PATH VENTURES

Hello Everyone! I am a current student at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona pursuing a master’s degree in Urban Planning. During my last two years as an undergraduate, I interned at a real estate consultant firm which helped spark my interest in the development of multi-family housing. My curiosity to understand the type of policing done at a local level led to my internship in the Planning Division at the City of Irvine. During this internship, I was able to review and process various ministerial and discretionary projects which allowed me to comprehend the impacts that planners have in communities. However, I noticed that the City of Irvine is very different than many other cities in the state so I decided to simultaneously intern for the City of Norwalk. The interaction of the different types of demographics I encountered in both cities opened my eyes to housing and income inequality. I started to pursue my masters to learn more about affordable housing within the planning field. Therefore, I am incredibly grateful that I will be joining LISC’s LA Housing Initiative Program to receive hands-on experience of affordable housing development from PATH Ventures!

AMERICAN FAMILY HOUSING

My name is Daisy Cruz; I am finishing up my last quarter of the Master of Urban and Regional Planning at UCI with a focus on affordable housing. I have spent much of my education and work experience intentionally serving low-income and communities of color that reflect where the community I grew up in. Growing up in unsafe and unstable housing myself, I understand the importance and value of affordable housing and understand that many factors contribute to the loss of housing or the lack of affordability for many people and families. I am excited and hopeful for this position to join a cause and gain valuable experience to best serve communities.

COMMUNITY CORPORATION OF SANTA MONICA

My name is Cynthia Wong and I’m a graduate from the California Polytechnic State University of Pomona, Masters of Urban and Regional Planning Program. I’ve had experience in many different aspects of urban planning since I was an undergraduate student at the University of California, San Diego. I’ve taken housing courses throughout my college education that challenged and inspired me to start a personal project in volunteering at a homeless shelter. I learned so much about what it takes for people who are in shelter programs to get back into the real world and how hard it is for them to afford housing. It made me think about how important affordable housing is and what the overall goal is right now to address the housing shortage problem. Seeing as that I came from this situation myself, I’ve personally learned how challenging the housing situation is for families whose family members can’t afford housing, such as students or the elderly, and have personally taken on multiple Accessory Dwelling Unit projects, and have helped Senior Planners with the design review and entitlement process of multi-family housing projects during my time in the Community Development Department at the City of Claremont. I’m also currently studying for the LEED certification in Neighborhood Development. I hope that I can make a difference in working with affordable housing projects so that those who are less fortunate can have access to affordable housing. It is with hopes that this program can teach me more about affordable housing and the work that needs to be done to complete successful projects.

CESAR CHAVEZ FOUNDATION

Leticia Ramirez comes to the 2020 LA-HIP summer cohort with a variety of skills she intends to develop and further implement into the affordable housing field. Leticia joins LA-HIP as Masters candidate for Urban and Regional Planning at the University of California, Irvine along with a Bachelor’s Degree in political science from California State University, Long Beach as a Pi Sigma Alpha National Political Science Honor Society scholar. Since her start at UCI, she has been selected to assist with faculty research as a Graduate Student Researcher working under various Professors who’s work overarchingly reflect inclusivity and equity while being recently awarded the 2020-2021 Diversity in Planning Fellowship. She hopes to focus her studies within the scope of affordable housing and inclusionary zoning to learn more about housing methodologies with her experience in the LA-HIP cohort collaborating with the Cesar Chavez Foundation. She has campaign managing experience in the political sector and has been known to run political campaigns at city and regional levels which have helped her understand the needs of affordable housing trajectories from within the electoral grassroots perspective. Furthermore, Leticia has garnered first account stories in her work with the American Federation of Labor, Congress of industrial Organizations as a Committee for Better Banks union organizer hearing countless stories from bank workers on how they practiced predatory housing lending directed towards vulnerable communities to meeting their bank’s metric profits, ultimately revealing the disparate effects of affordable housing unavailability. Her previous experiences have led her on a journey becoming an affordable housing advocate with the sincere hopes of catalyzing inclusive, equitable and diverse communities. In her spare time, she enjoys BBQing with her family and trying any and every new skill.

CESAR CHAVEZ FOUNDATION

My name is Sofia Mier, and I am an incoming junior at the University of Redlands, double majoring in Public Policy and Political Science while also minoring in Business Administration. This spring, I am involved in Directing the Production of the Annual Bridging the Gap Gala for a non-profit organization in Santa Ana called AISS. Aside from AISS, I am also going to intern with the Cesar Chavez Foundation in Los Angeles this summer. At the Cesar Chavez Foundation, I am going to assist in the Property Development Department, where I will learn about low-income housing and the process of Real Estate Development. My hope for the future is to continue to work for a foundation that creates low-income housing in underprivileged communities and neighborhoods.

What drew me to affordable housing is that it’s one of the most complex housing projects that developers have to do. So much time and passion goes into these projects that are going to overall help families have a place that they can call home. Everything about affordable housing intrigued me and I am extremely grateful that I will be working with an amazing organization this summer.

LA FAMILY HOUSING

Leana Mason, originally from Brooklyn, New York had always been interested in the affordable housing industry because of her personal experiences growing up, with the lack of decent and affordable housing. Leana was first able to act on her interests through volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, which led her to work in different countries like Paraguay, Bolivia, Jordan. The experience and mission of not just building affordable housing but normalizing affordable housing resonated with Leana so much that she pursued a construction crew-leader position with Habitat for Humanity in Washington, D.C. then in Greater Los Angeles. From doing this, Leana realized how she wanted to navigate her career so she enrolled in graduate school at University of Southern California to earn a Master’s of Public Administration with a focus on Nonprofit Leadership and Management. Wanting to learn more about the development process of affordable housing outside of the construction aspect, Leana pursued a project coordinator position in real estate development with Los Angeles Family Housing. Leana hopes to leverage her different experiences to effectively normalize affordable housing through advocacy, collaboration and systemic/institutional support in changes of policy and practice.

VENICE COMMUNTY HOUSING CORPORATION

I am the daughter of Mexican immigrants that came to this country to seek the "American Dream." Unfortunately, my father faced his own challenges that made it difficult to achieve his dream of buying a house and living a stable life. When I was in high school, my father was diagnosed with an illness that brittles his bones, which dramatically altered our families' lives. Nevertheless, his positive outlook on life when facing difficulties such as these taught me a valuable lesson: life is not easy, but there's always a light at the end of the tunnel. It also motivated me to pursue higher education.

I graduated from California State University, Long Beach in 2016, and received a Bachelor of Arts Degree of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies. The interdisciplinary undergraduate courses I took to fulfill the requirements for graduation introduced me to urban planning. I learned how urban design perpetuates racial inequality, redlining disinvested communities of color, and about the misclassification of truck drivers in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that keeps them in poverty. When I entered graduate school, my main goal was to focus on housing because I have also felt the frustrations that many others feel about housing. I was fortunate to have been chosen to participate in the Network for European and U.S. Regional and Urban Studies consortium, which provided me the opportunity to conduct research abroad in Berlin, Germany. I had an extraordinary experience and researched a fascinating and inspiring topic, grassroots urban activism approach to the housing crisis in Berlin. I will be receiving my Master's Degree of Urban and Regional Planning in June 2020 from the University of California, Irvine.

LINC HOUSING

Passionate about social justice, Dani Morales has worked with Illumination Foundation, Breakthrough Collaborative, and other organizations to address homelessness and promote educational equity. She recently graduated from the University of Southern California where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Public Policy on the Nonprofit, Philanthropy, and Social innovation track with a minor in Social Entrepreneurship. She is eager to help create much-needed affordable housing in California because she believes housing is a human right.

COALITION FOR RESPONSIBLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Hello, my name is Durel Thomas, I am 24 years old and I am pursuing a career in the world of affordable housing. Before looking toward affordable housing, I was interested in the construction of homes. I found my passion for affordable housing through my studies at university. Learning about the unfair housing market and its practices, my passion for constructing houses shifted to providing inclusive and responsible community development through affordable housing. After receiving my bachelor's degree in Urban and Regional Planning, I landed an internship with the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA). At HACLA I was able to experience the relationship of the people/community, private developers, and public organizations. I was gifted the opportunity to assist in the planning of the redevelopment of a Los Angeles public housing site through the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative and it has displayed to me the urgent need for affordable housing and also responsible, community driven planning processes. This experience has enhanced my passion for affordable housing and I am devoted to being an aid to the cause.

CLIFFORD BEERS HOUSING

My name is Michelle Perez, I was born and raised in Sun Valley, a neighborhood in Los Angeles. Both of my parents were born in Mexico and I am the oldest of three siblings. I am a first-generation college student and recently graduated from Cal Poly Pomona, earning my undergraduate degree in Urban and Regional Planning. At Cal Poly Pomona I worked in various positions helping college students on campus within the College of Environmental Design's Student Success Center as a Peer Advisor. I have also worked with helping students in Pomona's high schools academically and emotionally as an Upward Bound tutor and Upward Bound resident counselor.

I am passionate about increasing the levels of civic engagement in marginalized communities that are often disenfranchised. Most importantly, I seek to be a liaison between communities experiencing different forms of oppression. In hopes of gathering, collecting, and organizing resources, I am passionate about affordable housing because of the housing scarcity in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, this has lead families to live in overcrowded places, lead to evictions, or loss of homes. I believe folks within neighborhoods experiencing housing issues are vehicles of change. With the support of housing-professionals, both can collaborate to formulate affordable housing policies. I am looking forward to my AmeriCorps experience!