Having grown up as a first-generation Chinese-American in Los Angeles, Helen Leung deeply identifies with the rich diversity that makes the city unique. Leung is Co-Executive Director of LA-Más, a non-profit urban design organization that helps lower income communities shape their growth through policy and architecture. She joined LA-Más in order to explore strategies that minimize displacement related to gentrification, and she provides leadership by ensuring all projects are grounded in local need and systemic change.
Leung’s professional experience is as broad as it is deep. She worked for former L.A.Councilmember, current Mayor Eric Garcetti; served as a program associate at Living Cities; was a HUD fellow in the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities; and interned in the Obama Administration in the Office of Political Affairs.
In addition to her work at LA-Más, Leung currently serves on the Los Angeles East Area Planning Commission, the Community Advisory Board of Genesis LA, and the board of the Elysian Valley Arts Collective. She holds a master’s degree in public policy and urban planning from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree in political science and communications from the University of Pennsylvania.
Organization:
LA- Más
Area of Focus:
Affordable housing
Fellowship Project:
Los Angeles is facing an unprecedented affordable housing crisis, which has contributed to an increase in homelessness, forcing many residents to move out of the city. In response, Leung will launch a pilot called The Backyard Homes Project, which will provide a one-stop-shop for financing, designing, permitting, and construction to help cash-poor but asset-rich homeowners build backyard homes that can be rented affordably.
Final Presentation:
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