Rhonda Harris Williams

Rhonda F. Harris is CEO of R.F. & Associates, Inc. (RFA), a full-service development and consulting firm established in February 2000. She has over 20 years of Housing Development and New Construction experience. Constructed single family homes to assist meeting the city of Richmond’s first-time home buyers’ goals. With a portfolio of $ 10 million in business activity, RFA secured numerous distressed and blighted properties to provide neighborhood revitalization and safety to include low-income families. RFA acquired, demolished abandoned properties, and completed the development and construction of six two story 2600 square foot, single family dwellings. RFA purchased, renovated two abandoned and deteriorated four unit residential and commercial apartment buildings in San Francisco and Richmond, CA. Facilitated architectural design services to complete the entitlement process, to include an application of all required documents, plans, photos, maps, plots, to convert from a mixed-use property to a fully residential property.

Harris has a strong reputation for mobilizing community stakeholders to collaborate on ventures that promote sustainable housing development in West Contra Costa County and the greater San Francisco Bay Area. She acted as a catalyst for community revitalization and effectively coordinated and united local residents, municipalities, lenders, brokers, insurers and subcontractors to reduce blight, violence, drug activity and to stimulate home ownership for first-time buyers and economic development in the region’s urban areas. Experienced in identification of distressed properties, acquisition, entitlements, financing, construction and contractor compliance.

Addressing issues of inequality affecting local small business contractors, she established the Contractor’s Alliance of Richmond (CAR) in 2005, comprised of fifteen locally owned businesses specializing in the building trades. To address the high unemployment rate and the lack of training in the building trades, she co-founded the Richmond Community Based Employment Collaborative (CBEC) in 2008. CBEC provides services to under-served youth and young adults who are actively involved in gangs, drugs, and gun violence or who are at-risk for these types of activities through Program Readiness/Job Readiness Skills Training and placement.

In honor of her late father, a wounded Korean veteran, she founded the Veterans Resource Program (VRP) in 2011 to assist veterans with housing, applying for benefits, and securing higher educational opportunities to help them transition back into society through gainful employment. Veterans in the program are provided with information about available resources, the latest VA programs, and are given assistance in filing and following up on disability compensation and pension claims to help with their immediate and future needs. To meet VRP’s expansion goals, in 2018 Harris led the initiative to acquire 2.3 acres of land in Richmond to develop a 268-unit housing campus for veterans. The property will service three levels of care: transitional and supported housing for veterans experiencing immediate homelessness, permanent independent living with support services, and assisted living.