Georgette Gomez

Community Development Officer, Casa Familiar

Like many before her, Georgette’s path to joining the environmental justice movement was born out of her own experience growing up in a redlined and heavily polluted community. Georgette has dedicated her career to changing the narrative for environmental justice communities like her own, that have long been placed in harm’s way to create opportunities for others.

For over a decade of community organizing and public service, Georgette fought for and secured affordable housing and clean transportation policies, teaching decision makers that economic development doesn’t have to happen at the expense of communities of color. Georgette’s journey eventually led her to Casa Familiar, where she is now applying her equity lens to the development of Avanzando, a new affordable housing project in San Diego’s southernmost border community, San Ysidro.

 

Avanzando is a permanently affordable, community-owned, rent-to-own housing complex and it’s Casa’s first go at developing more than rentals. This effort is part of the organization’s initiative to help low-income families build generational wealth through homeownership. Over the past several years, Georgette has actively worked with San Ysidro residents to gain a deep understanding of the needs and values of the community. By placing community perspectives and voices into the center of the project’s planning, Georgette is ensuring that Avanzando doesn’t become the bare-minimum affordable housing that low-income communities are used to. She is helping to create a space that values the dignity of residents and goes beyond what’s required.

“We’re working in a community that is starved of resources and we’re always playing the role of, how much can we jam into a project, how creative can we be? If we’re talking about transformation, let’s move something forward that will get us there and deliver what the community deserves.”

Avanzando will soon be ready for residents to enjoy what they once imagined- electric cooling, shade trees, and a splashpad to protect from extreme heat; filtration to keep indoor air quality safe; shared spaces for community programs; and the opportunity for residents to eventually own their homes. Georgette and her team at Casa offer a new model for how affordable housing can be built. When designed by community leaders, housing can be more than shelter, it can be transformational for families and the lives of future generations.   

 

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