“We Are One Keeper, Among Many, of the Neighborhood’s History” A profile on the East Bay Asian Local Development Co.
For decades, East Bay Asian Local Development Company (EBALDC) has been working to support quality housing, businesses, health, education and jobs in and around Oakland. With deep roots in the city’s Chinatown community, EBALDC is a long-time LISC partner and has collaborated locally with LISC’s Bay Area team, as well as our National Equity Fund affiliate, all of us supporting a range of innovative projects to meet local needs.
This year, EBALDC has been telling compelling stories of its staff, board members and partners in honor of its 45th anniversary, from personal histories of growing up in immigrant households to conversations about what is needed to make Chinatown, and other East Bay communities, stronger and more resilient for the future.
“We are one keeper, among many, of the neighborhood’s history,” noted Ener Chiu, EBALDC associate director of real estate development, in a recent blog for the organization. EBALDC has been posting compelling stories of its staff, board members and partners in honor of its 45th anniversary—from personal histories of growing up in immigrant households to conversations about what is needed to make Chinatown, and other East Bay communities, stronger and more resilient for the future.
“We are part of the tangle of the place’s imperfections, contradictions, and beauty. And we are a vessel for the community’s optimism that people of all backgrounds and incomes can live, work, and play together in a safe and healthy neighborhood,” Chiu said.
LISC helps support that hopeful vision with program collaboration and capital. For example, we provided a line of credit to support EBALDC predevelopment work on a pipeline of affordable housing developments serving families, seniors and people at risk of homelessness. EBALDC was able to use the LOC to bridge financing from more conventional sources, including several funded by EBALDC’s own Housing Acquisition Fund, which acquires properties that might otherwise fall to housing speculators.
Now completed, those projects represent more than 550 affordable homes, with rents affordable to people earning from 30 percent up to 80 percent of the area median income—this, in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. Affordable housing preservation and development is an imperative to protect the culture and outlook for tens of thousands of families throughout the region.
The EBALDC relationship is a good illustration of why community development financial institutions (CDFIs) throughout the country are so important. We can provide patient capital at more flexible terms than a traditional lender might offer, accepting higher loan-to-value ratios, longer durations or more flexible repayment structures that don’t fit within traditional underwriting approaches. What’s more, CDFIs build long-term relationships with community-driven developers like EBALDC, so we understand their priorities and their capacity for meeting their goals. We can step up to help because we share many of those same objectives.
“It is so critical now for organizations like EBALDC, a community development corporation with long-standing roots in Chinatown and in the immigrant experience, to take the lead in developing solutions through our Healthy Neighborhoods approach and ensuring access to opportunities for communities so disproportionately impacted by a lack of affordable housing, income inequality, COVID-19, and racist policies,” writes EBALDC CEO Andy Madeira, in his 45th anniversary reflection. “EBALDC is a leader in this work and, at a critical moment for our communities, is poised to achieve even greater impact in the years to come.”