Building Community, Bridging Lives: Linking L.A.

Affordable housing and homelessness

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

In the Old Testament, one commandment appears more than any other — to “love the stranger as you would love yourself.”
As stated by Brooke Wirtschafter, IKAR’s Director of Community Organizing — “the people who are unhoused in Los Angeles, are the people we have othered — we have made them other and strange — it’s our obligation as people of faith to see the dignity in each one of those people, and to bring them inside.”
California suffers from an acute housing crisis thanks to decades of underfunding and red tape. IKAR is building 60 new affordable housing units in West-Central LA to make our community more accessible and vibrant, and to connect Angelenos to resources and higher living standards.
Likewise, IKAR strives to build stronger multifaith, and multiracial community bonds. Through human investment and showing up for our allies, IKAR combats loneliness and the isolation of minority communities by promoting social programs, both internally and externally.

At IKAR, we decided the best thing we could do in West-Central L.A. — rich in transit and other amenities — was to build affordable homes for vulnerable populations alongside the home we envision for ourselves.
After more than three years of research and planning, we are now partnering with a nonprofit affordable housing developer, to build and manage a 60-unit permanent supportive housing development for formerly unhoused seniors. In addition to housing, there will be essential supportive services on-site.
Along the way, we’ve learned a lot about the challenges, the uncertainties, and the expense of building affordable housing. We even went to the Legislature in 2022 to change state law to reduce parking minimums for faith communities building affordable housing to address one barrier.
IKAR advocated in favor of the passage of SB 4 (signed into law in late 2023, and colloquially known as YIGBY — Yes In God’s Back Yard). This legislation makes it easier for faith institutions and nonprofit colleges to build affordable housing by easing zoning restrictions and limiting discretionary zoning review processes. And, it also ensures that workers who are building this new housing will be paid fair wages that value the dignity of their labor.
In our communities, renters are increasingly priced out, forced to move away, to double up — and some of the most vulnerable have lost their housing altogether. We can help promote positive change in LA by rethinking how we steward the land.

By expanding our ability to promote and publicize the work of building affordable housing, and by strengthening our commitments to our broader multifaith and multiracial community, we safeguard the existing work making this new construction possible.
Not only do we seek to cast as wide a net as possible to make vulnerable populations aware of the housing opportunity, but we also seek to promote our mission so that other communities can replicate our model. The IKAR communications department is a team of two. With this grant, we can greatly expand operations by bringing in other trusted professionals to produce communications assets, manage coverage, and garner media.
Furthermore, IKAR serves a broader interfaith and multiracial community by better promoting events and groups, bridging gaps where social isolation and fear have created distance and othering. Housing vulnerable populations should be viewed as part of how we build a stronger, more vibrant, more connected Los Angeles.

Success will be measured in three ways:
More effective and more frequent asset generation and organization. This includes better documentation, archiving, and amplification of the work we are already doing. Through better audio/visual recording and publicity, the IKAR model can serve as proof-of-concept and then be replicated by other similar institutions.
Increased earned media, greater productivity on social media, more frequent event coverage and the promulgation of interfaith and multiracial dialogue and community investment.
Greater visibility for our capital campaign to successfully build affordable housing. IKAR is in the midst of a larger fundraising effort — we have not yet achieved the funding necessary to meet our infrastructure goals.