Graduating AmeriCorps Alumni are Emerging Leaders for Affordable Housing Development
For Angelenos in 2020, housing is on the top of everyone’s agenda. In Los Angeles and Orange Counties, residents at the area’s median income would have to spend nearly half of their income on housing just to stay in the area —that is the highest of 35 comparable Metro Areas. The reality of this is clear all around us in the Los Angeles area, our streets are home to over 60,000 of our Angeleno neighbors, and that number continues to rise during this year’s ongoing pandemic. In response, LISC LA is partnering with public and private entities to respond to the rising tide of homelessness in our area.
One of these efforts is to build an affordable housing pipeline, bolstered by affordable housing professionals with experience and passion for the field that reflect the demographics they serve. Completing its 25th year, the AmeriCorps program aims to accomplish just that. The LISC LA Housing Initiative Program trains emerging affordable housing leaders precisely to take on this challenge in our communities by placing them at a host site community development organization to gain experience in the field.
Graduating the 25th cohort at the end of September, the LISC AmeriCorps Program and the LA Housing Initiative Program were an astounding success. In our latest cohort, five of twenty were hired full time by their host site, two were hired by local community development organizations, five are continuing their education, and one is continuing on to another term with AmeriCorps. Here are four of our participants who moved on to permanent positions serving their communities to create more affordable housing.
Durel Thomas will be working for the Coalition for Responsible Community Development.
Durel Thomas is an AmeriCorps veteran, having served not one, but two terms with the program. This unique opportunity has allowed Thomas to explore two sides of community development and gain a breadth of experience, first with a local government authority and secondly with a local organization. In the former, Thomas was able to gain experience in public interaction with private and community stakeholders, and in the latter, he built relationships with local government authorities. The exposure he gained was a key part of positioning for a permanent role later on; Thomas says, “Obtaining the 8 month long experience within community development helped me gain knowledge of inner functions and workings that may be difficult to learn in a book or a classroom.”
In fact, his host site the Coalition for Responsible Community Development hired Durel Thomas to stay on past his four month term to “gain the full experience in non-profit affordable housing real estate development from idea to post-construction.” Today, Thomas is continuing the work he began during his AmeriCorps term, assisting the project manager in closing a housing project by completing duediligence for various partners and obtaining relevant permits and clearances, a challenging but rewarding task.
Leticia Ramirez will be working with the Cesar Chavez Foundation.
Also graduating from the latest cohort of AmeriCorps is Leticia Ramirez, moving on to a position with her host site the Cesar Chavez Foundation. Ramirez was a participant in the most recent LISC LA Housing Initiative Program where she gained an understanding of affordable housing from acquisitions and due diligence to the final lease-up and permanent closing, including “the different components, strategies, and methodologies necessary to get a housing project up and running.”
Now hired by her host site of the Cesar Chavez Foundation, Ramirez uses the understanding she gained from LISC LA and real experience from working with the Cesar Chavez Foundation in continuing her work on affordable housing that she began during her term in AmeriCorps.Ramirez says about her AmeriCorps experience, “I am now an employee with the Cesar Chavez Foundation which couldn’t have been made possible without the AmeriCorps LISC LA program’s exposure to the housing pipelines and opportunity to showcase my talents.”
Cynthia Wong considers the AmeriCorps program one of “the biggest and best decisions” she has made to further her career goals. As Wong began her work out of graduate school in a city planning internship which could have led her to a full-time position, she took a risk leaving the program to pursue a career in affordable housing. But through the support of LISC LA and a placement with Community Corporation of Santa Monica (CCSM), Wong was able to gain the experience she needed to transition to her dream career in affordable housing.
At her placement with the CCSM, Wong learned the ins and outs of affordable housing as the team taught her “what it takes to be successful in project management and how to navigate and work with various partners in the field” while “the training with LISC reinforced the things that [she] was learning and doing on the job.” Ultimately, Wong’s growing network led her to a position with housing developer, PATH Ventures. Though initially a difficult decision, today Wong says her biggest takeaway from AmeriCorps is that “this field is very nuanced but the support you will receive from LISC and the affordable housing community is infinite.”
Stephanie Camacho will be working at ELACC.
For Stephanie Camacho Arriola joining the AmeriCorps program was a series of happy accidents. After an opening in the program, Camacho Arriola knew she could not pass up on the opportunity. She transitioned directly from a Research Fellowship in Economic Development to her Assistant Program Manager (APM) internship with A Community of Friends. Two weeks into her placement, the senior program manager left and Camacho Arriola stepped up to take on much of her former senior’s work. Today she says about this experience: “There are some things you cannot learn in the classroom, praxis is key. I'm very fortunate that my ‘baptism under fire’ experience helped fortify my skills as an entry level APM.”
After her 450 hours were completed, Camacho Arriola stayed on an additional three months at ACOF before moving on to a full time position with ELACC. Now in a position as an Assistant Program Manager, Camacho Arriola is handling all aspects of legal, financing, design, construction manager, and beyond for an upcoming affordable housing project. A true leader in the field, today she says she is excited to not only develop housing but to “inform better housing practices,” planning and developing with, not for, the community. In her own words, “Too often, planning happens to communities of color and we're left out of the process” and Camacho Arriola aims to combat that in her work.
