Building affordable housing has never been easy — but today’s environment demands thinking more creatively than ever about how to bring quality affordable homes to the people who need them most. This session brings together voices from across the construction and development landscape to explore the real-world challenges of building affordable housing in San Mateo County — from navigating permits, inspections, and regulatory hurdles to finding creative solutions that make projects financially viable and community-centered.
Panelists will examine a range of construction approaches, including modular and traditional delivery methods, weighing the trade-offs of each and sharing firsthand lessons from projects on the ground. A particular focus of the session will be the growing opportunity — and the unique set of considerations — involved in developing affordable housing on faith-owned land. Faith-based organizations hold significant underutilized property throughout the county, and this session will explore what it takes to move from vision to project.
Moderator
Rev Dr. G. Penny Nixon, Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County
Rev. Dr. G. Penny Nixon is the Faith Director for the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County and the Faith Communities Housing Liaison for the County of San Mateo. Prior to working full-time at the intersection of affordable housing and faith communities, she served as the Senior Minister of CCSM from 2007 – 2022 and was honored with the title of Minister Emerita upon her retirement from pastoral ministry.
A community leader and political activist, she has received numerous awards and recognitions for her work in both San Francisco and San Mateo, the most recent being named 2019 Woman of the Year for Assembly District 22. She is also the founder and co-director of the Peninsula Solidarity Cohort, a group of 30 interfaith clergy engaged in addressing the most pressing social needs in San Mateo County.
Speakers
Chrissie Davis, President and Founder, INCORAGE
Chrissie Davis is the founder and president of a value-based general contracting firm, INCORAGE, which stands for Integrity, Collaboration, Regularly Achieving Goals Effectively. INCORAGE focuses on multi-family housing including affordable housing. Chrissie has a civil engineering degree from LMU and a master’s from Stanford in Construction Engineering Management. Before starting INCORAGE, Chrissie grew her last organization from a $30M in-house GC firm to a $100M powerhouse. They were named the 25th largest GC in Silicon Valley and the best multi-family general contractor to work for with fewer than 50 employees. In her career, she has constructed and rehabilitated over 3,000 units and managed over $1Billion of work in the Bay Area. INCORAGE is currently more than half women and almost three-quarters people of color. INCORAGE is slated to be a next-generation GC redefining collaboration and proving that values-driven leadership isn’t just viable in this industry…it’s essential to its future!
Derrick Chappell, Project Manager, INCORAGE
Derrick Chappell is a Project Manager for Incorage General Contractors. He began his career in Hollywood completing dozens of global box office films before pivoting to a career in construction after working on an office remodel in between projects. Sparking a new passion, he went back to school and graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Construction Management. Immediately after graduation he started his career in commercial construction building K-12 schools before transitioning to multifamily construction. Derrick has since completed over 500 units to date with the combined projects totaling north of 300 million.
Taeko Karyn Takagi, Architecture, Construction, Facilities and Real Estate Development Leader
Taeko is an architecture, construction, and real estate development leader with over 25 years of experience across these industries. She currently serves as President of Throckmorton Partners and as CEO and Founding Principal of Mainframe Design + Development. Her background spans hospitality, multifamily and student housing, retail, workplace, and adaptive reuse projects, with particular depth in modular construction built as a founding member at one of the first Bay area factory-built modular companies in 2009. Recently for Throckmorton, she led San José State University’s downtown student housing development converting the Fairmount Hotel into 700 student housing beds and amenities reflecting her broader focus on structuring complex public-private partnerships to deliver housing. She previously led architecture, construction, and facilities for Sonder, a fast-scaling hospitality company, held senior construction and design management roles at Pankow Builders and Holliday Development and began her architecture career and passion for housing at David Baker and Partners. She brings a cross-disciplinary lens — spanning design, delivery, risk management and ownership — to housing development challenges.