Advancing Equitable Growth in the Affordable Housing Industry
In 2018, almost half of all renters in the United States were considered to be either moderately or severely cost-burdened, which means housing costs exceeded 30% of the family income. The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted and exacerbated the growing income inequality that has left millions of households behind.
Specifically, income inequality between Black and White households worsened. Although the median incomes of both Black and White households grew in the last decade, Black household incomes rose much more slowly. The median income for Black households in 2019 was $43,200—roughly 60% of that of white households and the lowest of all other racial groups.
In this episode, Tunua sits down with three experts to explore the topic of advancing equitable growth in the affordable housing industry.
Joining LISC LA for this conversation are:
- Alexis Laing, Sr. project manager at BRIDGE Housing
- Jarrett Moore, project manager at Coalition for Responsible Community Development and participant in LISC’s 2020-2021 cohort of the Housing Development Training Institute (HDTI)
- Justin Davis, COO of Landspire Group
In this episode we explore:
- {4:12} What CRDC is doing to expand and improve the affordable housing industry
- {6:40} How Landspire Group is working to create equitable growth in the community
- {8:40} The importance of preserving historic communities and how BRIDGE is working to redevelop the Vermont Manchester property
- {12:51} How more for-profit developers can create affordable housing opportunities
- {16:05} Best practices for advancing economic opportunity through affordable housing development
- And so much more
About our panel:
Alexis Laing is a Sr. Project Manager at BRIDGE Housing. Before joining BRIDGE, Alexis was a project manager for Thomas Safran & Associates where she managed the development and refinancing of affordable housing projects in LA County.
Prior to that, Alexis was a municipal credit analyst for Standard & Poor’s where she provided financial and legal analysis of affordable housing and other tax-exempt bond issues, and served as the primary credit analyst for more than 10 state housing finance agencies and public housing authorities. Alexis’s prior work experience also includes working for Skid Row Housing Trust where she managed the development of PSH for formerly homeless individuals.
Jarrett Moore is a project manager at Coalition for Responsible Community Development who has been in the real estate industry for the past 7 years and is also in this year’s cohort of LISC’s 2020-2021 Housing Development Training Institute (HDTI).
A lifelong Southern California resident, Jarrett also brings his passion for business development, crime reduction, neighborhood beautification and housing affordability together in a concerted effort to fend off gentrification in traditionally African‐American neighborhoods.
Justin Davis is the COO of Landspire Group. As Chief Operating Officer, Justin brings over a decade of experience chartering multi-year investment strategies that target systems and structural change.
Justin is also the founder of the Wayne Group, an Oakland-based real estate investment group that acquires two, three, and four unit rental properties, with a priority of keeping housing accessible and affordable to teachers, nonprofit leaders, and first responders.
Want to dive into the full transcript? Check it out below!
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 00:14
Hello, and welcome to the latest episode of The changemakers la podcast presented by Liske LA. The changemakers podcast is a tribute to the people and places that work to make Los Angeles neighborhoods good places to live, work and play.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 00:30
My name is Tunua Thrash-Ntuk and I'm the executive director of the local initiative support Corporation Los Angeles office. In today's episode, we'll be talking about the growing income inequality and what the affordable housing field is doing to advance equitable growth and communities. And we've got some special guests with us today.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 00:50
First up, I'd like to introduce Alexis Lang. She's a Senior Project Manager at BRIDGE housing. Before joining BRIDGE, Alexis was a project manager for Thomas Safran and Associates where she managed the development and refinancing of affordable housing projects in LA County.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 01:07
Prior to that, Alexis was a municipal credit analyst for Standard and Poor's, where she provided financial and legal analysis of affordable housing and other tax exempt bond issue, and she served as the primary credit analyst for more than 10 State Housing Finance agencies and public housing authorities.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 01:26
Her work experience includes working for Skid Row Housing Trust, where she managed the development of Psh permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless individuals.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 01:35
Next up, we have Jared Moore, a project manager at the Coalition for Responsible community development. He's been in the real estate industry for the past seven years and is also a part of this year's LISC cohort of 2020 2022 housing development training institute fellows.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 01:54
A lifelong Southern California resident, Jared also brings his passion for business development, crime reduction, neighborhood beautification, and housing affordability together in a concerted effort to fend off gentrification in traditional African American neighborhoods.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 02:11
And finally, I'm thrilled to present Justin Davis, C0O of Landspire group. As the Chief Operating Officer Justin brings over a decade of experience chartering multi year investment strategies that target systems and structural change.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 02:29
Justin is also the founder of the Wayne group, an Oakland based real estate investment group that acquires two three and four unit rental properties with a priority of keeping housing accessible, and affordable to teachers, nonprofit leaders, and first responders.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 02:46
I'd like to thank all of you out there for joining us today in this important conversation.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 02:51
You see, in 2018, almost half of all renters in the United States were considered to be either moderately or severely cost burdened, which means housing costs exceeded 30% of the family income. The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted and exacerbated the growing income inequality that has left millions of households behind, specifically, income inequality between black and white households has worsened.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 03:15
Although the median incomes of both black and white households grew in the last decade, black household incomes rose more slowly, the median income for black households in 2019, was 43,200, roughly 60% of that of the white households and the lowest of all other racial groups.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 03:34
Black renters were twice as likely as white renters to be behind on rental payments and twice as likely to report being at risk of eviction.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 03:43
For today, let's discuss what can be done to make affordable housing more available and creative ways professionals in the field are approaching this subject and this complex issue in a holistic way.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 03:55
Jarett, we're gonna start with you. CRCD is doing a myriad of programming in the community. How are you all looking at holistically focusing on a housing instability to make sure we create more stable options for people in South Los Angeles?
Jarrett Moore 04:12
The key word in that question to me is holistic. I think there's been a deepening and enriching to the understanding that when we're housing people that have housing instability, it has to be a complete and comprehensive process, because you have to work on the person as well as the process. And so the way CRCD has approached this our entire business model has actually surrounded that particular idea.
Jarrett Moore 04:42
So what we have at CRCD, we have four departments. We have a Workforce Center, that's about employment empowerment. We have a development department that is about case management, and getting people off the streets. We have a youth department. It's about bringing up and empowering young people and obviously the real estate business apartment where we actually do the nuts and bolts of creating buildings.
Jarrett Moore 05:03
And what we do is we have wraparound services that integrate all of those particular fields, into our clientele into the community. So we focus on the location, which is South Central, and we're very specific about how we oppose South Central's needs.
Jarrett Moore 05:19
And then we're very specific about the things that people in this area and community are doing that makes housing unaffordable for them. So we're trying to really address the actual human needs of people. That's essentially it.
Jarrett Moore 05:32
And we do we do a lot. We even have a financial coaching, supported by LISC, where we also work on income and stability as well. So we don't just look at it like, Hey, here's this apartment, move in there, you're good to go. No, we work on career stability, income stability, and mental stability as well.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 05:51
Thanks for that. And Jarett, what I heard in there is that you're putting the person first, in order to be able to have an impact on the community. And you've repeated it several times. I mean, this holistic approach is really critical.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 06:05
Not only are we looking at making sure that people are stably housed, but we've got to make sure that they have the financial resources, the work, the career, the ability to be able to sustain that. And people can't see you. But you know, you pointed to the mind. So making sure that the heart and head are healthy, and are able to thrive as well. S
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 06:24
o Justin, I want to get you in on this conversation. What does equitable growth in communities look like for you? I mean, you all are private developers? How is Landspire group working to make this happen, creating equitable growth and community?
Justin Davis 06:39
Thank you. That's a great question. And it starts with our mantra, which is development without displacement, we believe that we can create new housing opportunities without displacing or changing the fabric of the culture within any particular community.
Justin Davis 06:56
And with that is sort of just recognizing that with any sort of development, or project or change that's happening with the community, there's going to be a influx and outflux of capital, our priority is making sure when any project that we do that we are building something that's not going to allow for the outflux of capital.
Justin Davis 07:17
We don't want capital to leave the community, we want it to stay there. So it's being very intentional about what you're developing, and making sure that the people who are coming into that community want to come there with a understanding of where they're coming into an appreciation of what currently exists, and then wanting to contribute their capital to the growth of that community. With that we believe that we can create more equitable housing outcomes and more equity opportunities for both people that currently exist in the community.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 07:48
That's fantastic. So this idea that not only are you bringing in capital and resources and changing the physical landscape, but to the extent that to bring that in, we want to make sure that that circulates in community. So the job, the contracts for small businesses, all of that, to the extent that it can, the goal is to keep that in community so that that equitable growth opportunity can take place. It isn't an extraction of resources. It's something that you're bringing in. That's super exciting.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 08:20
Alexis, the work that you're doing over at BRIDGE is all about preserving historic communities. How did you all go about doing that with your Vermont Manchester property and for our listeners out there, maybe tell us a little bit about the Vermont Manchester property and how its development is so historic in the South LA community?
Alexis Laing 08:40
Sure, so BRIDGE housing has been around 30 plus years. And you know, with the goal of providing quality affordable housing, we are involved with the Vermont Manchester project with CRCD. and Prime Star development, which is a local commercial developer, and redeveloping a part of a site that's been mostly vacant since the 1990s civil unrest, Rodney King riots, that time period, the county and Mark Thomas is a former board supervisor got together they gathered the land and they are separating it into two separate projects.
Alexis Laing 09:14
There's a public boarding school that'll be ran by the C Foundation, which will provide a school setting for residents in the community. And then we're building 180 units of affordable housing. There's about 60,000 square feet of retail, including a neighborhood serving grocery area, 15,000 square foot Metro Training Center, and transit Plaza. Vermont is the second busiest line for the metro system. And we'll be building a transit Plaza and redeveloping a site that's been underutilized and kind of a blight on the community in the meantime.
Alexis Laing 09:50
We've worked with the county in terms of the county put together RFP like what had to be on the site, but really working with the community and having multiple community meetings together. What do people want? So it's not just us coming into the community and saying like, this is how it needs to be. But like what type of stores are you looking for? Like looking at, it has to be affordable housing based on the design, and how the site was taken over. But you know, how do we make sure that the needs of a program meet the needs of the community as well? So we're really working on that.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 10:21
That's critical. Jarett, it looks like you wanted to get in there. Because, you know, Alexis, this whole question was about how do you preserve communities, and a critical piece of that includes having the community be part of determining what goes on the site? Jarett, you agree with that?
Jarrett Moore 10:37
Completely. There's always going to be this push and pull and I think Justin spoke to it earlier about influx and outflux, where there's this strange relationship between beautifying the community, bringing amenities into the community. And then now all of a sudden values are going up. And then those residents that help beautify and help build that community.
Jarrett Moore 11:01
And I think Manchester project is really at the crux of that this is like a living social experiment. And part of the social experiment is integrated communities input, finding out ways that their needs, their demands are met, while also understanding the myriad of complications and complexity, and actually building something that tremendous.
Jarrett Moore 11:28
So what we did was we created a Community Action Committee called VM CAC, that we bring in members of the community, some of more vocal others, some of them are older, some of them younger, some of them have their own companies or real estate properties, and everybody has these competing interests. And so it's really a fantastic blend and a challenge for us to sort of make sure that we can do to build the community are also presenting before.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 11:56
Thanks so much for sharing that Jarett and Alexis for talking about the project. Putting the community at the center, engaging them giving them an opportunity to self determine what goes there.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 12:07
And Justin, you pointed to this as well, which is how do we make sure that as we bring those resources, those resources stay there, and they circulate.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 12:17
So Justin, you know, our other colleagues on the line are with nonprofits. They are nonprofit, affordable housing developers and holistic community developers. But you know, your organization is a for profit development company. And what do you think might be needed to try and attract more for profit developers to help create more affordable housing and to make sure that it stays affordable, there's such a huge need for it. It's great we've got nonprofits, people know that I'm definitely behind that. But there is a space as well for for profit developers.
Jarrett Moore 12:50
That's right. And and I think, understanding this sector, you have to be mindful of all the different players that are involved, right? You have folks like myself, for profit developer, we have the CRCDs of the world, we have the LISC's of the world. I think we all have different objectives.
Justin Davis 13:10
But we have to find where those objectives align. And I think for many of us, on this call, is understanding if there's an issue, right, and we're trying to address the issue. Most for profit developers, I don't think they look through that lens, of seeing that there's a problem, they want to just address the problem.
Justin Davis 13:28
That's where Landspire our vantage point is first, we recognize the problem. But then we also recognize that or we're very acutely aware of the opportunity, right, from being able to leverage the tax breaks, leverage the different partnerships, and know that there's a return to be made at the end of this. And I think most for profit developers, unlike Landspire, they kind of want to know his first question, what's my return? Right?
Justin Davis 13:57
So the lenses are completely different. But I think when you're able to convince someone that, hey, there is a great opportunity in terms of return. But there's even better opportunity to chase a community, there's a better opportunity when you're able to change lives and change generations of folks.
Justin Davis 14:15
So it's really on that individual to understand, what are you in it for? Are you in it to change lives, you're in it to transform communities? Are you simply in it for return? And I think when you kind of identified that, or that part and to identify that, and hopefully it's more on the understanding of what can we do long term in terms of transformational change. I think that's where you're gonna see more for profit developers getting in to the space, and some simply are just gonna want to get into it because of the opportunity to make money.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 14:47
Well, Justin, you know, I almost want to say you've you've got the heart of a nonprofit affordable housing developer, and we're glad that you're in the space as a result of that. You know, very few for profit developers get on a call with me and start talking about how can we change generational wealth opportunities? How can we change the outcomes for people's lives and community. And so that's great to hear.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 15:08
And I think it's a big part of your success. But I know that it begins with folks like you as one of the founders and leaders of Landspire and your other partners who have proximity in terms of background and experience with these communities. And understand that there are lots of returns that we're getting, not only is a financial, but it's also you know, just a betterment of community and our world going forward.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 15:35
Alexis, you and Jarett have had a chance to work on, you know, really advancing economic opportunity there at the Vermont Manchester of development, might you share any best practices or things that you learned along the way? I see Derek smiling there, it might give you a chance to quickly get in on this. What's it like working in community trying to bring people together, give them a chance to self determine, what can we share with friends out there who are like, I want to do that. But how do I do it? Right?
Alexis Laing 16:04
Well, I think one of the key things with BRIDGE housing and partnering with other people who know the community and making sure that you're not coming in there to think that you're coming in, like, no one is trying to no one needs to think they're going somewhere to save someone like people were there to begin with?
Alexis Laing 16:19
And like how can you use, like, the skills that you have to help a community continue to thrive what they want? So one of the big things that BRIDGE does is looking at a lot of data collections, it's figuring out like, what do people want before you decide like, this is what needs to happen there?
Alexis Laing 16:34
It's it's part of our Jordan downs, redevelopment, you know, we have a very large community development group and like, you know, surveying the community to figure out what exactly do they need? Like, not everyone needs new backpacks, maybe they need better access to pens and paper or, you know, Wi Fi, like, understand, like, what are the actual key things that people need, and asking them first, versus coming in with your preconceived notions about what needs to happen.
Alexis Laing 16:58
I think specifically at the Vermont Manchester site, you're gonna have a vocal community of people who want to be involved. But that vocal community doesn't represent everyone really taking the time to go out to the community to get other people's opinions, and having other ways for people to contact you. Because not everyone feels comfortable joining a conference call, or maybe they can't join a call, depending on what time it is.
Alexis Laing 17:20
Or we had community events when those were still available in the public and, you know, pre COVID, but no having lots of different types of access points to get people's opinion about what happens in their community. really key thing for us.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 17:34
Yeah, so you start with the, you know, just disabuse yourself of the notion that you're there to save, you're there to continue to facilitate what was already there, create all kinds of access points. I like that for opportunity, Jarett, anything we want to share with people in terms of best practices
Jarrett Moore 17:54
Interesting enough, I don't think my boss knew this when he assigned me to this project, but I grew up on Manchester, in the city Inglewood with my mother. And I also grew up with my father on Vermont, and in the city of gardena.
Jarrett Moore 18:09
So I passed by that corner, I don't know, three, four times a week for 10 years, 15 years. So I have a very intimate relationship with the community, the understanding of it. And I feel very blessed to have gone through my my financial training.
Jarrett Moore 18:27
I am a certified economic development finance professional by the National Development Council.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 18:32
Cheers.
Jarrett Moore 18:32
And so I understand the work, you know, of a credit analyst. And so what I've always done is I think what Alexis is point was about listening, absorbing that input. And as best possible, what I've done as a member of the community, and as a credit analyst is to say, Okay, guys, I know you guys want the sun, the moon and the stars on the corner of Vermont and Manchester, but this is how it really works.
Jarrett Moore 19:01
Okay. So company that, for example, they want a Trader Joes there, right? So it's not that Trader Joe's doesn't belong there. It's just that the for profit, finance people within the company at Trader Joe's, they're looking at numbers, okay? They have lenders, they have partners that they have to work with, and prove their intentions to also. So it's also about teaching the community as well as listening, because they're really intelligent people. These are people that graduated from Berkeley and Stanford, and just very passionate about wanting to see growth while sustaining the culture.
Jarrett Moore 19:39
And so I think it's practices that people can learn. Don't be afraid to take the time to educate people about the hard work of you know, finding people that are actually going to show up to the jobs that we make available. The hard work of making sure that the small businesses that we want to be present have their accounting together. They have their tax returns, you know simple things supplier diversity. So it's also about informing and educating the community.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 20:05
Well Jarett, I understand your personal connection to Vermont Manchester I grew up just near there on 98th and Figaroa. So spent a lot of time going by that intersection and hoping one day that it would be developed into something that we could be proud of. So glad to see you all working on that.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 20:23
For today, folks, we were really focused on talking about how to bring equitable growth and opportunity to community. We were joined today by three professionals, one in the private sector focused on making sure that affordable housing not only provides a valuable return, but it's also something that provides a valuable return to community and to individuals, and to circulate and make sure that resources stay in community.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 20:49
We had the pleasure of being able to hear from two other colleagues, both Alexis and Jarett, who talked about their project at Vermont Manchester, and how that project is a testament to being able to do equitable development opportunities. I want to thank Justin, Jared and Alexis for joining me in this conversation. Your insights, I imagine will be invaluable to the community development space as we continue to try and figure out how do we respond to the income and wealth inequality in Los Angeles. Thanks for joining me today.
Jarrett Moore 21:20
Thank you.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 21:21
This episode of changemakers la was made possible by our partner Citi Group, Inc. LISC-LA is committed to working with community groups and developers dedicated to preservation and development of affordable housing and sustaining housing projects in the region.
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk 21:36
We provide a variety of flexible housing lending products designed to help local groups bring development projects to fruition, with loans and funds covering every phase of development from pre development to permanent financing. If you'd like to learn more, please visit us online awww.lisc.org/Los-Angeles and follow us on Twitter at LISC-LA L-I-S-C underscore LA. You can find the rest of the series on Apple podcasts Spotify and Google podcast. Subscribe to hear more conversations about the people and places that shape Los Angeles.
