For the month of November, ULI is highlighting some of our members in the housing sector and the great work that they’re doing.   

Meet Mary Jane Jagodzinski, the Senior Vice President of Development at BRIDGE Housing. Mary Jane’s work focuses on affordable housing development in Southern California and Washington state, and she is a member of ULI’s Urban Revitalization National Product Council and the San Diego-Tijuana Housing Product Council. 

Speaking on the importance of affordable housing, Mary Jane explains that in recent years there has been growing recognition of the need for housing attainability and affordability for a spectrum of incomes. She says that it is important to increase awareness of this housing crisis, which affects many aspects of our communities. In particular, she emphasizes that in the U.S. there is a lack of housing that integrates all income levels, which prevents people from working in the community in which they live. This interconnected aspect of our communities “has been the backbone of strong villages and cities in history,” and is missing because of the housing crisis, Mary Jane states. On top of the neighborhood connection, she cites traffic and sustainability as two other spheres that are directly impacted by the fact that many people do not have the ability to live where they work.  

In her role at BRIDGE Housing, Mary Jane is excited about her ability to work on projects on a bigger scale and highlights a new senior housing development in the walkable neighborhood of Little Italy, San Diego, located next to market-rate housing. This project not only works towards the goals of housing creation and community integration that Mary Jane champions but was also reuse of a public brownfield site, contributing to the overall improvement of the neighborhood.   

Mary Jane has been involved with ULI since her first job in the real estate development industry and now serves on a National Product Council that focuses on Urban Revitalization. She finds the Product Council very rewarding and educational, allowing her to look at the issues that first drew her interest in the development field: urban centers and neglected neighborhoods and using housing as a catalyst to enliven a community. She specifically mentions her appreciation for the professionalism, sharing of best practices, and peer connections that ULI provides, challenging her to think about issues and apply those ideas to her work. In her former position with Community Housing Works, Mary Jane’s project received a ULI Award for Excellence, which she still considers one of the most important achievements in her career.  

Mary Jane’s advice to young professionals is to “be open and choose paths that resonate with you. If you’re doing something you love, you will succeed.” She says that you are where you’re supposed to be and you will end up where you are meant to be, so “go with the flow.” She also encourages young professionals in the industry to use the ULI’s Young Leaders Partnership Forum Groups as a tool for mentorship.   

Thank you to Mary Jane for her continued involvement with ULI and for taking the time to share about her work in the affordable housing sector.