May 23, 2023–OAKLAND, CA
Bringing her affordable housing knowledge and passion for data and community, Amanda Hopkins joined Merritt in September 2022 as an Asset Manager. We are excited about what Amanda has already accomplished in her role on Merritt’s team, bringing a values-driven approach to her work.
Before Merritt
Amanda came to Merritt from Resources for Community Development, a nonprofit developer in Berkeley focused primarily on development in the East Bay. At the start of her career, Amanda worked for the State of Missouri administering Section 8 Contracts. She’s been in the realm of affordable housing in different capacities for 15 years.
Amanda has worked in various aspects of asset management. She began her asset management work in Denver, CO working in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) world at a for-profit organization that covered multiple states, until she and her family moved to California. She found many impactful nonprofit LIHTC organizations in California.
Why Merritt and Affordable Housing?
Amanda appreciates affordable housing and LIHTC work because she gets to be an expert in a unique area at the intersection of real estate and community development. She enjoys the work as an Asset Manager and loves going out on property visits to meet staff and residents and see all the different perspectives of affordable housing. Amanda said that she uses “a mix of data and precise tracking to impact the quality of life for residents and find the best fitting solutions for unique problems.”
Amanda knew of Merritt while doing LIHTC work and was aware of Merritt’s Commitment to California work and the focus on supporting the industry. As she went through the interview process, Amanda found that Merritt was exactly the work environment she was looking for. She enjoyed the fact that Merritt has a strong, developed Asset Management team with solid processes. She was eager to join and find more ways to strengthen the team and has completed several training courses since joining Merritt to build on her existing skills. She completed her Consortium for Housing and Asset Management (CHAM) Asset Management Specialist (AMS) Certification, the Advanced Financial Tools for Asset Managers, and the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) Advance Compliance Workshops.
Amanda is excited about the professional growth and deepening her understanding in LIHTC housing. “Merritt offers deep working knowledge in the LIHTC world and the ability to learn even more about asset management. I appreciate that Merritt is consistent and creative when approaching solutions to problems,” said Amanda.
Working in affordable housing stemmed from an initial intrigue in real estate. Her first job out of school was at a small real estate company. She enjoyed the structure and data driven nature of the work; she liked that looking at data allowed her to develop tactical plans that created a better environment for people within the community. This desire to help people using her real estate skills led her to transition to the state of Missouri in the housing department.
The combination of hard and soft skills paired with mission-led work makes Amanda excited to work at Merritt.
Merritt and Values
By her six-month mark Amanda felt really connected with Merritt. “I see how Merritt’s vision, mission and values resonate with the day-to-day of the job and on my visits to properties,” Amanda said.
Amanda feels strongly about the Solutions-Oriented value as she loves to solve problems and feels excited to find the best solutions possible. Kindness and Openness also play important roles in her work. She frequently communicates with different partners and finds that staying kind and open is the best way to connect and assist her colleagues at different properties. Amanda sees her Merritt colleagues living the values in the way they treat each other and how they operate both inside and outside of the organization and says that it “feels natural to live the values.” She can tell the values are reinforced through her job, the organization, and how significant they are to the work Merritt is doing.
Thank you for all of the work you do, Amanda! We are excited to have you on the Asset Management team and look forward to more years working with you!
About Merritt Community Capital Corporation
Merritt Community Capital Corporation is a nonprofit dedicated to our mission to provide equity capital for affordable housing exclusively to California. We do this by partnering with mission-aligned affordable housing developers throughout the state to ensure the most critical communities are developed and maintained for low-income residents. Since 1989, Merritt has created and/or preserved 11,000 affordable homes, through investing over $1.2 billion in 26 separate funds, providing housing for over 29,700 people.