Charities Housing holds Grand Opening for Page Street Apartments
For Charities Housing, 2023 is an eventful year. The organization is celebrating a milestone 30th anniversary, and the opening of and ground-breaking for new affordable housing properties – all with a new executive director at the helm for the first time in more than 15 years.
Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County welcomes Mark Mikl as the new Executive Director of Charities Housing. Mikl joined Charities Housing as Deputy Director in 2019 after serving on the Board for nine years prior to joining the organization. With the retirement last year of longtime Executive Director Dan Wu, Mikl was promoted to lead the organization in May 2022.
Mikl brings more than 30 years of professional and leadership experience in the finance and real estate sectors. Prior to joining Charities Housing, he worked as a Senior Vice President for Essex Property Trust. He is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) and a graduate of San Jose State University. In his new role leading the team at Charities Housing, he will oversee 70 staff members as they manage the organization’s current affordable housing sites and develop new properties to meet the tremendous need in our communities.
“As Charities Housing makes plans to celebrate our 30th Anniversary later this year, I’m proud to be a part of continuing this critical work and lead such a great team of professionals who really care about what they do,” Mikl said. “This organization is successful due to its long-term focused discipline of being thoughtful, conservative and highly knowledgeable in the area of low income housing in Santa Clara County. Now we can build on this legacy to consider expanding housing opportunities and implementing new strategies to enhance our mission.”
Catholic Charities established the Division of Housing Development and Services in 1990 and formed Charities Housing Development Corporation of Santa Clara County (Charities Housing) in 1993 to address the lack of safe and affordable housing opportunities in the community. Current residents of Charities Housing’s approximate 1,500 units include low-income families, single adults and seniors, those with disabilities and other special needs.
The organization has in excess of 2,000 additional apartment homes which will be delivered over the next few years. In March, the newest Charities Housing property opened: Page Studios with 82 units serving low-income families and individuals. This summer will be the grand opening of Blossom Valley Senior Apartments on Blossom Hill Road in San Jose and groundbreaking for two large family affordable communities, 1860 Alum Rock Ave., a 60-apartment home community and The Charles, a 99-apartment home community at 551 Keyes St. both in San Jose.
Mikl said: “This is an exciting time. With the alignment of political will and the related focus by public and private sources, this is allowing us to really lean into our mission to produce and operate much needed affordable apartment homes serving the lowest tranches of affordability where the housing is most desperately needed.”
For information, visit:
charitieshousing.org