Over the past month, we checked in with our 2024 grantees to learn how their funded programs, projects, and initiatives are progressing – and to better understand the impact they’re making across Los Angeles. Now, we are excited to share these interviews, with stories of growth, challenges, and community transformation.

LA Más received funding through the LA2050 Grants Challenge from the Goldhirsh Foundation to support its Community Housing Project, building community-stewarded affordable housing in Northeast LA. Below is an edited transcript of our conversation with their team.

LA2050: Since receiving the award, your Community Housing Project work has grown so much – and secured some major wins! Tell us about all that’s been happening.

LA Más: Last October, LA Más acquired its first property! Working directly with residents, we kept five apartments from going on the market to the highest bidder and instead, kept long term residents in their homes. We executed the purchase in collaboration with Self-Help Ventures Fund as our co-owner with thanks to LA4LA and LA Local Initiatives Support Corporation. It's exciting because we are doing housing preservation without public funds and making it possible to say: “Hey, LA Más is a community developer! We're an alternative to corporate flippers who are coming in and changing the nature of where we live, which is unaffordable to our community.” We keep our working class neighbors rooted in the neighborhoods they love in Northeast LA, and our community housing initiative is giving long-term residents the ability to stay.

Becoming first time property stewards was a major win. Our next steps for our first property include building an ADU which will help keep existing rents low. And we are creating a resident stewardship system, so that residents and community members can help make decisions on the property. If you want to learn more, check out the front-page LA Times feature on Arvia.

LA2050: As you continue to scale this neighbor-led housing model, what principles or practices are you putting in place to ensure it remains rooted in racial and economic justice?

LA Más: LA Más is a community-based organization committed to building collective neighborhood stability and resilience through affordable housing and local economies in Northeast Los Angeles (NELA). At the center of it all is, we believe community leadership and governance should be institutionalized into our organization's operations. This year, we launched a Community Advisory Committee that puts our community members in the seat of decision-making. We're also updating our organization's bylaws to clearly outline what our goals are as we continue to acquire property – including the role of community and what long-term affordability looks like.

Our Community Advisory Committee is helping us set up a rate of affordability for our second property based on people's real lived experience, instead of the typical means of calculating affordability – average median income, or the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development definition. We have the ability to define what affordability really is and then set the rent at that level, while also working behind the scenes to ensure the property is financially sustainable.

LA2050: What do you hope to achieve in the last six months of the grant, and how can the broader LA2050 community support?

LA Más: In the last six months of our grant, we aim to close on one or two more properties, taking dozens more units off the market and keeping them rooted in our community. We hope to move long term NELA community members into units that are vacant and identify funding partners excited to invest in grants or low-cost loans that make it possible for us to compete with corporate flippers and landlords. For LA neighborhoods facing gentrification, we want to be known as an alternative to selling to the highest bidder - we can pay all cash and meet asking prices, we just want your partnership. Here are three ways to support our work:

1. Know a Northeast LA landlord looking to sell? Let them know LA Más is a viable alternative. We're preserving affordable housing and preventing displacement.
2. Work with a foundation or have personal resources? Consider giving us a Program Related Investment (PRI) loan if you’re in the foundation space. Individual investors can donate directly or provide loans at <4%. Your money ensures there's a model for neighborhood stability that includes working class community members who would otherwise be excluded as property values continue to rise.
3. Connect with our community! Come support our weekly Somos NELA Night Market every Friday night, featuring vendors who are also part of our Community Advisory Committee. These grassroots leaders help us find properties and connect with community members. If you don't have $50,000 to loan us, come spend $50 at our market on a Friday night...and bring a friend or two!

Interview Participants:

Helen Leung, Executive Director

Learn More About LA Más:

• Arvia Project - LA Más Community Housing (video)