Empowering LA Chinatown: Building a Path to Community Ownership and Affordable Housing

Housing and Homelessness

Central LA

Research (initial work to identify and understand the problem)

LA Chinatown residents are facing an increase in rent, evictions, landlord harassment, and landlord negligence. The affordable housing stock is decreasing as residents are forced out and properties are sold to corporations and redeveloped as market-rate housing. Over the past decade, at least 11 new developments have been completed or are in the planning/construction phase in LA Chinatown. Yet, of these 3,027 units, only 215 will be set aside as "affordable". In this case, what is affordable is based on the median regional income, which is more than three times what the working class, long-term residents of Chinatown earn. Corporate landlords are eager to make money and evict their working class tenants and while many have been fighting to remain in their homes with the support of local housing justice groups like Chinatown Community for Equitable Development (CCED), fighting against evictions is just one piece of the puzzle.

To address the critical issues from Question 6, local residents, community members, organizers, and researchers have come together to start a Chinatown CLT, which strives to preserve and manage affordable housing by purchasing existing buildings and giving tenants the opportunity for ownership and/or keeping rents permanently affordable. The blossoming Community Land Trust movement has produced CLTs all over the County and the state, and even in Chinatowns across the continent. The next phase in starting up our CLT for implementation is an Organizational and Development Roadmap, which consists of (1) strategic planning, outreach and capacity building, and (2) real estate development strategy. The work will begin with co-creating a strategic plan with the community members to identify near-and long-term goals. This will include extensive outreach and capacity building to build relationships with residents, stakeholders and longtime Chinatown property owners currently at risk of selling their buildings, through community visioning exercises, developing popular education materials. As that is ongoing, the real estate development strategy will involve a strategic planning process to identify and develop a pipeline of sites to implement strategies for new construction and acquisition for affordable housing preservation, including identifying naturally occurring affordable housing, developing site selection criteria, and engaging with non-profit and CBO partners.

The housing and affordability crisis is present throughout all of LA County and the City of LA. On its face, it doesn't not seem like supporting a single community would reap benefits for the rest of the County, but in fact, the CLT movement has been blossoming across the county, state, country, and even continent. Across LA, sister CLTs like Beverly-Vermont CLT, TRUST South LA, and El Sereno CLT have been growing, and CLTs across Chinatowns in Boston, Toronto and others have been both starting and maturing. Supporting the development of the LA Chinatown CLT would contribute to a community-centered movement of self-determination and ownership specifically focused on working class and low income residents living all over the County of LA. This momentum also makes the possibility more viable for those in LA County and provides hope and power to those living specifically in Chinatown.

The desired outcomes of this Organizational and Development Roadmap are, as mentioned above, building community capacity and growing a housing and development strategy. On the community capacity side, our metrics for success would involve establishing our first membership-based board of directors with at least three (3) members directly from the community, all of which would involve at minimum four (4) community visioning sessions and placemaking charette events. The goal of this activity is to engage community members, stakeholders, and partners in a collaborative process to envision and shape the future development and use of land within the community land trust, such as housing, public spaces, and amenities within the Chinatown community. This process will result in a collaborative stakeholder structure with our multi-ethnic and intergenerational community members and nonprofit partners to advocate for and/or participate as part of our organization.