Culver City-based Century Housing Corp. has a new chief executive, Jacqueline Waggoner, who officially took on the role on March 23.

The company, which works on affordable housing as a financier and developer, has been around for more than 30 years. In that time, it has invested more than $3.5 billion to create and preserve more than 63,000 homes in the Golden State.

Waggoner has more than 25 years of experience in the industry, specializing in affordable homes.

“I am honored to join the dedicated, expert team at Century Housing, an organization that has long been a quiet force in advancing affordable housing across California,” Waggoner said in a statement.

“Throughout my career, I have always led with a focus on people – on expanding access to homes so that tenants and families can build better futures. My leadership approach, too, is people driven, informed by listening to colleagues and the communities we serve.”

Waggoner, a native Angeleno, has worked on policy, finance, development and programs teams.

She was most recently president of the solutions division of Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit focused on affordable housing, where she helped with more than $1 billion in impact investments and grants.

She has also held roles at several civic and philanthropic organizations over the years, including currently at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the Weingart Foundation.

“We are thrilled to welcome such an exceptionally qualified and visionary leader as Jacqueline Waggoner to Century Housing,” R. Steven Lewis, chair of Century Housing’s board and principal of ZGF Architects, said in a statement. “The need to catalyze affordable housing supply and solutions in California has never been greater – and we know that Jacqueline will deliver for Californians and lead Century into its next chapter with clarity and commitment.”

Current projects

Waggoner said that the state’s affordable housing shortage makes Century’s mission urgent. California, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, is short of 1 million affordable homes.

“We know that the affordable housing shortage is not an abstract statistic – it means families displaced, workers priced out, communities fractured. Century Housing has been delivering real solutions and new homes in our state for three decades,” she said in a statement. “With the tremendous need today, we must now expand the organization’s reach and impact, to deliver on an even greater scale than we have before for the next three decades. California’s people deserve no less.”

Century Housing’s largest projects in the area include the West Los Angeles VA campus and Century Villages at Cabrillo.

The organization is working on the VA campus in partnership with Brentwood-based Thomas Safran & Associates and downtown-based U.S. VETS. Together, the entities formed the West Los Angeles Veterans Collective. The partnership plans to develop a minimum of 1,200 homes for homeless and at-risk veterans on a 200-acre campus.

Century Villages at Cabrillo is a residential community on a 27-acre site of a former U.S. Naval housing site. It is home to more than 1,500 residents in transitional and permanent supportive housing.