CRCD/LTSC's 36th Street Apartments Wins 2012 LA Conservancy Preservation Award

Coalition for Responsible Community Development (CRCD)/Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC) has been selected to receive one of the Los Angeles Conservancy's 2012 Preservation Awards for their 36th Street Apartments project. The project provides permanent supportive housing for young people who have aged out of the foster care system and/or are homeless.  The project was also part of the South L.A. Youth Build through a partnership with Los Angeles Trade Tech Community College.

Grant Sunoo, CRCD's Director of Real Estate & Economic Development, Ishamine Caldwell , CRCD's on site Support Services Coordinator, and Erica Taylor, Resident at 36th Street Apartments and South LA Youth Build Alumni, accepted the award the LA Conservancy Awards Ceremony on Thursday, May 10, 2012.

Congratulations to the CRCD & LTSC team, and to all of partners who have supported this project, specifically service partners Community Build, Inc. and Los Angeles Conservation Corps. Click hear for more information.

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LA LISC Remembers the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest

April 29, 2012 marked the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest, a dark turning point for the city sparked in part by the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers who were filmed beating motorist Rodney King in 1991. The events resulted in 52 deaths, 2,500 injuries, and over $446 million dollars of property damage to over 1,100 buildings over a six-day period.   

LISC mobilized to bring capital and over the last 20 years LISC has invested $639 million in loans, grants, equity, and technical assistance in Los Angeles, with the majority concentrated in South Los Angeles, the epicenter of the civil unrest.  As LISC's commitment to comprehensive community development progresses, LA LISC’s staff takes a moment to reflect upon the origins of the civil unrest and their thoughts about community development in Los Angeles 20 years later.  Read more.

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Six LISC Supported Alliance Schools Ranked in US News & World Report's List of Best High Schools

Six of the Alliance for College Ready Public Schools have been ranked among the best high schools in the nation by US News & World Report. 

US News & World Report evaluated nearly 22,000 high schools nationwide and ranked the schools based on several criteria, including student performance on statewide exams and overall college readiness.

In late 2011, LISC closed on a $21 million New Markets Tax Credit project an Alliance for College Ready campus in Lincoln Heights.  The transaction resulted in an innovative structure that combined New Markets Tax Credits with Qualified School Construction Bonds, the first deal of its kind on the West Coast.  LISC provided a $3 million Leverage Loan/Qualified School Construction Bond purchase plus $6 million allocation of New Markets Tax Credits. LISC is proud to have participated in the financing for several outstanding Allliance schools.  Read more.

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LISC pens Letter to the Editor of the New York Times

Michael Rubinger, CEO & President of LISC, responds to a New York Times article, which reports on studies that question the links between obesity and areas known as “food deserts,” with the following letter to the editor. The article includes a mention of the Fresh and Easy LISC helped finance at Adams and Central Avenues in the Vernon-Central community, one of LA LISC's Sustainable Communities.  See article.

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LISC Funded Environmental Charter Schools Wins First U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon for Public Charter High School

According to the Sun Herald, the Environmental Charter High School (ECHS) in Lawndale, California, is one of 78 schools nationwide to win the first national Green Ribbon, awarded by the U.S. Department of Education. “We maintain a green campus, foster healthy lifestyles and sustainable solutions and use our local environment as a context for learning,” said Alison Suffet, the school’s founder and executive director. “Despite being just a few short blocks from a major Los Angeles freeway, the campus has become a living, breathing, green oasis in a concrete urban setting - with fruit trees, gardens and a stream filled with fish.”

The federal Green Ribbons Schools initiative recognizes schools that save energy, reduce costs, feature environmentally sustainable learning spaces, protect health, foster wellness and offer environmental education to boost academic achievement and community engagement. More than 90% of ECHS students are admitted to four-year colleges and universities each year.

In April 2012, LISC’s Educational Facilities Financing Center (EFFC), in partnership with Global Green, awarded Environmental Charter Schools a $75,000 grant. The award will be used to partially fund the sustainable/green components of the LEED certified construction associated with $5.32 million construction project for the Environmental Charter Middle School (ECMS) in Gardena, CA.

ECMS is the last of four Green Charter Schools Pilot Projects in Los Angeles supported by a $75,000 grant and technical assistance from Global Green, as part of LISC’s efforts to support projects that are energy efficient, compatible with green principles, and complement LISC’s overall Building Sustainable Communities initiative. ECMS is scheduled to open in the fall 2012. It will serve grades 6 – 8.

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On Friday, April 20, 2012 CRCD and their partners, Little Tokyo Service Center and United Methodist Church, Los Angeles, celebrated the ribbon cutting of Epworth Apartments. Epworth Apartments are a newly constructed 20 unit building in South Los Angeles for Transition Age Youth (TAY) who have formerly been in foster care, homeless, or suffer from mental disabilities. In addition to developing permanent supportive housing and wrap around services, CRCD also converted a parcel of land into a 40 plot community garden constructed by the LA Conservation Corps.  This projects demonstrates how partnerships and collaborations work,and highlights the need for more projects and services for TAY  in South Los Angeles. Please click the photo slide show (courtesy of LA County Supervisor Mark R. Thomas) to visuals of the event. Read more about the Epworth Apartment's opening celebration at Southern California Public Radio's OnCentral website.

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Citi, NMSC (an affiliate of LISC) launch $25 millionin New Markets Tax Credit fund
Posted: December 2, 2011

Citi Community Capital (CCC)has joined forced with LISC's New Markets Support Company (NMSC) to launch a $25 million New Markets Tax Credit investment fund that will drive more vital private-sector capital into economic development projects and job creation in low-income communities. The fund, structured with CCC, represents NMSC's first foray into syndication services that include deal sourcing, underwriting and asset management. Additionally, the U.S. Treasury Department recently awarded LISC $85-million New Markets Tax Credits, giving LISC the nation’s largest allocation of New Markets Tax Credits.

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Los Angeles LISC awards $122,000 in HUD Section 4 capacity building and technical assistance grants
Four recent grants totaling $122,000 have been awarded to build capacity at community development corporations in each of our three Sustainable Communities (Boyle Heights, Vernon-Central, and the Crenshaw Corridor), as well as in one of our Neighborhood Intermediary Communities (Little Tokyo). Grantees include the East LA Community Corporation, CD Tech, Ward Economic Development Corporation, and the Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation. Grants range from supporting commercial corridor development and revitalization and equitable Transit-Oriented Development planning to leadership/organizing capacity development.  Click here to visit our grants section.

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LISC - Citi Partnership Builds Affordable Housing in California  
Posted: May 16, 2011

In rural and urban communities across California, thousands of families now have access to safe, attractive,affordable housing thanks to a six-year, $1.5 million Citi-LISC partnership designed to increase the scope and scale of housing production across the state. Read more

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HUD Awards LISC $19MM Section 4 Grant

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Training/Workshops/Special Events

On April 5, 2012 Claudia Lima, Executive Director, LA LISC, Celia Smoot, Senior Program Officer, Preservation, and Callie Seltzer, Assistant Program Officer, Preservation, presented at the Kennedy Commission’s Update on New and Proposed HUD Legislation and Housing Preservation convening in Orange County. Claudia, Celia, and Callie’s interactive discussion addressed the following topics:

• HUD's Rental Assistance Demonstration
• Three 2012 Multifamily Policy Changes
• New Multifamily LIHTC Pilot Streamlines Section 223(f) Process
• Guidance on Eligibility for Tenant Protection Vouchers
• Treatment of Proceeds Resulting from the Sale of FHA-insured or HUD-held Formerly     Insured Multifamily Projects by Nonprofit Owners
• New Collection Procedures for Delinquent Section 202 Direct Loans
• Extension and Revision of Hub and National Loan Committee Policies and Procedures
• New Guidance Regarding Project-Basing of HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Vouchers

LISC's Claudia Lima and Beth Marcus teach workshop on community facilities lending
Claudia Lima, Executive Director of Los Angeles LISC and Beth Marcus, Director of Underwriting at LISC National held a workshop on community facilities financing at the 2012 Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference in Seattle, Washington. Lima and Marcus used a charter school and health care case study to illustrate the unique underwriting and economic issues approaches to financing community facilities, including the capacity of the provider, the sources of revenue, capital financing structures, and risk mitigation. Click here for a video.

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In the Local News...

• HOME DEPOT FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES Westside/USVETS/LISC grant September 12^th   to help rehab the kitchen and dining facilities at the Veterans Westside Residential Complex in Inglewood, California.
• Layman’s Guide to CRA/LA Policies – This guide is an overview of the policies and the tools used to guide CRA/LA’s investments in economic development in Los Angeles. Read more…
• Hollywood Community Studio – July 2011 - Central Hollywood Now – Measuring Change in Hollywood. Read more…
• SCAG UPDATE - July 13, 11 - SCAG invites all Southern Californians to participate in the process of creating a future vision for our region. Read more...
• Giving New Life to Hollywood’s Bungalow Courts
• Groups will try to replicate Harlem Children’s Zone in Los Angeles - YPI receives $500K fed Promise Grant to help low-income/minority students from cradle through college
• Secretary Gary Locke Announces Recovery Act Investments to Expand Broadband Internet Access and Spur Economic Growth - YPI awarded $5.6M to open 80 computer centers in Los Angeles
• YPI's Bert Corona Charter School Awarded $2.5 Million Full-Service Community Schools Grant