If Nellie Gorbea has her way, affordable housing won’t be an issue for Rhode Islanders much longer. And she’s doing everything in her power as executive director of HousingWorks RI to make that ambition a reality.
The 41-year-old mother, wife and community activist has a long history of making positive changes in the public and private sectors.
Gorbea jumped into her role as executive director of HousingWorks RI, a coalition of over 120 businesses, labor groups and organizations that work to make affordable housing available in the state, in 2008, “just when the whole world began to blow up” and the state’s foreclosure crisis was under way; the side effect of a bigger issue, she said.
“The foreclosure crisis is a symptom of the affordable housing problem in Rhode Island; people went into risky loans to buy a home because they couldn’t afford a home any other way,” Gorbea said.
The state hasn’t focused on growing the number of affordable homes, in part because affordable housing hasn’t been tied to economic development, she said. Her goal is to change that paradigm.
“Affordable housing is essential to our state’s economy, because it is difficult to have a work force in the state if they can’t afford homes, and companies won’t want to grow businesses here if their employees can’t afford homes or rentals,” Gorbea said. “For instance, we have an interest in maintaining and growing the boat-building industry in the East Bay, but that work force has to rent a place in Fall River because they can’t afford housing here – which also means they are not paying taxes in our state.”
Gorbea is working to get support for affordable housing as an economic development measure and doing things like making sure state bond monies go to programs that help people who earn minimum wage afford housing in Rhode Island.
Getting the attention of lawmakers is a big part of her job, so knowing how to maneuver in the General Assembly has been important – an art she learned as deputy secretary of state director of administration for the Rhode Island Office of the Secretary of State. Gorbea held that position from 2003 until 2007, where she managed seven divisions and 50 employees, oversaw the multimillion dollar annual budget and led a number of operational plans and special projects.
In 1995, she took a position as program officer at the Rhode Island Foundation in Providence, where she stayed for three years before making the leap to move back to her home country, Puerto Rico, to work.
In 2001 she took a position as corporate development officer at a technology company called Altamente.com, representing the company between its base in Puerto Rico and East Greenwich, before making a full return to the state in 2002.
Gorbea isn’t thinking about what her next career move will be, because all of her attention is on making affordable housing available in the state. And she has a lot of work to do, she said.
“I really want to see a lot more recognition of housing in the economic strategy of the state. … I want the governor to see that housing is part of the economic puzzle,” she said. “It is one of the biggest concerns for employees, for students and the elderly.” •
