Kate Sullivan 0:00
My name is Kate Sullivan, and I am the host of To Dine For. I’m a journalist of foodie, a traveler with an appetite for the stories of people who are hungry for more, dreamers, visionaries, artists, those who hustle hard in the direction they love. I travel with them to their favorite restaurant to hear how they did it. This show is a toast to them. Their American dream, a dine for the podcast is brought to you by American National offering a broad suite of insurance solutions to protect what matters most to you. For 115 years, American National has remained committed to helping people in communities make a real difference in their lives. American National supports great local community organizations led by the kind of people you hear about on today, people who are inspired to make a difference and inspire others in return. American nationals philosophy is helping where it’s needed. Helps us all. For a description of the American national companies, the products they write, and the states in which they’re licensed, visit American national.com/dine Hello and welcome to to dine for the podcast where you meet the world’s most creative and innovative minds at their favorite restaurant. On today’s episode, is Micaela Connery creating…
Micaela Connery 1:26
Spaces where people feel joy and belonging, whether that’s an advocacy workshop or a housing development. That’s what gives me meaning at the end of the day, is, how can I create those spaces and those experiences? Micaela
Kate Sullivan 1:38
Connery is the co founder and CEO of The Kelsey, a San Francisco based nonprofit that develops accessible, affordable and inclusive multifamily housing and advocates for policy changes that promote inclusive practices and provides tools and templates for others who want to build housing based on its model. This story is really cool. I have known Micaela for many years, back when this was just an idea. So basically, she created The Kelsey in 2017 she secured more than $180 million in funding to pilot programming in existing units in Oakland, California, and to finance new buildings in two of the nation’s most challenging housing markets, San Jose, California and San Francisco. It is a beautiful concept, a beautiful idea. I can’t wait to dive in to her Genesis story and for you to hear more about the amazing work of Micaela Connery. Hello. How are you? Micaela, nice to see you. Wonderful to see you. How is life good?
Micaela Connery 2:48
It’s very full, but very good.
Kate Sullivan 2:50
Wow. Am I excited to hear more about The Kelsey, you? I just remember when this was just an idea, and the fact that you’ve brought this to life is really so inspiring. It’s amazing. I’m sure it has been some more work than you can even imagine, and we will get into that. But I want to start this podcast the way I begin all my podcast by asking your favorite restaurant, you live in the Bay Area and but you’re from one of my favorite places, Newport, Rhode Island. So if you could take me to any restaurant. Where would you take me?
Micaela Connery 3:22
I have a bit of an unconventional answer to this, which I hope is okay, which I thought about this. And, you know, I’ve worked in a lot of restaurants. I thought about I’ve worked in some really great restaurants that are some of my favorites. I obviously have some I love in San Francisco. But really, if I could take anyone anywhere, I take them home to my kitchen. I like my favorite thing for folks is to cook for people. So I think, you know, my it was a, you know, tie between, as I thought about this, whether it would be with my dad cooking in our kitchen in Newport, Rhode Island, we grew up cooking together, which was always a really special part of our life, or a campfire meal that my husband and I cook, we cook a lot over the campfire around the Bay Area. We love to get out in nature and cook together. So that’s my tie. But I think you know, and we’ll get into this with my work at The Kelsey but I grew up in the restaurant industry. My dad was in the business. I grew up working in restaurants myself, and so like cooking for people in hospitality, and just like having folks around your house with really good food and like a bottle of wine that would be way more expensive if you got it at a restaurant, is, is my joy.
Kate Sullivan 4:30
I did not know that your dad was in the restaurant business. Was it? Was it a restaurant in Newport, or did he own one? Or what was his restaurants?
Micaela Connery 4:39
So he started in hotel, food and beverage, and then actually was in when I say restaurant, more hospitality. So he ran hotels all my life, and I grew up, which there are some themes of the work that I do now. I grew up living in hotels. I lived in hotels for most of my life.
Kate Sullivan 4:54
Did you really like, yeah, ones in Rhode Island?
Micaela Connery 4:58
Not in Rhode Island. I lived in Sheraton, Boston. Rhode Island is where I’m from. But my dad did never work there. They were there now. But I lived in the Sheraton Boston, which you might know being in New England. I lived in the Sheraton in Woodley Park in Washington, DC. I lived in the Sheraton Grand Bahama in Paradise Island, Bahamas, and a few other hotels. But yes, I lived in hotels from basically when I was in first grade to when I was in seventh grade.
Kate Sullivan 5:25
What an interesting experience. You were like Eloise.
Micaela Connery 5:28
Parents would say, hopefully less spoiled than Eloise, but yeah, living, living in hotels. And one of my like, favorite memories early on is that they had this, like, Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. When that was a thing, I think now it’s like, bring your child to work day, but and we got to, like, go. This is we lived in the Sheridan in Boston, and it was like super all the hotel staffs kids would all come, and they would take us to, like, the banquet kitchen. And we got to work with the chefs in the banquet kitchen, and particularly learned how to make tuxedo chocolate covered strawberries. Funny that I still remember that.
Kate Sullivan 6:01
A thing to learn that’s a lifelong skill.
Micaela Connery 6:05
Oh yeah. So anyway, I think that that’s always my dad. Then, you know, hospitality industry, and I really, like knows, and then so I started working in restaurants, and I was in college and worked in every city. San Francisco is actually the first city I’ve ever lived in as an adult that I haven’t worked in a restaurant. I worked in a restaurant I worked in a restaurant in Newport. In college, I worked at the CIO in Charlottesville, which was actually going to be one of my suggested restaurants. That’s a really cool one. When I was in grad school at Harvard, I worked at Grafton Street. And when I was working in Hartford with my first nonprofit, I worked at a restaurant called Max downtown part time while I was doing nonprofit during the day, and, you know, raising money and then paying my bills with waiting tables. So I’m very comfortable on that side of the that side of the meal, and trying to join them.
Kate Sullivan 6:48
Actually,I do too. I feel like some of my, you know, favorite moments, you know, in my 20s were as a waitress, and I the skills that I learned really very transferable to everything that I do now, and it gives you a humility. It gives you a sense of hospitality that I don’t know if many other jobs can offer for someone as they’re learning, making their way, you know, yeah, you have a real opportunity.
Micaela Connery 7:14
I think, being a server to like, make somebody’s day and then say yes, cooking a meal for somebody, like, you really have complete control over, like, whether somebody has a good or a bad experience. And there’s so many times where, you know, and like, a lot of the complex systems they operated, and there’s, like, a lot of different factors that are gonna be at play. But when you’re a server, it’s like, your domain, and I’m like, I’ve got this table, and I can, like, make their day. And how fun is that to be like, give little moments of joy to people that only you can can give them, especially if they’re like, visiting a new city or celebrating something or reunion with people. It’s like a really, I don’t know, I really always found those special moments to be a part of awesome.
Kate Sullivan 7:55
Thank you. Thank you for sharing that that’s really cool. Well, I want to dive into your story, and I want to start by if you could introduce everyone to Kelsey, because Kelsey is such a central figure to your life, to your story, if you could kind of share a little bit about how you grew up, who was Kelsey, and the profound relationship you had with her, and the impact that she’s had on your life. Yeah,
Micaela Connery 8:21
I love talking about Kelsey. So kind of, you know what I was sharing before, I moved around a lot as a kid because of my dad’s job. But I was born in Rhode Island, and Newport has always been home for me. That was, you know, no matter where we live, my mom wanted us to be from somewhere, and so Newport was where we always came back to, and that’s where my cousin Kelsey lived, and she and I, you know, I would say our formative times together started even before I can remember. And you know, has since been kind of recalled to me and stories and memories, because we were born three months apart. And you know, I was born in November, and Kelsey was born in February. And when Kelsey was born, you know, initially, and this is sort of a theme in kelsey’s life. Folks said, like she wouldn’t even, you know, live into childhood like she had, you know, both significant disabilities and also pretty acute medical needs. But Kelsey, as she did throughout her life, kind of defied those odds. I don’t remember this, but you know, as infants, I think we spent a lot of time together, and I only recall through photos of just seeing pictures of Kelsey, who, you know, had a lot of medical supports, but was a smiley and happy young girl. And my memories really start kind of at elementary age, and Kelsey, her needs were significant, and in that she still was very excited to and able to experience a lot of what childhood was all about. You know, she loved being outside. She loved being on, you know, a boat. She loved going to amusement parks and going on roller coasters. She was, you know, smiling and happy, and loved being around people. And you know, one of my earliest memories is sitting in my aunt’s living room at her house with my aunt and my mom. They were sisters, you know, calling because they wanted Kelsey and I to go to summer camp, and calling over and over different places, like, could you accommodate, basically, Kelsey and Micaela to kids with different needs but the same age? And over and over again, places where either, like, would accommodate Kelsey, but they can sound like very much fun, like, you know, essentially, almost like a hospital setting for a summer camp. And so that wasn’t going to check the box. And the places that actually seemed fun weren’t going to support Kelsey, or didn’t have the staff to support Kelsey. And ultimately, I don’t know how you know, my mom and her sister Shaleen, figured this out, but they found, like, one place that was a sailing camp in Newport for people with physical disabilities, but not really the level of support needs Kelsey has, and think we can come to that later. That’s really common. I would say in some disability services that there’s almost like, you know, Oh, you’re too disabled for that. We really that’s something we need to address broadly. But so they found this place that they fed people physical disabilities. And they said, Well, if Kelsey has someone who can help her, she can come to this camp. And so they decided that it was a good idea to send like us to like 11 year old girls together. So I was Kelsey health, and we went to this camp, but it was kind of a total mess.
Kate Sullivan 11:09
Wait a minute a sailing camp, in a way, you were sort of the chaperone guide for Kelsey at 11 years old, right?
Micaela Connery 11:16
We were like, we were going to be like camp, you know, Camp comrades. And Kelsey was really more capable of sailing than I was. Frankly, Kelsey failed a lot during her life, but it was, you know, the place was trying to support her, and we ended up like having a good time, but it was also sort of a chaotic mess because they didn’t have the supports in place. And certain times, Kelsey is a woman on the was a woman on the move. She really didn’t like to be stationary, so failing sometimes could be like, hurry up and wait the time. So we had to kind of like hang out in the sort of sailing house, or whatever it was, and wait to go out. Just pleased with that. But we made the most of it. And I remember there was, like, another instructor who was at one point like, going to go for a drive. And I’m like, that would make Kelsey really happy. Like, could you just take the two of us for a drive that that did not go over. But, you know, I think that I share that story, because I think that was like a huge part of this early glimpse into, you know, Kelsey, I kind of went through every life milestone together. It was like, whether it was like making our first communion in church, or looking for summer camps or doing like after school programs in high school, or even just going to school altogether. And it was always really clear during those different milestones that one like Kelsey was interested and able and excited to be a part of all these experiences and yet. And kelsey’s disability, and I think that was a huge part of our family, Kelsey disability was never inherently the problem. The problem was always that faces and places and experiences weren’t set up with support of or recognition of or systems that could accommodate her disability. And I think that was always socially and her mom was such a remarkable example of she would always, like, go upstream and be like, okay, like, with this camp example, okay. Like, you don’t have support for Kelsey, we’ll bring our own support. Okay, your school’s not set up to be inclusive. We’ll help you make it inclusive. Your you know, CCD, you know, Catholic curriculum wasn’t meant for people with disabilities. All teach GCD and include people with disabilities.
Kate Sullivan 13:12
And so in a way, you were getting a front row seat to not only the pain points of what it was like to have kelsey’s specific brand of disability and what she was capable of that did not meet, you know, what was available to her? Okay? So this is really interesting. So when you go to college, in the back of your head, you know, I always ask people like when they were leaving college, who did they want to be? What did they want to do? We you were in college, what did you want to do? Because I know your your world post college was so shaped by Kelsey, but I’m wondering, is that what you wanted in college? Did you already know you wanted to do something to sort of champion folks like Kelsey?
Micaela Connery 13:53
Yeah, I definitely went to college focused on disability. I had initially started another nonprofit called Unified Theater that did school based arts programs for kids with disabilities.
Kate Sullivan
And when did you start that? Micaela, when I was 15.
Micaela Connery
So I started that as a high school
Kate Sullivan 14:07
student, and I know that was your job right out of college, right? You worked in Unified Theater for several years out of college, and really became your career. So that was sort of like you knew in high school you wanted to help as you go to college, I mean, talk me through the thought process of like making that interest in passion, your calling.
Micaela Connery 14:28
I didn’t think initially that I would like do Unified Theater full time after college. I actually took two paths. I initially thought I was going to like do the professional theater out and realize very quickly that what I liked about theater was the community aspect and nothing to do with the professional aspect. So I shifted from that one really quickly. And I initially actually went to undergrad thinking I was going to do cognitive science working on I was really through Unified Theater. I’d gotten to know a lot of young people with autism, and so I was really interested in communication supports and supporting people with autism. And I had a real, like, Aha Moment working in a clinical lab setting. And I think this is a theme of my now life, of like I was really uninterested in sort of fixing disability, and I was really uninterested in studying disabled people like that was not I felt, frankly, uncomfortable in it. And it just like, you know, gazing at somebody and sort of analyzing them. I was like, let’s like, get at folks level and like, provide programs that support and accommodate exactly who they are and where they are in that moment. So I quickly realized the lab setting and sort of cog SCI was not an interest, and shifted to sort of this broader question of social services and social policy. I said when I was graduating that I was going to go work for a larger nonprofit or do nonprofit management consulting, to go learn how to run a nonprofit that I could then go and run Unified Theater. And I was actually in an interview for a management consulting role, and this guy goes, you don’t really need to, like, learn much like, why don’t you just go do it? And I was like, that an option. And had lunch with a friend of mine mother shortly thereafter, and she kind of said the same thing, like, this is a great idea. Like, you should just go do it. And I was like, Maybe I should just go do it. And I called my parents and said I was going to do it. And lo and behold, luckily, I was a good waitress, because I had no money, so I waitressed for the first, like, six months to try to pull it together and get a launch, and got our first, you know, small funding when I was about six months out of undergrad, and I remember my my manager at the restaurant I worked at Hartford, going, when are you going to quit your fake job and work here full time? And I was like, No, it’s the opposite. The goal is. The goal is to do this full time. And yeah, like you said, I was able to build a team and expanded Unified Theater to serve over 100 schools nationally, and it ultimately got acquired by a National Youth Services disability nonprofit called Kids included together. And it’s still the initial school that I started Unified Theater in, just last week or two weeks ago, had their 22nd Unified Theater show, which was really, is really cool with like, hundreds of kids, and really remarkable.
Kate Sullivan 17:03
So for those who aren’t familiar with Unified Theater, just so they fully understand what you did, Unified Theater brings folks that have disabilities and folks who don’t have disabilities together to create a performance, and they all have a role, whether it’s on stage or behind the scene. You know, it could be creating the set or working on the costumes, right? It’s all. Everything that goes into a performance. There’s a specific job, and so it gives everyone a role in the performance. Am I doing it justice?
Micaela Connery 17:32
You’re doing it wonderfully justice. The only addition is that and students themselves included in that, are the ones who direct it. They choreograph it. They’re the producers. They manage the budget, but all student led to
Kate Sullivan 17:42
We’ll have more on this conversation in just a minute, but first, thank you to our sponsors.
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Kate Sullivan 18:55
To dine for the podcast is brought to you by American National offering a broad suite of insurance solutions to protect what matters most to you. There’s a funny thing about most insurance commercials, whether they feature lizards or birds or funny cartoon characters, it seems like they want you to think about anything, but insurance. American national, on the other hand, has real local agents who get to know you so they can help you reach better decisions about your insurance to make sure you’re protecting what matters most to you. American National agents are part of your community. They’re your neighbors. So whether it’s solutions for your home, your small business, your farm, or your life, you can count on your local American National agent to make sure you get the discounts you deserve and the protection you need without paying for extras you don’t with American national, you get an ally, not just a web page for a description of the American national companies, the products they write in the states in which they’re licensed. Visit American national.com/dine, now back to our conversation. So you’re doing Unified Theater. You must have felt like you were living your truth and what you really wanted to do, what you set out to do? At what point do you have the idea for The Kelsey and in its infancy stages, what is that idea?
Micaela Connery 20:07
Yeah, I can literally pinpoint the moment. So Kelsey had been looking for housing. We were both in our 20s, and her parents had, like, multiple iterations of a vision for building a community. And, you know, sort of had challenges doing that, and ultimately found her a really wonderful group home that she lived in for the rest of her life. But really, they had this vision for an inclusive community that they weren’t able to materialize and but we had lots of conversations as a family about what that could be. So I kind of thought this was a family, a Kelsey family thing. And then in I think it was 2013 I was invited by. I had been involved with the state, you know, some state policy in Connecticut, where Unified Theater had a lot of our schools, and Newt got to know the governor. And, you know, was involved in education policy. And so because of that, a lot of families invited me and asked me if I would come to the state capitol for a legislative day where they were talking about their children into adulthood. And I can literally picture where I was sitting in this room, in this hearing and like the heads over me, you know, showed up at the Capitol. Was like, Sure, I’ll come support and listen and, you know, lend my, you know, I would do different public testimonies. And all these parents and young adults with disabilities got up and story after story was these stories of young people I knew very well from Unified Theater, who had lived this beautifully inclusive youth and young adulthood, where they were a part of their school, a part of their community, they were connected to folks. They had autonomy, they had supports. And then over and over again, these stories of when these young people turned 22 it was like the floor fell out from under them, and all of that went away.
Kate Sullivan 21:43
And what do you mean? Do you mean they had nowhere to live? They had nothing to do with for a job?
Micaela Connery 21:47
I mean, is that what you’re talking about? Yeah. And even I didn’t even get to the living point Kate at that point, it was like, literally, they had, like, no, like, community, like, I didn’t even talk about, like, the roof over their head. It was yeah, like, these folks had no purpose and community. Like, I was more in like, and I’m thinking, I’m doing this inclusive program where, literally, I go out and write grants where I say, we are building school based inclusion to support young people for an inclusive adulthood. And it was like, oh my goodness, that inclusive adulthood literally does not exist. Like, literally, we are supporting students with and without disabilities for an inclusive adulthood that never materializes. And it was really both sad, but also like, okay, you know, I thought that Unified Theater was my life’s work, and it wasn’t a lot of ways, and it was a really amazing program. But like, nobody’s talking about what happens to these kids and they become adults, and that just set me down this rabbit hole of, like, what does happen? And over and over again. To your point, there was issues with employment and services and public systems, but housing sort of seemed to be one of the key lynch pins in all of this, that really folks had nowhere to live outside of their family home or outside of a limited option of group homes. But even if people wanted to live in a group home, there’s not readily available for everybody. Most people don’t actually go on with the group home, but that there are no options for community based housing, and that also, once you stabilize the housing, then you could, you know, help folks connect to jobs and get folks services they need. And then ultimately, what brought me to this also give folks community and give folks purpose and meaning and connection. And so I didn’t start off on this with the vision to start The Kelsey I, like started off on this with, like, a tunnel vision to learn about the issue and figure out who was solving it, or who was in the process of solving it, with the hopes of going to work for them to do that. And you know, as the story goes there, there was nobody solving it.
Kate Sullivan 23:39
I was waiting for the I was waiting for the shoe to drop, because there’s always a shoe that drops. So there’s like, you realize, oh my gosh, I want to work for the person who’s solving this problem, but that person doesn’t exist. I have to become that person.
Micaela Connery 23:51
Yep and it took me, literally, like, four years to decide to become that person. I went to grad school. I studied it, I did case studies, and actually, like, stayed in and visited, like, dozens of different disability focused housing communities. I met with a bunch of different folks on the public side, working at public agencies, you know, both local and federal, working on it. I did some consulting for other housing organizations, saying, like, are you guys doing this? I could just work under you and kind of help do it. And like, part. And finally, after sort of, I was a reluctant founder. Because I do think that there’s really a, sometimes an overemphasis on, like, starting out something new and being a founder and creating your own thing. And I really wanted to make sure that, like, I wasn’t duplicating something that already existed. There was a real need for this. We were going to, you know, have something that could be really successful and sustainable, and really need, a need that nobody else was already tackling, and once I covered that from literally every angle, made the plunge.
Kate Sullivan 24:45
And for people who are trying to understand this world and understand what you do, what is The Kelsey?
Micaela Connery 24:50
Yeah, so The Kelsey is an organization that both builds disability forward housing that is affordable, accessible and inclusive, and advocates and supports the policies, systems and field leadership to make those communities possible at scale.
Kate Sullivan 25:06
And an important distinction too, is it’s, it’s not just for disabled people, right? It is mixed. It is, it is disabled people living amidst non disabled, right? And there is a beauty in that. Will you explain why you would not want your disabled loved one in a group home, or what? Or maybe what would be the disadvantages to being in a group home? Because, from someone who’s not part of this world, they say, Okay, well, aren’t there quote, unquote, facilities for disabled people that actually would be beneficial to them, and what would be the drawback to that?
Micaela Connery 25:39
Yeah so I think, first of all, you know, group homes. Kelsey lived in a group home until she passed away and so and got wonderful care there, and was really well supported. And so I want to be cautious of never kind of disparaging that. But you know, group homes were revolutionary at a time, because they were a solution, an alternative solution, to the institution, or to these large state run hospitals that you can you know, Willowbrook and those others that we’re familiar with. So group homes were a nice, community based alternative, and they were progressive back in the 70s and 80s. And so what is the next iteration of that? And I think the reason our sort of departure from the group home model is really twofold. One is exactly what you said. Kate, like all of us value diversity, and if folks choose to live with other disabled people, there is nothing wrong with this. You know, sometimes people choose to live with people, you know, who have similarities to them, but typically, the reason folks with disabilities end up in group homes is not because they’ve chosen to live with other people with disabilities, but because that was the only option provided to them. And so that’s the first is like, you know, just benefit of diverse and inclusive communities and giving people the choice of who they live with. The second is also about choice, which is about services. And this is something we talk about a lot with The Kelsey is that the group home model, and in general, the facility and institution based model, in addition to it, segregating people with disabilities and often isolating people with disabilities or having them less visible to the broader community or not, you know, supporting those diverse relationships. The other thing those models do is they combine housing and services, and in some cases, they conflate people’s housing need with their service need. Like, for example, I hear from a lot of people that say, like, my kid could never live in an apartment, but there’s actually, like, nothing about an apartment that their kid couldn’t live in. It’s the fact that they’re not used to an apartment that then connects their their child with support needs to supportive services. There’s nothing inherent about the apartment that doesn’t work for the child the physical housing. There’s something about the services that are provided there that aren’t accessible and supportive, and so that’s just, you know, the group home model of their facility based model couples those two things together, and sometimes even, like, limits people’s choices of the kind of life that they live, or the way that they spend their day, or the services that they receive based on sort of where they live and who they live with. And our goal with the among many things that the calfas approach aims to do around community based housing, one of those goals is to be what we call service linked, service ready housing, meaning we build inclusive communities where people with disabilities of all access and support needs can live among people without disabilities in a truly inclusive community, and then folks can access the services that they need with support from our inclusion concierge, but access the services that they need and recognize that there are some folks with disabilities who need four hours a week of executive support of budgeting and grocery shopping and planning for their schedule. And somebody with disabilities, like Kelsey, needed 24 hour care with support, you know, having her meals and getting dressed and getting to and from all of her activities from a day, and that that’s totally the case for a lot of disabled people, that their support needs really run a spectrum. And we don’t want to prescribe sort of a one size fits all services and experience of life for all disabled people just because they happen to live in the same place, and that’s often what what happens with these more congregate models, besides them being isolated and segregated and not visible, they’re also their choices around how they live their life and how they spend their days can be limited.
Kate Sullivan 29:13
Okay? That was really good because that was very comprehensive of understanding. So thank you for that. So you have the idea for The Kelsey and you set out to create it. Are we thinking? This is like 2014, 2013 does that?
Micaela Connery 29:25
14 is when I went to grad school. So 2017 is when I decided to launch The Kelsey and we got our first round of funding almost exactly six years ago, in April of 2018. Is when we received our first grant, which, since we’re talking about Kelsey. It was pretty remarkable. The last conversation I had with Kelsey was to tell her that we got a grant from a foundation here called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. And I called her. She was sitting around the table at her home with her roommates, and her mom had been over there for dinner, and I called and her mom put me on speakerphone, and I said, we’ve got money to start The Kelsey and I told her this, and she unfortunately passed away, really a matter of, like, a week and a half later, but it was a really special thing too. I didn’t start The Kelsey with the intention of being a legacy organization, but she is, you know, our co founder, and still so much a part of our story. So anyway, but that was when we when we first launched in 2018.
Kate Sullivan 30:18
Yeah. What a moment. What a moment to share with her. Aren’t you so glad you were able to share that with her? I mean, having been only two weeks later, you know, you wouldn’t have had that moment. So wow, when you look back at the journey from that, getting that first grant to now, what has been the hardest part of taking the idea and bringing it to life.
Micaela Connery 30:40
You know? I think one is, I’ve now learned that part of both affordable housing development and advocacy is literally just solving problems day after day after day. It’s literally like something new every day. So you just gotta, like, continue to, I’m not good at sports metaphors, but continue to, like, move the ball down the field that, like, yeah, you just hit this barrier and hit that barrier, and you’ve got to pivot and shift and re you know, keep your eye on where you’re trying to go, but constantly be, you know, do we have these units, be this level of affordability or that level? Do we use this finding source or that this financing source came out? Who do we bring in instead? You know, this neighbor is opposing our project. How do we get them? You know, it’s just every day. So I think that’s the challenging part of just being laser focused. And somebody just said the other week when they toured one of our communities, like you willed this into existence. And there is some truth to that of you, just like you got to just keep moving it forward.
Kate Sullivan 31:37
Let me stop you there, because that’s really you bring up a point, like you have a neighbor who doesn’t want you there, right? How do you handle that?
Micaela Connery 31:44
I go sit in his living room. I literally there was a multiple I had, you know, when we first started this, our community in San Jose was the first kind of large building coming into a predominantly single family neighborhood, and I was in many living rooms in downtown San Jose talking to people about the vision for the community, talking about, you know, what our plans for operating and were, how we wanted to be integrated, hearing their concerns, addressing their concerns, and literally, like sitting in their living room. And there’s, you know, one guy who in particular is such a lovely man. He came in it was new to the neighborhood, and heard sort of not great things about what we were doing and perception. And, you know, came in hot and ended up now being one of our, like, strongest champions, like showed up at our final hearing, like, we need this project, and we need more like it. And so he was, like, a huge, you know, he was there at our groundbreaking with his daughter and his granddaughter, totally a supporter. And so those, those conversations do matter of just sitting down with people and hearing their concerns and explaining what you’re doing, and then they go, like, once you explain it like you, how could you oppose this? And people do, do come along and have people moved into The Kelsey
Micaela Connery 32:49
Yeah, so our first residents are there. Now we’re just in lease up. So we’ve got, like, a handful of residents initially, we’re about two weeks into, into people signing leases, so still early. It should be fully occupied by the end of the summer. So kind of bring people in through
Kate Sullivan 33:01
And what is the split from non disabled to disabled people?
Micaela Connery 33:06
So we reserve 25% of our homes for people with disabilities who use supportive services. So 25% of our homes are folks with disabilities, and then our 75% of our homes have no reserve for people with disabilities. But I always like to remind folks that a lot of folks live with disabilities who are not visible, or who might not, you know, come through the disability referral system, but live with a mental health disability or chronic health condition or an acquired disability, we imagine that there will, in addition to those, 25% that there are other people with disabilities living in the community.
Kate Sullivan 33:38
And is there a more advanced screening for people who want to live there, as opposed to maybe a regular apartment, because there is a sensitive population of disabled folks.
Micaela Connery 33:49
No,we do the same screening as you know anyone else you know our folks. The screening mostly around some of our affordable housing compliance, things like income and rent certifications. We do provide on site supportive services to really help provide community supports and community connections, and, you know, address safety if that’s ever needed. But I always like to remind people when they ask, because I get that question a lot. You know, I did some research on this early because people had this view that inclusive, integrated housing was inherently like riskier for people with disabilities, and most of the time when people experience, you know, abuse or other kinds of unsafe behaviors, it actually comes from somebody they know and either a service provider or somebody like in their familial community. It’s not coming from like a random neighbor who’s like a predator finding this person. So actually, we think that having an integrated, inclusive community is inherently safer because you have more eyes on the on the street. As you might say, if you have neighbors who go like, I’m Kate’s neighbor, and I, you know, notice she hasn’t come out a lot lately. She’s even really withdrawn, and so I want to check in on her, and those eyes you know, of neighbors who are able to look out for folks we think makes places safer and not riskier.
Kate Sullivan 34:59
What have you learned about yourself, from having the idea to all that you have had to do to bring this to life? I read $180 million in funding now, obviously not just for this project, but this is for the bigger vision of The Kelsey. What have you learned about yourself?
Micaela Connery 35:15
You know, I think one is I’ve learned and examined a lot around what it means to be a leader in allyship, and what I mean by that is I don’t currently live with a disability, and when I was running Unified Theater, candidly, I never really thought about that. I never really you know, I was young, I was less mature, and never really thought about what it meant to be a non disabled leader working in disability, and because of my own journey, and also learning from disabled peers about things like Disability Justice and history of the disability rights movement and other things, I think one thing I’ve learned is like how to show up in spaces and what leadership looks like when when you maybe don’t share the identity of the work that you’re doing, and so that doesn’t mean being, You know, shrinking or cautious or not doing the work. But it means thinking about sharing leadership. It means thinking about, like, what are you uniquely positioned to do? So one of the things that I think is, like, I’ve now, you know, fundraising is, if I was to say, the biggest challenge is also a huge challenge. But like, my ability to raise funds is a huge way I can show up for the movement and bring new resources. And like, that’s something I as an ally can, like, utilize my skills and networks and some privilege to bring resources into this movement. So there are many or thinking about, like, what is, how do I approach my team and my leadership, of recognizing that, like, I’m not trying to be like, the star of this show, and it’s, you know, Kelsey is the star of the show in a lot of ways, so her name comes through. But, you know, I find a lot of joy in seeing my team of people with without disabilities really own this work. And then, you know, own projects and own housing developments and own partnerships, and own the successes and the the incredible feat that this organization has accomplished is, like, really not the Micaela story. And so that brings me a lot of joy and value. And I think also, going back to that hospitality thing, I just to me, I didn’t really realize how much matters to me of just like creating spaces where people feel joy and belonging, whether that’s an advocacy workshop or a housing development, that’s what gives me meaning at the end of the day is, how can I? How can I create those spaces and those experiences, which, as a leader, you don’t always get to get on those micro level. So I particularly try to give myself opportunities at different times to be able to get on that level with our work, because that stuff brings me, brings me so much joy and meaning.
Kate Sullivan 37:37
I have interviewed so many founders on this podcast about fundraising, specifically for their to their ideas, and always so curious to find and to hear different perspectives on fundraising. It’s always been a challenge, right? It always is, especially as a woman, especially when you’re fighting for a marginalized group such as disabled folks. What have you learned about funding? Obviously, you are skilled at it. Having raised $180 million has there been any advice that you’ve gotten along the way that has bolstered your confidence or maybe increased your skill set that you can pinpoint for other nonprofit founders, that they could take away from from what you have to say? Yeah,
Micaela Connery 38:18
So I think one is when you do that big number that you just shared, the 100 and 80 million that includes a significant amount of public funding. So we’ve raised about 15 million in philanthropic funding, another about 12 million concessionary lending, and then all the rest has been, you know, public funding that we’ve used those funds to unlock. And so I think one thing that I’ve learned is that philanthropy is really critical to kind of take risks and get things started, and we need philanthropy to do that more and often. Philanthropy doesn’t want to be the first money in, but they need to be, because when they are the first money in, the real power comes and how you can use those dollars to either demonstrate something that then achieves public adoption, or start something that then can bring a magnet for other public and private funds that can come into a program. And so because those real dollars, like the big money, out of that 180 million, was actually public funding. And so it’s also why a big part of our work is advocacy of making sure our public systems work and have these kind of resources to be able to take these programs to the scale that they need to be taken to to serve that wider need. I think the other thing I’ve learned, which is a real challenge and continues to be, is when you talk about fundraising for folks who have been systematically disadvantaged and unsupported, which disabled people are included among that we definitely have probably lost out on some funding opportunities because we have kind of refused to play the narrative of paternalism or ableism, of we’re coming in and saving these poor disabled people and, you know, the sad story of like the person with disabilities, you know, and objectifying their story as something that is worthy of a person’s investment. We’ve been really careful to speak about the systemic failures around housing for people with disabilities without painting disabled people as like inherently less or vulnerable. And I do think we have a challenging history in our country and in our philanthropy sector around disability focused fund development that really positions disabled people as objects of either pity or inspiration, and that’s really unfortunate and unacceptable. And so I’ve learned a lot from disabled leaders of other nonprofits and social justice movements of how to tell these stories, and we continue to refine it, how to tell our stories in ways that capture the power of disabled people, but identify the gaps in where our systems are not supporting that power.
Kate Sullivan 40:39
And that must be such a fine, nuanced dance, because everything comes down to story, to tell a phenomenal story. But you’re right. You know, in no way do you want to, as you said, objectify or put disabled people in a lesser than category. So it must be that must have taken you, has that? Did that take you a while to learn?
Micaela Connery
Yeah, and I think we’re still learning it, we just launched, which is a new program that actually one of my colleagues conceived of, and they are running it called the disability and housing narrative change cohort, where we have about a dozen disabled advocates from across the country with all different types of disabilities and all different types of housing. And this is actually like a pilot for us, and hopefully something we continue of, how do we start to allow disabled people and support disabled people themselves to be the storytellers and to be driving the narrative around this and sharing, you know, their diverse needs around housing and their diverse barriers and things that they’ve experienced. So you talk about like the nuanced dance, I think the easiest way to address it is to really put disabled people’s themselves stories forward and allow folks themselves to control what the narrative is and what the stories are told, but then provide training and support, and in our case, also stipends and funding to help people do that well, so that people actually have access to places to tell their stories and resources to connect with the different mediums, to get that narrative out there.
Kate Sullivan
How big is your team?
Micaela Connery
We’ve got 18 folks now, and we’re hiring one more, so just under 20.
Kate Sullivan
You have hired disabled folks as well as part of your team.
Micaela Connery
Yeah, over half of our team are people with disabilities. So yeah, and that’s been kind of critical from our from our start of that this needs to be it was co led by Kelsey and I from the start, so much of her ideas shaped what this organization was and how we approached it. And so it was critically important then once we launched as having paid staff and starting an organization that we had disabled people who were working across all of our programs, and it’s been, you know, every organization should have an integrated staff, but it’s critically important, if you’re addressing disability, to have that.
Kate Sullivan
From where you sit now, what is the vision for The Kelsey? What? What would you like to see? I think five years it, as you’ve learned, it takes, takes a while to build these, build these buildings, but let’s give a 10 year lookout, what would you like to see in 10 years?
Micaela Connery
I’d like to see in 10 years Kelsey communities existing in, you know, dozens of cities across the country. And not because we have said we want to plop and land there, but literally we field inquiry. Is probably one of the other challenges to this, that there’s so much need, and we haven’t, we don’t have the funding yet. So where’s that big funder they want to help us do this. We have We field in Greece weekly for cities across the country, from Kentucky to Massachusetts to Texas to, you know, Washington State to Colorado, like I could go on and on, folks who reach out to us and say, we need The Kelsey here in this city. And so one would be that that we’ve successfully been able to support communities to launch their own Kelsey communities and build accessible, affordable, Inclusive Housing. I think in 10 years, I’d also like to be able to point to, you know, major policy shifts in our country that have taken what you know. This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Olmstead ruling, which was the Supreme Court ruling, coming on the heels of the title two of the ADA that mandated people with disabilities right to live in the community of their choice. But we have not created the policies where that right becomes a reality. And so I’d love to be able to, in 10 years, say we have fulfilled the promise of Olmstead by providing universal vouchers to people with disabilities who use Medicaid services so that they could fund their housing, or something equally transformative, really, again, take that right and turn it to turn it to real, and then the last thing I’d say is that I’d love 10 years from now that The Kelsey be a best in class, but not an only in class. I would love 10 years from now to people to say, Wow, The Kelsey is like the best example of affordable, inclusive, accessible housing. But we have communities all across the country using our inclusive design standards, supporting disability services within market rate and affordable housing, having accessible design, having disabled leadership at part of the table that the founder and competitive part of me knows that we want to be like the best of that field, but we want to be a part of a really robust field of we’re not, we’re not, kind of the only so that would be, that would be, really, those three things are my list for 10 years from now.
Kate Sullivan
Well, it is awe inspiring to see what you’ve done. I remember talking to you many years ago, and you had the idea, and it really was just an idea, and look what can happen when you sometimes you just have to do it yourself, right? I mean, I think that’s the motto of the story. And wow, what a dream you’ve been on. So it’s really amazing to see. I’m really excited to to kind of put your story out into the world, and I know people will absolutely love to hear it. So thank you for your time. Micaela,
Micaela Connery
Thanks for sharing our story and being a part of the disability-forward housing movement. So thanks, Kate. Thanks.
Kate Sullivan
Thanks for listening the To Dine For the podcast. For more information on the show, the guests and the podcast head to to dinefor tv.com you can find us on Instagram, at to dine for TV and Facebook at to dine for with. Kate Sullivan, thanks to the sponsors of to dine for the podcast, American National Insurance special. Thank you to producer and sound editor John Gomer, to the loyal followers of this program, cheers. Stay Hungry and stay inspired. I’ll see you back at the table soon.