Her Story
About Latonya
I came back home to Cincinnati to make a difference in the community that I live in. I love my job and I love helping people. I love making sure that people are on the path to success, and I think that all starts with housing. When you love what you do, you put your all into it. I'm not going to say that I'm able to help every single person all the time, but if it does not happen, it's not for lack of effort or lack of resources. My most notable professional achievement is that I have really made an inroad into the community grassroots of the city. A lot of people know who I work for, and they have all said that I have done great to help improve their lives. I never have a day that's the same. My typical day involves keeping up with all of the cases that we have filed, making sure we have complete information, speaking to the team about their cases and giving them advice on how we should investigate those. I attend a lot of meetings with housing partners and health advocates because those are the organizations we have partnered with. You have to keep your feet on the ground because those are all the things that sometimes hinder a person's housing. What I want to focus on next is the LIHTC development part. I think that I have fought a lot for making sure that people have equal access to housing, but now I want to work on the development of housing. I would like to get a certificate in that and work on the development side to make sure that I have a hand or a seat at the table in the decisions of increasing housing supply. I also need to fight for legacy homeowners to make sure we keep them in their homes, especially seniors facing high property taxes.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Latonya
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the fact that it's something that I really believe in. I came back home to make a difference in the community that I live in. I love my job. I love helping people. I love making sure that people are on the path to success, and I think that all starts with housing. When you love what you do, then you put your all into it. You're going to try to make sure that you do everything you can. I'm not going to say that I'm able to help every single person all the time, but if it does not happen, it's not for lack of effort or lack of resources.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice that I have received so far is that you have to expect obstacles to come up. But when obstacles come up, you don't stand still. Sometimes you have to hurdle over, crawl under, or just go around them.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
For a young woman that wants to come into housing, I would tell them that the first skill that they must have is passion. Because you never get a call from a person who's at the top of their game. Every call you get is from a person who has went to a lot of doors that was either shut, slammed shut, or hard to open. I would like for them to listen, collect as much information as you can, and to make sure that you connect them with the resources that they need.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest opportunities in my field right now are in the LIHTC development area. All of a sudden, the developers here are using the LIHTC tax credit, so I would like to get a certificate in that and work on the development side to make sure that I have a hand or a seat at the table in the decisions of increasing housing supply. Another critical area is legacy homeowners. Seniors have fought very hard to try to work on generational wealth, but it seems the system is trying to take those properties away with the high property taxes. I need to do a lot of research into that and fight to make sure that we keep those legacy homeowners in their homes.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values that are very important to me are education, family, and I do believe in God, who leads my path. I believe in honesty and trust. And I am very humbled. I think that when you're in the field where you work with people every day, you have to have those values.
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