Episode summary
RE West 2026: Valerie Red Horse Mohl of the California Endowment Spoke to Courtney McQuade
Summary
San Francisco rents are up 13% in the last year, and Valerie Red-Horse Mohl said that kind of housing pressure is exactly why she is focused on affordable and workforce housing. She sees opportunities to address the housing crisis while still improving the return profile, and said she has long found interesting managers in this part of the market.
At the California Endowment, she said real estate is evaluated through both mission and return. Housing matters as a social determinant of health, alongside safe neighborhoods and places to study, so she looks for investments that deliver measurable impact and measurable financial return. She said the endowment is willing to get creative, including mezzanine debt and equity, rather than relying only on the senior secured part of the capital stack.
Valerie Red-Horse Mohl also argued that alpha can still be found in overlooked communities, underrepresented managers, and less traditional geographies. She said that shift is part of a broader expansion of where capital gets allocated, and that fund managers themselves have had to become more creative with structures, locations, and parts of the capital stack.
Key takeaways
- Valerie Red-Horse Mohl said affordable and workforce housing can help mitigate the housing crisis while still supporting returns.
- At the California Endowment, she said every dollar should have measurable impact alongside measurable return.
- She said alpha can still be found in underserved and underrepresented managers, geographies, and opportunities.
- Red-Horse Mohl said the endowment is willing to consider mezzanine debt and equity in affordable housing, not just senior secured positions.
- She said fund managers are increasingly getting creative with fund structures and capital-stack positioning.
Notable quotes
“we have a mission statement, you know, healthy Californians, healthy communities”
“affordable housing is one of those. You want to have a live in a safe neighborhood, you want to have affordable housing”
“every dollar should have measurable impact alongside measurable return”
“I still believe that you can find alpha with underserved and overlooked and underrepresented managers, geographies, locations”
“we're looking at debt as well as equity. We're looking at, um, closed-end funds and open-end funds and public and private investments”
How the episode opens
San Francisco rents are up 13% in the last year, the most of any major market. I'm here at our Real Estate West Forum in Half Moon Bay. With me is Valerie Redhorse Moore of the California Endowment. Valerie, what's your take?
Well, first of all, thank you. I'm really honored to be here. I think it's a great group.
I've been here for several years now and I've always been able to meet some really interesting managers doing some wonderful things in the affordable and workforce housing space, which is something that I'm very focused on. Your comment about rents, um that is something that we're all very focused on. I I just came from spending time where I was at a DCIO at the New York City pension systems and we moved money into affordable housing there because also just having to deal with high cost of living, not being able to live where you work, and not having enough units.
And so this is important for me. I think there are investment opportunities that can mitigate the housing crisis and also help us with the return profile. So, I'm very uh much looking forward to the conference.
And now at the California Endowment, tell me, where would your next real estate dollar go, Valerie?
At the California Endowment, we're very focused on impact in our communities. In fact, um we have a mission statement, you know, healthy Californians, healthy communities. And so there is a big focus historically on healthcare and health-related investments.
However, everyone at the California Endowment uh through research and study over the years has come to understand that there are many social determinants of health and affordable housing is one of those. You want to have a live in a safe neighborhood, you want to have affordable housing, you want to have a place to study if you're, you know, a student.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- impact investing
- affordable housing
- real estate
- tribal nations
- investment returns
Companies and tickers mentioned
- The California Endowment
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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