May 2023 Newsletter
LA Chinatown CLT at the CCED 10th Anniversary (November 2022)
Dear LA Chinatown Community Land Trust Members and Supporters,
We are excited to share about our momentum, and opportunities on the horizon! LA Chinatown Community Land Trust (LACCLT) officially became a 501c3 nonprofit in December 2022. We couldn’t have done it without the pivotal support of our legal aid at Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA). Now every donation we receive is tax-deductible, and every donation makes an impact! Thanks to all who attended our first membership meeting in November 2022. We’re now engaging more with tenant associations, non-profit organizations and community leaders, and identifying opportunities to support ongoing affordable housing efforts, and enhancing our vision as a CLT. Please read on for more updates, and opportunities to get involved.
BACKGROUND
In the decades from ~1940 - 1980 Chinese community members were able to buy houses and apartment buildings in the neighborhoods around “new” Chinatown. Now, many original owners are elderly and have passed responsibilities to the next generation, who may view buildings as profit generators rather than housing, or want to sell them. Sometimes long-time tenants are impacted and have reached out to tenant advocates such as Chinatown Community for Equitable Development (CCED). LACCLT will explore ways to preserve these properties for low-income residents. We look forward to working with community members to find solutions for this issue.
LA Forward CD 1 Organizing Event
HAPPENINGS IN CHINATOWN
Relationship Building w/ Community-based Organizations
We’ve learned so much from long-time community organizations like CCED and advocates at our first membership meeting, about the need to engage with tenant associations, community members and those most impacted by affordable housing challenges. Here’s what we're doing: LACCLT has been meeting with CCED organizers who organize with 920 Everett and Hillside Villa tenant associations about how to best support the fight. Tenants at 920 Everett are currently facing a 10% rent increase. They have faced rent increases and evictions in the last four years and have been able to fight them back. These tenants have shown their resiliency time after time. We (and the organizers) ask - what’s the potential for a building like this? What can be done to create housing security for these tenants? If you are connected with a tenant association and see an opportunity to collaborate, reach us at lachinatownclt@gmail.com. A couple of us attended a CD-1 community organizing event with LA Forward in efforts to engage with other organizers collectively to advance housing advocacy and meeting with Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez.
LA Chinatown CLT at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival
On May 7, 2023, Visual Communications and Director Karen Cho screened the film documentary “Big Fight in Little Chinatown” at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. The program also gave a platform for the LACCLT, CCED, and tenant organizers from Hillside Villa and Bartlett Street to share stories and our efforts against displacement here in Los Angeles. “Big Fight in Little Chinatown” is a story of community resistance and resilience. Set against the backdrop of the COVID pandemic and an unprecedented rise in anti-Asian racism, the documentary takes us into the lives of residents, businesses and community organizers whose neighborhoods are facing active erasure.
LA Asian Pacific Film Festival; photo credit: Steven Lam
LA Asian Pacific Film Festival; photo credit: Steven Lam
Statewide Community Land Trust Connections
LACCLT is now a member of the California Community Land Trust Network to connect with a hub of established and emerging CLTs statewide to share resources to support the growth of permanently affordable, community controlled land and housing. Our board members attended their annual conference in Los Angeles last October where we learned about how to sustain our work as an emerging CLT. Although we are still in our nascent stage, it was helpful to hear more about the various ownership models that CLTs can adopt to make housing more affordable, such as limited equity housing cooperatives where renters can purchase shares of a property and build equity without having to pay the full cost of a mortgage.
LA Chinatown Community Land Trust Interim President Amy Zhou
LA Chinatown CLT with Fideicomiso Comunitario Tierra Libre, Little Tokyo Service Center, Beverly-Vermont CLT, and CA CLT Network
POLICY ADVOCACY
Throughout our early start-up initiatives, we’ve remained active in policy advocacy. We were proud to endorse the United to House LA (ULA) ballot measure, which passed in last November’s election. The measure would raise an estimated $900 million a year to address homelessness and make housing more affordable in the City of LA. LA Chinatown CLT will continue to support community partners to help shape the ULA program for stronger tenant protections, as well as preserve and build more affordable housing in the community.
NEXT STEPS
We’ll be scheduling individual outreach meetings with organizations to learn how we can align our work together, including meeting with the offices of Supervisor Hilda Solis (SD 1) and Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez (CD 1). We’re going to continue applying for funding opportunities to support community building and co-creating a strategic planning process with the community members to identify short and long-term goals and actions for the LACCLT.
GET INVOLVED
Attend our Bi-Monthly Board Meetings - The LACCLT board meetings are open to the public and we meet every other Monday at 6 pm. We are open to collaborative dialogues, presentations and updates. If this newsletter was forwarded to you and you’d like to receive updates, sign up today!
Become a LACCLT Member Today! - Members of a community land trust have the opportunity to build strong relationships with our neighbors and become part of a supportive community. Membership fees are waived for 2023! Complete the Membership Form and email it to lachinatownclt@gmail.com.
Make a Friendly Donation - Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today! Our donation page just launched, and your contribution will help support our general overhead costs. Thanks for your support! Donate here.
Volunteer With Us! - LACCLT is currently a 100% volunteer-led organization. We are seeking volunteers to provide support in research, community engagement, social media, translation, grant writing, and more. To volunteer with LACCLT, email us at lachinatownclt@gmail.com.
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR VOLUNTEERS!
Jonathan Jager and Cassidy Bennett - Thank you so much, Jonathan and Cassidy from LAFLA for guiding the LACCLT through the process of starting a nonprofit.
Bz Zhang - Bz joined as a volunteer in Fall 2022. Bz lends their experience in community organizing to provide the LACCLT a fresh perspective and unique insights to build stronger relationships with local stakeholders and create meaningful connections within our community.
Chih-Weh Hsu - Chih-Weh joined as a volunteer and member in Fall 2022. He helped the LACCLT explore setting up a fiscal sponsorship before we received our 501c3 status. He continues to support the LACCLT by sharing resources on alternative land ownership models and relevant policy initiatives in LA.
Rachel Kim - Rachel designed the LACCLT’s beautiful logo. During a months-long collaborative process, Rachel listened to our ideas and helped guide the development of our logo, both the text and image. The phoenix in our logo incorporates both Western (rebirth and renewal) and Eastern (good omen, harmony, and virtue) representations.
Raymond Fang - In September 2023 Raymond will begin a two-year Skadden Fellowship with LAFLA to provide transactional legal support for the LA Chinatown Community Land Trust, transactional legal support for limited-equity housing cooperatives, and direct legal services and affirmative litigation support for Chinatown Community for Equitable Development.