Building Housing, Building Lives : Revitalizing inner-city neighborhoods is best accomplished by empowering the people who live there.

I began working for the corporation in 1989. As program director, I bring funds from the private sector to distressed neighborhoods, selling corporate America on the idea that working there is a good thing to do. I help put communities together with government to get funding, and work with communities to create new programs.

I believe in empowering people. Our track record shows that people living in the most distressed areas are able to turn their personal lives and communities around if they are given access to what most people have access to on a daily basis--money, skills and information. Our job is to make this available to them.

The corporation is a national organization (30 offices nationwide) that provides financing, training and technical assistance to nonprofit, resident-driven groups that are trying to revitalize their neighborhoods. We rebuild inner-city communities from the ground up, contacting major corporations and using their money and their clout to turn communities around.

One way we do this is through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, a federal program that allows corporate investors a dollar-for-dollar write-off on their tax bill. They do this by investing in low-cost housing programs. So they get a tax benefit, but they’re also helping build an inner-city community. They “do good and do well at the same time.” The the Walt Disney Co., Arco, Bank of America and Times Mirror Corp. are some of our largest investors.

We also have a highly successful training program for community residents, church groups, citizens groups, and so on. It lasts a year and teaches people how to develop housing--how to buy real estate, get financing, work with architects and construction teams and manage the property when it’s finished. And the private sector provides the financing.

In Los Angeles since 1987, the corporation has helped build 58 housing complexes totaling 2,151 units. They are nicely designed because they are built by the people who live in them--working families who struggle and can’t find decent housing. They build something they will enjoy looking at, and they maintain it well. So we’re not just into building housing, we’re into building neighborhoods.

Neighborhoods need more than just housing, so we also develop commercial property, the kind that supports the community’s needs. Pharmacies, cleaners, things you don’t find much of in distressed neighborhoods. We’re bringing in major grocery and other chains, which are finding that it’s good business to build here. It’s not charity, it’s just plain good business. This also improves the economy by providing jobs. One large market generates 150 to 200 jobs because it hires locally. So it gives people a chance to start careers, where they wouldn’t have otherwise. Plus, a lot of jobs are created and a lot of minority companies are used during construction.

A recent corporate and federal government investment is bringing $160 million to $200 million to Los Angeles. This will build 4,000 units of housing, mostly in East, South and Central Los Angeles. That’s a lot of money, and yet it isn’t; we can’t cover everyone. The first units will be ready for occupancy by the first of 1995.

I live in South-Central, so I see what happens when families get low-cost housing. I see their pride of ownership. They save money because rents are so low, which allows them to send their children to school in clothes that make them feel good. They keep food on the table, they’re buying cars. I see saving going on that gives them a leg up. So lives are really turned around.

With partnerships between private investors and community people, Los Angeles has a very bright future. The work these groups do is very hard, but they have the drive and the commitment. They’re making a difference. People underestimate what can happen, what the residents themselves can do. I see a lot of untapped capacity in our inner cities. These are the people who will rebuild the economy as they rebuild the city, and we need to support this, so Los Angeles will be a better place for everyone.