Katie Goar on Leadership That Lifts, Not Labels: Why Housing Stability Is a Leadership Issue

Leadership doesn’t always begin in boardrooms or policy briefings.

Sometimes, it begins with survival.

In the 100th episode of The Covert Code Podcast, host Anna Covert sits down with Katie Goar, President of Quadel and a nationally recognized leader in affordable housing and community development.

Featuring Katie Goar for this milestone episode was intentional. Her work and story embody the authority this podcast aims to showcase: leadership grounded in personal experience, long-term perspective, and prioritizing impact over appearances.

Katie Goar’s TEDx talk, her leadership at Quadel, and her advocacy for housing systems that prioritize dignity, compliance, and real outcomes have made her widely known. But her perspective on leadership was shaped long before her career ever began.

It started when she was eleven years old.

Katie Goar’s Early Experience with Housing Instability

Katie Goar’s leadership philosophy is not theoretical.

As a child, Katie and her siblings experienced homelessness and housing instability—living in a tent, preparing food without a kitchen, and sleeping on the ground. At the time, they made a pact never to speak about it. Not out of embarrassment alone, but out of fear that being overheard could separate them from one another.

That silence followed them for decades.

When Katie Goar took the TEDx stage in 2024, she broke it—for the first time publicly, and for the first time in front of colleagues who had worked alongside her for years without knowing her backstory.

What emerged was not trauma for performance, but clarity: housing is not charity—it is infrastructure.

That moment reframed not only how audiences understand affordable housing, but also how leadership itself should be defined.

Why Housing Stability Changes Everything

One of the most resonant moments in this episode comes when Anna Covert shares a story from her work with the Boys & Girls Club in Hawai‘i.

A child arrived every day, went to the back of the room, and slept.

Staff eventually realized why: it was the only place the child felt safe enough to rest.

That insight mirrors what Katie Goar has seen repeatedly in her career. When people live with constant instability, everything becomes a threat—decision-making, risk tolerance, trust, and even hope.

Housing stability is not about comfort.
It is about safety.

And once safety exists, everything else—education, leadership, contribution—can follow.

From Lived Experience to National Housing Leadership

Today, Katie Goar leads Quadel, a national consulting and compliance firm that supports housing authorities, nonprofits, developers, and public agencies across the United States.

Her work focuses on strengthening housing programs through:

  • Regulatory compliance

  • Operational efficiency

  • Program accountability

  • Scalable systems that actually serve people

The demand is overwhelming.

In one recent case discussed on the podcast, over 18,000 applicants applied for just 300 housing vouchers—a stark illustration of the supply crisis facing communities nationwide.

This is not a failure of effort.
It is a failure of capacity.

Contrary to popular narratives, the majority of people using affordable housing today are employed—teachers, paramedics, nurses, and service workers—priced out of the very communities they keep running.

As Katie Goar explains, the story the public hears has not caught up with reality.

The Cost of Labels—and Why Language Matters

A central theme in this episode is the danger of labeling.

Homelessness is not an identity.
It is a condition—often temporary.

When communities reduce people to labels, solutions stall. But when they focus on systems—access, affordability, services—progress becomes possible.

Katie Goar points to succeeding cities not because of ideology, but because of leadership: local coalitions, shared funding responsibility, and a willingness to address the issue head-on rather than displace it.

The difference isn’t politics.
It’s execution.

What the Future Demands from Leaders

Looking ahead, Katie Goar highlights what many housing experts call the silver tsunami: a rapidly growing senior population lacking affordable housing, adequate retirement savings, or access to long-term care.

Without intervention, housing instability will increase—not decline.

The solution requires:

  • Local champions

  • Community buy-in

  • Thoughtful design

  • Willingness to build, not just debate

Saying no to housing development doesn’t preserve communities—it accelerates displacement.

As Katie notes, the communities that succeed are the ones willing to think beyond short-term discomfort and toward long-term stability. Why Katie Goar’s Leadership Matters

Katie Goar’s story resonates because it bridges lived experience with systems leadership.

She leads with empathy but operates with rigor.
She honors complexity—without paralysis.
And she invites others to join the work.

That is leadership that lifts, not labels.

If you want to follow Katie Goar’s work or continue the conversation, you can connect with her here:

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 ABOUT HOST ANNA COVERT

Anna Covert is the host of The Covert Code Podcast and author of The Covert Code—Mastering the Art of Digital Marketing and The Solar Coaster. With over two decades of experience in digital marketing and business strategy, Anna has worked with companies including Microsoft, Apple, and IBM and leads Covert Communication, Hawai‘i’s largest digital agency.

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