/the-elephant-in-the-region/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BE SURE TO SEE THE SHOWNOTES AND LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE</a></strong></p> <p><strong>Eve Picker:</strong> [00:00:10] Hi there. Thanks so much for joining me today for the latest episode of Impact Real Estate Investing. My guest today is Heather Hood, VP at Enterprise Community Partners and Market Leader for Northern California. Heather works to ensure low- and moderate- income residents have access to affordable, quality housing in Northern California. She's written influential pieces on housing issues, helped to create technical assistance programs and co-chaired Oakland's Housing Cabinet. Heather believes there are a few reasons why we are in the affordable housing pickle we are in. NIMBYism has failed us. Construction costs and the cost of land have soared. We need to permit higher density. And it takes far too long to get permission to build a building – the production line needs to be sped up, dramatically. You'll want to hear more.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Eve:</strong> [00:01:13] Be sure to go to EvePicker.com to find out more about Heather on the show notes page for this episode, and be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you can access information about impact real estate investing and get the latest news about the exciting projects on my crowdfunding platform, Small Change.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Eve:</strong> [00:01:40] Hello, Heather. I'm just delighted to have this opportunity to talk to you today.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Heather Hood:</strong> [00:01:44] Well, thank you, Eve. It's nice to be here. Good morning.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Eve:</strong> [00:01:47] Good morning, well, midday for me, but good morning to you. So, you're working on perhaps one of the most difficult challenges of our time, affordable housing in California. And I was hoping we could start talking about how our real estate industry has failed everyday people. And why is there such a huge gap between housing available and