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MARK WILSON - Revolutionizing South LA · Eating While Broke

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Colleen Witt, and today we have a
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: very special guest, founder, owner of CRCD, Coalition of Responsible
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Community Development, is in the building. Oh right, And how
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: long has CRCD been around.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: CRCD has been around. This year makes twenty years.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Twenty years. So a little backstory about Mark, Mark Wilson
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: is I don't even say your name, huh. Mark Wilson,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: owner of Coalition of Responsible Community Development, is in the building.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: It's an honor to have you, guys. I've tried to
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: get this interview for a couple of years now. That
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: just goes to show you know how much I wanted
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: this interview. And you'll learn throughout this interview why on
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: what Mark has done in the twenty years. But there's
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: a lot to cover, so I want Mark to go
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: ahead and talk about some of the stuff that CRCD
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: has done. And just for a little sticker shock, guys,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: CRCD owns about seven hundred million dollars in real estate
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: in South primarily in south central Los Angeles, which is
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: a if you even own a condo in Los Angeles
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: and you're even fortunate to own one at all. You
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: know how hard it is to possibly own one and
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: how expensive it is let alone to do that under nonprofit, So.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: The Coalition for Responsible Community Development CRCD, we are not
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: for profit community development corporation, so that our mission is
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: to change lives and build neighborhoods responsibly. We do a
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: lot of that work in workforce development. I'll go over
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: a little bit about what we do. After a lot
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: of workforce development, working with the state, the federal government,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: the County of Los Angeles, and the City of Los Angeles,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: providing workforce development and employment training to our most vulnerable Angelinos,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: particularly those that reside in South LA. So this is
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: false youth, unhoused individuals, individuals returning to our communities from incarceration,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: and folks that have had difficult times finding employment, and
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: we take them through a host of training programs with
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: pathways to.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Careers at their choice.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Of course, providing them with wrap around support services along
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: the way, because when you come from a vulnerable background,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: it's difficult to even keep a job. A lot of times,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: it's not folks fault that they didn't have.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: A place to sleep that night.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: It's not folks fault that somebody may have kicked them
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: out because of of their gender, and it's not folks
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: fault on not having adequate transportation and the transportation system
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: in their neighborhood so they can get to work on time,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: and so we provide those supports what we call barrier
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: supports or support services, so folks can gav game full
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: employment and get on their feet. We also do affordable
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: housing development, as you mentioned where now embarking on you know,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: over seven hundred million dollars in real estate development in
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: south central LA that makes up about sixteen hundred units
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: of affordable housing in different phases of development. We have
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: about six hundred units in what we call in the
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: transition right now, meaning folks are actually moving in and
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: twenty percent of our housing is dedicated to formally false
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: youth or young people that find themselves unhoused.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: Each of our.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Buildings and projects, all based in South LA, have wrap
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: around support services, so we actually have offices and staff
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: at each of our building sites, so they're providing residents
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: with opportunities to move into employment, move into.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: Other services, access.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: To healthcare, and any other thing that will support them
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: and moving their lives forward and so we're we're proud
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: of that to be able to provide those not only
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: the housing which is very affordable, usually targeting individuals that
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: can move in a place where thirty percent your average
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: income is your rent and it's subsidized by other government sources.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: So in LA that's a really big deal.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: And they're really nice building and they're really nice when
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: you get subsidized. I've pulled up on some of these
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: buildings and these buildings are absolutely stunning. You would drive
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: by it and say, this is a very nice building,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: and yes, when you do walk in, you do see
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: the support.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: Yes, and so so you know, we're proud of that.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: We have partnerships with the LA Community College District, so
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: we provide services on site in partnership with colleges like
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Los Angeles Trade Tech Community College, East LA Community College
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: in Los Angeles Community College. At Los Angeles Trade Tech,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: we actually have office spaces there so we can work
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: side by side with department chairs recruiting students into opportunities
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: for employment, particularly those that are on track to graduate
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: with their AA degrees, to possibly pair them with career
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: opportunities in that degree or in their major.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: So that's pretty exciting.
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  Speaker 2: We've had and withstand that partnership for about almost fourteen
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: years now.
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, we also partner with youth Field Charter School of California,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: so we manage charter school on the campus of La
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Trade Tech where we're working with young people eighteen to
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: twenty six primarily for whatever reason, they didn't complete traditional school,
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: and so they find themselves at CRCD and go through
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: CRCD Academy where they earn a high school diploma and
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: they're duel enrolled in the community college at the same time.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: So when they graduate, they're already in college, they're already
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: on track, and a lot of them are already on
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: career paths with CRCD.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Wow. Yes, and then to go back to workforce development,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: can you give you an example of some of the
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: trades that do you guys teach or teach me?
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Yes, And so fourteen years ago we created CRCD Enterprises,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: which is a separate entity. It's a for profit entity
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: that is now a general contractor licensed with the state
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: of California. We're also licensed to do let abatement and
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: let abatement training. And so young people that go through
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: are workforce say particularly Youth Bill. So we run the
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: South LA Youth Build or we are South LA Youth Build.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: That's part of the Youth Build Global international network. And
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: young people they are enrolled in CRCD Academy, but then
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: they have an opportunity to work side by side going
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: through a multicore curriculum that's approved. It's called MC three
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: and it's approved by the La Orange County Building Trades
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: and so.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: That's the labor unions.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: So they have an opportunity to learn about multiple trades,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: so plumbing, drywall, painting, pipe fitting, concrete and then through
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: that training which is typically about three weeks or three.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Four weeks I want to get in that.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Youth Build is three weeks, and then we have other
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: traders that are eight weeks that are more apprenticeship base.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: So for Youth BUEL you do three hundred hours.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: If the young person decides for trade they like, they
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: have an opportunity to go through a pathway with a
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: union to become an apprentice.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: And the Youth Built age group is age group.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: That age group is eighteen to twenty four at entry.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Wow you hear that, guys, So straight out of high
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: school you could pick a trade you can.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Pick a trade as soon as you actually during while
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: you're getting your diploma. With Crcity Academy, you can actually
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: be working on your trade and receiving your high school
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: diploma at the same time.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: And when you graduate.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: You can work more towards that trade because you will
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: be a pre apprentice. Because our training is approved by
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: the union.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Now is there stipulations if they don't go to the
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: charter school.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: If they don't go to our charter school, there's no stipulation.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: You still can enroll in our mc th training because
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: we now have the Tresa McCoy Regional Infrastructure Development Training Center.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: So basically it's a training center that we now run
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: the community. It's right off of twenty fifth in Central Avenue.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: And any young person rather they go through Youth Bill
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: or just want to come through one of crcd's workforce
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: development training programs, they have access to going through these pathways.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Wow. That's a big deal. Wow. And then would you say,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about race a little bit. When
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: you think of South Central you think of predominantly a
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: certain race. What race would you say is the community
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: that you tend to help more so or what is
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: that divide of that race.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: So the community itself, meaning residents that live there, are
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: directly a majority of Latino. I would say probably eighty
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: five percent. In our programs, it's roughly fifty percent African
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: American fifty percent Latino.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: And we get a higher number of African Americans unfortunately,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: because African Americans make up a high rate of the
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: individuals that are returned to the community from prison.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: They are the majority of young people that are in
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: the false care system and that age out. Also the
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: majority of young people that are unhoused in LA And
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: because of those statistics and because we work with that
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: population primarily, our African American numbers are higher than the racial.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: In the community.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: So the community itself is eighty five percent Latino, but
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: we hear about a fifty to fifty racial and the
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: people that we serve.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: I worked with a startup that dealt with a lot
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: of apartment buildings, and when you're dealing with low income housing,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: I noticed when I would talk to property managers what
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: they were dealing with on a regular basis in mental
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: illness or mental struggles was all over the spectrum, Like
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: you had to have a whole different caliber of I mean,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: you would assume that they were like numb to just
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: so much trauma that these people go through. What do
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: you guys do to deal with the mental illness, because
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: there's got to be some would amagine that's a big
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: part of the equation.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Right, We're not a licensed therapist. And the good thing
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: about SERISD is we know how to partner. We know
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: how to do what we do well, and then we
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: know how to collaborate and partner with others that do
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: their craft well. And so we partner with Kedrin, which
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: has a mental health hospital in South Los Angeles. They're
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: actually working on building a new facility i think close
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: to the Watts and they have some of the best
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: mental health professionals that I've ever worked with and I've
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: ever seen. And so when we have cases, because we
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: do have a housing and support services department that primarily
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: works with young people, and unfortunately a lot of young
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: people are dealing with a lot of trauma, trauma that
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: they've been dealing with for years, some of them decades,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: And having that partnership with Kedron really helps our coordinators
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: to provide this young person with services. Because every young
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: person that come through our doors because we have a
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: dropping center called Ruth Place Yes.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Dropping center called Place Yes.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: It's a youth dropping center, so young people from anywhere.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Usually we get young people from all over the city,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: not just South LA. And we're probably one of the
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: few dropping centers in the city of La, particularly in
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: South LA. So they drop in primarily looking for housing opportunities,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: and we have housing navigators.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: Individuals may come in needing mental.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: Health support, so we provide support to them by way
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: of KEDRON. Others may just be coming in for other services.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Maybe they need to take a shower, maybe they just
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: need to park somewhere and take a nap because they've
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: been up all night. Because a lot of young people
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: do not like going into the shelters that are available
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: that are primarily for adults. There's not many youth shelters
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: and so they don't like that, and so they're in
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: the parks in a car if they have it, or
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: they're walking around the streets because they're scared and terrified
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: of going to sleep. And so we have a place
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: where folks in come and if they need to take
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: a DAP, they take a nap, and that's an entry
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: point for us to see what other services they need.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: And these are folks that are not living in our
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: apartment buildings and folks that we're connecting to what we
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: call scatter site housing. So these are working with private
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: apartment building owners, usually small mom and pop apartment building
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: owners for the ten units, and we're master releasing buildings
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: and we're working rental or leasing arrangements with those owners
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: and placing young people in housing.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's a lot. Yeah, how many people do see
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: RCD I'm getting all don't get all up in people
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: to CRCD employing.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: So right now today because we're so CRCD the nonprofit
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: employees about one hundred and sixty seven full time employees.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: We probably employ on part.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: Time basis through different services or whatnot, another two to
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: three thousand people that come through our doors.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: CRCD Enterprises On which is our for profit and construction company,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: employees today about two hundred and fifty individuals full time.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: And then CRCD Partners, who is does everything real estate
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: development and it's also a for profit entity, employees about
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: forty individuals.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: So all together, if you.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Do the math, we're employing about a little over five
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: hundred individuals.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: Can do the math that quick, but.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: That's a lot and there's a lot of arms. Yes, yes,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: I'm genuinely curious what a day in the life of
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: you is. Do you have two phones or one?
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: I have one phone.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: They've tried to give me two phones, but I'm like
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: one is enough. And then I have to have an
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: executive assistant that is more than just another phone, but
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: she takes care of other things and people that's been
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: trying to find me or.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: So you have your cell phone number? Are you am?
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: I am? I very lucky and fortunate to have this numb.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: I don't want to put it like that, but you
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: wanted to look, I feel cool now.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: You got a direct connect.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hit them directly, like please, please, please please,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: because I think I did try the other ways, which
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: is like going to through other people. See but if
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: you go direct, go direct. If you think about it,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: it worked best when I went direct. It does so
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: if you see them on the street, guys hit me up.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: So that's a huge footprint. What I think is crazy
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: about LA because I do work with like the LA
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Business Journal and all these guys, is like I have
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: shocked sometimes that I don't see you on the cover
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: of some of these, Like, I don't know if it's
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: because you're not doing prs, the just you're just your
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: footprint is pretty large.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a number of things. I don't think.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: I know, I'm not doing a lot of PR because
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: I'm typically focused.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: On the work.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: I've never been someone that like to be all in
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: the videos in front of the newspapers, so I ride
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: a little low. So even doing this is a little
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: different for me.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: I love it. I think you need to do more
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: of it. I wonder if does that help or hinder
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: your fundraising processes. I would imagine you have to do
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: some level of PR.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean with fundraising.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I do the conferences, I do
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: the panel discussions, and I do those things which helps
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: to get our word and our message out. I do
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: a lot of meetings with different foundations and things of
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: that nature. So I would think that it may hinder
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: it a bit because our message and what we do
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: a lot of folks still don't know. Yeah, yeah, and
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that, and so we're working on figuring out
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: how to do better or be better at.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: PR and communications, you know.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: But for me myself, I'm just more focused on the
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: work and then allow folks like the board and others
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: to think about ways that we.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: Can kind of get out more and get.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: In journals, get interviewed by different magazines. Really, you know,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: talk about the unique work that we're doing in South LA.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Because it's tough work that the team is doing. It's
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: not easy when you're managing contracts that have time limits
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: on them and you have a young person or an
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: adult that doesn't have a time limit on when they
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: can get on their feet or when they can somehow
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: overcome trauma. I mean, when you have a contract where
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: they say you have six months to produce these results,
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: and you have someone that's just getting out that they're
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: twenty years, it's going to take bore than six months.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: To work with him.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: So you know, that's why, you know, the work is difficult,
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: and where there are opportunities for us to talk more
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: about the work, we can be better at doing so
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: because I know there's a lot more people that may
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: want to support what we're doing.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, did Amazon ever hit you guys up?
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: I'll discouraged because she has been making it right all around.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: You know, I don't think they hit us up, And
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: I can be mistaken, so I don't want a mistake openly.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: But I haven't seen anything.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Oh you would know. I've heard, Sorry, she dropped millions
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: on some nonprobability. They just say they just get a
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: random I.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: Mean, I'm sure, but I haven't gotten a rack.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you would know.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would know.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: I think you would.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: I think see.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: When you refer to Amazon about Kensey Scott.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: So I believe we did support from McKenzie Scott a
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: couple of years ago.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm like made it.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, No, No, she's good. They good folks. You're like
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: a lot of Amazon packages.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: No, because she has she definitely, I don't know. She's
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: definitely been making it rain on.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: A lot of I mean, her support definitely helped us
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: to move a lot of our real estate development efforts forward.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: A lot of people don't know.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: You know, when we're doing these projects, you're putting, you know,
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: millions of dollars into them before you even see one
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: dime back, and so you're constantly raising money doing applications.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: They're very complicated projects to put together. It's not like
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: your typical real estate investment deal where you just buy
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: a hum flip or by rent because you.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Break your progresies, break ground permit request.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: And so from from ground from acquisition to breaking ground
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: to actually people moving in is typically a four year process.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: Geeze for each project.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: And then you're paying the whole time.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: You're paying the whole time, you're paying those twenty forty staff,
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: you're paying for permits, you're paying for you know, engineering,
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: architectural services, and a lot of legal fees. Yeah, So
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: affordable housing for the good people that do it all
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: across the country don't get recognized enough for the actual
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: difficulty that goes into it and expertise that needs to
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: go into it. To actually build a project for people
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: that need affordable housing is very different than your typical
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: real estate investment project.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: And that's honestly a.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: Lot of people don't do it because it's really hard,
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: and it's because you're you have to put so many
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: or go after so many different subsidies to make the
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: project happen. So hats off to folks that do that work,
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: include our team.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: How long is a waiting list for you guys for
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: your affordable housing?
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: So typically, unfortunately, on any given project, you'll have five
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: hundred to two thousand people on the waiting lists, and
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: the waiting list is even more you know, probably you know,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know the exact but we get a lot
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: of referrals from Department of Mental Health, so they have
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: a waiting list of thousands of folks we get on
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: a waiting list with LARSA. They refer people to our building,
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: particularly young people. They have you know, hundreds, if not
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: thousands of people on the waiting lists.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: And that's why, you.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Know, our mayor, our governor, our council members continue to
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: fight to try to bring in more resources for housing
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: because there's not a lot of units to support the need,
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: so you have to build more. And you know, our
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: mayor has done things to cut down the wait time
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: and the time it takes to actually build a housing project,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: but it's still not enough yet of buildings in the
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: ground to support the need. So you have a long
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: waiting list. And that's throughout the state of California, not
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: just the city of Los Angeles.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's when you get a wait list. I'm guessing
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: there's some kind of lottery process to help.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, I mean a lot of us don't like the
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: lottery process because people that we're working with directly or
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: have worked with directly, we can say, hey, we can
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: get you housing. So in fairness to people that have
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: been waiting for sometimes years, there is a lottery process
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: that's controlled by either the housing the apartment, or Department
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: of Mental Health or one of the county agencies.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: And as you can imagine, they fill up pretty quickly.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's with Ruth's Place, the dropping center for youth.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: How does that whole process work. Is there like a
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: huge waitlist or they're just it's a safe It's.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: Just a safe place you can drop in.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Okay. Is it like twenty four hours or something.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: No, No, So it is not a shelter and it's
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: not open twenty four hours. It's an eight to five
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: or eight to six where folks can literally drop in,
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: go through an intake process, be placed with a case manager,
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: or if they just coming in to get some food
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: or just want a place to relax, they can do that. Okay,
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: So it's radomly whoever, Yeah, safe place whoever wants to
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: come in.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: And then if they come I'm just saying this for
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: all y'all listeners. So if they come in and you're
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: you know, you have say an issue one area transportation
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: or food or how or whatever. You go there, you
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: get linked with a case manager that helps redirect you
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: to help you get those services at least temporarily.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Temporarily and usually our staff is good at connecting folks
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: to warm handoffs.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: We don't like you saying hey, go over here.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: To follow this website.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: It's usually refer to good groups that we work with
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: that you know, have a relationship with our team, and
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: then folks are placed in good hands with them. And
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: usually it's a group, you know, like topics or others
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: that may provide resources for un housed families. See, we
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: don't do families and we don't do adults, and so
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: when folks come in they may be over the age
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: of twenty.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: Four years old.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: So we have partners like them and many others that
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: we can refer people to and help them get services.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's a lot. So going back to my question,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: it was the day in the life.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: I mean, you know, the day life.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: I mean when you're you know, you're managing your family
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: or the best I can and you know, so a
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: day in the life starts at six in the morning
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: and probably ends at about six about nine at night.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: Something like that. Yeah, no, sometimes it's longer than that.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: It depends on what's going on and everything scrunched in between.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of teams, meeting, conference calls, meetings in person,
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: you know, meeting with you know, funders, investors, legal teams,
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: so forth. It depends on what's happening in the week.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: But every hour, on an hour, there's something going on,
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: and then you kind of sneak in some time for
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: some grub and maybe yeah, speaking of it, maybe a
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: happy hour, but usually a happy hour turn into a
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: meeting too, So yeah, yeah.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Did you take your shot yet? We're about to tell
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: you something important, you man, I like it. You never
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: get those like just me, well just tell me on
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the phone. No, No, you're going to you're going happy hour, lady.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Let's wait till after happy I mean you.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: I mean in the earlier days, you know, you got
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: a lot more of those calls. Nowadays it's more so
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: because they want us to do more, you know, And
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: so that's a good feeling to actually be at that
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: place where you kind of the go to organization, or
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: at least one of them that people can go to
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: and depend on. And so because people know we're already
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: doing a lot. Sometime a shock can help get to it.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, smart, I'll take a note in my mind. Now,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: now that everyone is caught up to who you are today,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: I had to give you a backstory because you don't
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: do a lot of prs. So we are again thank you,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: thank you for coming on the show. Now I want
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: to take us back to who you are, back with,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: way back, way back. So tell me what you're gonna
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: have me eat today. Something you ate when you were broke.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: So the easy and you can't go wrong in la
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: but especially when you broke without going to tacos. And
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: so we're gonna have some chicken tacos today on flour
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: tortilla shells. We'll go mix in some cilantro, some salsa,
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: green and red or your choice, with some regular white onions,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: and then if you like cheese, once done, you can
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: sprinkle some of that on with some dishal our.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is this is good. By the way, We've
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: had some guests do some taco type dishes, and so
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: I went in our fridge I found this. Oh yeah,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: I tried it, you know, but go ahead, get your
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: get yourself in the kitchen. I don't know if we
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: put the right seasonings out for you. If we have it,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: it's okay because we could call cutting.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: We got some.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Chicken seas season were good. Okay. So take me back
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: to what was going on. Take me all the way back.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: I want to go broke, broke you. So take me
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: back to what was going on when you were eating tacos.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: So my mom and dad, you know, I was fortunate
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: to grow up in a house, two parent household, and
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: both my parents were from the South, so I want
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: my dad. My father was from Harris County, Georgia, and
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: my mom was from Texas Cana, Arkansas, even though they
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: say it's Texas, but I kind of reminded that it's Arkansas.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: But because of their background, we eat a lot of
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: different Southern food, and one of them was tacos.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: I mean it's not traditional La style tacos. It's more like.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: Ground turkey, ground chacking, ground everything, I think, because stretch.
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: Out a little longer and you just kind of eat
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: on that for probably a few days. And my dad, because.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: He's a good country boy, busted up the concrete in
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: the backyard and built out a garden so he wouldn't
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: make his own tomatoes and squash and cucumbers.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: I think we.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Grew watermelon at season and strawberries and you know, and.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: So that's where that's where it goes back to him.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Remind me of of a you know, my elementary or
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: childhood days of you know, eating tacos and it'll be
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: tacos one day, it'll be a burrito the next day,
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: but it'll be the same meat.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: I can respect that. Yeah, And you know, now that
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: I think about it, you're right, because ground turkey, you
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: could do tacos and spaghetti.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: You know. Yep, you can mix it up.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: You can mix it up.
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: It wasn't no waste. Let's just say that. And so
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: that's what it always remind me of.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: And my grandmother and my auntie's they were great, good cooks.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: And you know, and so it was just you know.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Who made the best burrito or you know, like my
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: auntie Debbie rest in peace, but she made the best.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: Chunky beef still tis there. I don't know how it
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: was made, but it was good.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: And what did they do for work?
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: So my father was a contractor. It was a contractor
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: more of a like a foreman superintendent.
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: He was the hands on.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Guy probably built a lot of the early shopping centers
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: in South LA. Did a lot of brick mason work,
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: so a lot of the walls and other concrete related
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: work in La.
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: My dad was part of. He wasn't just one trade.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: He knew all of the trades and so that inspired
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: me as a young boy when he told me I
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: was you know, we had to get up and go
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: to work when we were young. So it wasn't no
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: up and go outside and play.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: Not for me and my sister.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: We had to get up, clean the backyard, wash the dishes.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: And that's because he had a strong work ethic early
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: on when helping around, you know, things that need to
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: be repaired in the house. He figured out probably when
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: I was about four or five years old, that construction
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: wasn't gonna be for me, meaning the actual being a
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: construction worker wasn't gonna be for me. And so I'm
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: seizing this a little different, but just work with me here,
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: probably about a couple of days ago. It wasn't tacos though, okay,
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: So he would you know, instill in me that I
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: needed to use my brain to actually get a career
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: or whatnot. Because these hammers and nails is not gonna
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: work for you, And he was right. My little brother different,
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: you know, he grew up and became an electrician, you know,
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: and now owns his own electric electrician company in Las Vegas.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: And so that's in My mom. She did a lot
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: of different things, definitely running the household, but she also
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: was into insurance, and she worked at a lot of
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: different department stores. But always know her as being the
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: general manager of the house, if that makes sense. So
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: she ran the home, she took care of business. She
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: went out and work, but she always took care of business,
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: you know, because when you're working in construction.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: Before I may say global warming got into effect, it
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: used to be when I was young, we actually had
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: seasons in La You had your summer, you knew when
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: it was gonna rain. They actually used to sell rain
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: coats in the department stores. They don't know more.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: You gotta find it or go online.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: But it was like racks and racks of like rain
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: gear that you don't find as much today, you know.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: And so when it rained, my father didn't work, so
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: it was my mom that had to pick up the
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: slack whole season without working because they couldn't work in
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: the rain. Yeah, and so you know my mom would
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: be there to pick up the slack. Make sure you know,
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: when we were young, we didn't know no difference. I mean,
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: it was not like it wasn't no food on the table.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: She knew how to stretch things.
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: You know. It never was like lights didn't go off
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: of it.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Did they ever talk about did you ever hear them
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: argue about money or it was it was seamless.
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: Never never heard them arguing about money or anything like that.
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: It was seamless.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: We would you know, you just have to like they
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: were the old school managing the household budget. You know,
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: there were times you just didn't get certain things. But
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: we didn't never go without nothing, you know.
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: I mean I don't ever remember.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: I didn't really like to wear a lot of fancy
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: tennis shoes and clothes.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: Anyway.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: When I was in elementary, I used to tell my
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: mom just brought me some dress shoes, just like to
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: do that.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: You like to dressing slacks slacks? Did you see your
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: dad dressing like that?
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: Had? Yeah.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: I used to give speeches when I was a young kid,
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: so you know I would go on I called a
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: circuit tour to a lot of the black.
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: Churches in the neighborhood.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Oh you for real, for real?
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: And I used to give speeches inspiring other young people
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: at that time.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: And so to go to church you.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: Had to wear slacks, and you know, at least I think,
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: and I took it real serious in the second grade.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: So second grade through sixth grade, that was my thing.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Did you know then, what you kind of wanted to do.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: When I got to high school and I went to
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: school all in South LA by the way, you know,
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: I started wanting to be a school teacher, an elementary
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: school teacher, because when I was in elementary school, there
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: was only one black male teacher from kindergarten to sixth grade,
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: only see one maybe two male black teachers. And I
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: knew by high school what male teachers, how they influenced
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: positively young black men. And I just wanted to be
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: a teacher.
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: That was my thing.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: I was gonna figure, I'll go to cal State Domingus Hills.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: That's where a lot of the teachers went Ril Camino
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: to start, you know, So that's what I wanted to do.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: And then nineteen ninety two hit.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: But in nineteen ninety two.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: The uprising or what people will say, the riots, okay
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: of ninety two, and.
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: In my neighborhood.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: You know, I watched a lot of the buildings where
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: I used to run down the street and shop at
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: or you know, commercial corridors when we moved into the
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: neighborhood in nineteen seventy nine, burned it.
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: Thirty years later, we happen to have a project that
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: is about to open right there on the same corner
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: of Vermont and Manchester in South la which is pretty exciting.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: But back then, in nineteen ninety two, being in high school,
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: it changed me. I saw the disproportionate investment in resources
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: in our community as well as in young people. And
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: so from that moment, that's what I wanted to do.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: I wanted to work with young people. I wanted to
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: become an advocate for change. That's what I started wanting
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: to do because I couldn't believe our community was burning
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: and I couldn't believe what appeared to be at the
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: time people letting it burn.
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: And I'm not talking about the people that lived there.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: You're talking about like a government and police.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: Just the investment politics at the time. They're very different today.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: The undercurrent of racism. You know, I mean we were
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: called in the news media at the time thugs, you know, criminals,
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: you know, things of course that they don't do as
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: much today they hide it a little more, but then
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: they were pretty blatant and that's how they described us.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: And they said, oh, they burning their community. Why would
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: they burn their community? Well, people in that community at
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: the time didn't feel like those businesses were their businesses.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: They were mistreated a lot of times.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: I'm not making up excuses, no, okay, Well, actually it's
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: good to have that because of course that's a that's
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: an obvious question to ask, but that's a very yeah,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: that's an answer that nobody would think.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean people didn't feel like they had a
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: connection to those businesses, right. A lot of times people
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: were mistreated when they went in those businesses. You had
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: Natasha Harley that was unfortunately murdered and you know, her
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: killer was given probation. You know, this was before Rodney Key,
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: and so all of this build up was happening, and
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: people didn't feel like those businesses were reflections of them.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: And so that's why it wasn't felt as if people
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: were burning their own communities. Now, the unfortunate things is
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: there are a lot of Korean Americans, Koreans that lost
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: lifetimes of investments that they put in and that's absolutely,
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: you know, heart wrenching and it's terrible.
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: But the flip of the coin is that a lot
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: of folks didn't feel that way.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: But there was just some plaane on looting and you know,
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: just illegal activity as well.
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: And as a young man, I was flat dabbed.
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: In it right in it, not participating of course, but
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: in it because I was witnessing something that was going
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: to be with me for the rest of my life.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: And it actually changed your trajectory of what I wanted
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: to do as a career. And so that's when I
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: started working more with young people and looking at things
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: that I can.
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: Do more to support the community.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: I even started working with my Korean American and Asian
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: brothers and sisters as well, particularly groups like the Korean
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: Youth and Community Center KYCC, still doing good work today,
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: work with a lot of them doing some community healing work,
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: you know, bringing Black and Korean communities together. So part
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: of that solution to healing is what I wanted to
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: do as well. So I work with Korean youth, work
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: with Latino youth, A lot of young people that were
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: in the gangs, A lot of people who don't know
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: that Korean's Gang Bang Do.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: I would never know that. Yeah, I would have never
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: guessed it.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: And so you know, we had programs to address gang
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: violence with Koreans, Latinos and African Americans, you know, and so,
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: but it was nineteen ninety two that sparked something in
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: me that said I needed to do more for community.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: And from just working with you've spun off this whole
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: notion and ideal I had around would that young person
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: need a job, get well, that young person is gonna
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: need somewhere to live, that young person may want to
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: own a business one day. And so that's when the
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: economic development piece came along with my journey.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: But before we get to that part, take me back
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: to Okay, so you find out in nineteen ninety two
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: that now you have this sense of purpose is involved
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: around youth. What is the first job or the first
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: direction you take in like, what are those first conversations
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: with your parents looking like.
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: So, I mean with my mom and dad, they never
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: said you need to do this. I mean basically, you know,
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: black folks from the country. They want you to be
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: doing something positive. Get your education so you can get
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: a job, you know. But you know, curves happen in life,
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: and one of the curves that happened outside of nineteen
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: ninety two is that a few short years later, I
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: found out I was going to be a young father,
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: and so that changed.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Me a young How old are you like in your
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: early twenties at this point, a.
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: Fresh out of high school?
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: In high school, so I am now eighteen years old
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: about to be a father following the nineteen ninety to
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: two riots uprising.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: And and your parents weren't.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: Oh they was upset, Oh, no doubt, because that wasn't
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: the direction that they thought I was going in. They
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: thought I'm going to college, I'm going to do this thing.
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: I'm doing that, you know, was accepted to Domingus.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: Hills, and so they thought, hey, you're doing what you
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: said you wanted to do.
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: And now you didn't throw this into the mix.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: I did not, just so you know, did not see
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: this coming?
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: Oh you h yeah, I did not.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad, I said, rewind, did you catch me? Like,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: don't be skipping, don't forget to hit your flower, I'm
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: over here.
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I'm hungry.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: So I just want to make sure that you you
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: like it hard or or however.
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: I mean, I just don't want to because it's chicken.
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: I mean, you don't want to.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: You can't mess it up. But yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah,
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: that's the thing. You just want to make sure because
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: I ain't gonna do you like I do at home
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: and be tasting it while I'm cooking.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: Dad.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, okay, So yes, I was a teen dad.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: So you was a teen dad to a boy or
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: a girl to a girl?
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: A girl name me money?
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah I did not when I said I did
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: not know this plot twist. Okay, so you become a dad.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: What's the first job? Are you still living at home?
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: I got so still living at home.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: Because I never you know, so I'm still living at
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: home because I was supposed to live.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: On the dorms, living on the doors for a minute.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: But you know, I, you know, I needed to figure
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: out how it was going to earn money. I didn't
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: want to borrow money from my mom and dad and
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: didn't want to feel like I was taking advantage of them.
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: I wanted to get out there and work, you know,
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: and so I did, and I got odd jobs working.
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: You know, for this store or this group or you know.
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: At the time, because I'm still a youth, I qualified
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: for some of youth employment. So I did that, but
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: you know, of course that wasn't enough. And you know,
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: worked at Staples. A friend of mine at the time
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: that got me a job working with him. I did
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: very well there, thought maybe I can do some work there.
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: But I still was passionate about wanting to work in
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: the community and work with youth. And so this couple
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: are not couple, but folks came in to the store
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: and I helped them because I was real passionate about
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: everyone that comes here and you know need a computer.
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: Yea, So that was my goal.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: Everyone that comes in, they need to buy a computer.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: So I was I think I was a pretty good salesman.
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: Everyone didn't buy a computer, by the way, but they
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: went and looked at it. And so those two individuals,
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: they worked for a group called the Martin Luther King
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: Legacy Association, which was under the Southern Christian Leadership Conference SELC.
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: So part of the resources that came out of Washington,
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: d C.
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: To support South la under the Clinton administration, they were
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: able to form an organization, a youth organization called Youth
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: Empoment Project.
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: And so they told me, hey, well we may have
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: something for you. Because I was just telling.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: Them what I want to do, and they were like, huh,
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: you would be good at maybe maybe you come for interview.
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: I said, when can I come? They said, well, we
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: got time today. So that day I went in my
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: uniform my stables union and went to that interview and
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: then they set up for a second interview to meet
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: with the other staff, and after meeting with them, I
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: got the job and there went my career as far
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: as working with youth. I stayed with that organization, doing everything,
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: working with black and brown. That's when I started working
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: with Korean youth and Korean communities and Latino communities.
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: I started doing community gardens. I was doing everything.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: And did what was your initial intake job when you
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: first came on.
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: So I was the program assistant, so I would assist
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: the coordinator at the time, and we ran youth leadership
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: programs at the time, which.
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: I thought was very good.
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: It worked with a lot of young people that to me,
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: had every sense of being on track of going to college.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: But that wasn't a majority population in the community that
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: I found out about because I started.
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: Walking the community knocking on doors.
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: You know, you got a black boy walking on doors,
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: don't speak liquor Spanish, but talking to Spanish speaking people
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: about the things that we do in the community that
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: we provided because and that's when I learned that kids.
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: Were game banging. They wasn't in school.
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: And then I'm coming back to the organization, like we
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: don't have program Why don't we have programs to serve
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: these young people?
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: And then they had to be created. So I created them.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: Wow, because at the time, the funding was only for
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: that leadership program that that supported young people and it
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: was a good program that was on track of going
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: to college, and that was okay to me. That was okay,
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: that was a good program.
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: But if you.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: Want to change the needle or move the needle in
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: any community, you got to go work with the people
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: on the ground that's participated the things that are let's say,
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: calls in the disruption in the neighborhood.
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: And so so I chose.
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: To work with the black and the brown gang members
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: and create leadership programs for them.
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And that was under the MLK.
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: Yep Okay that was under Martin Luther King Association.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: And you were with this organization for how long?
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: I was at this organization for about four and a
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: half years. So when I left the organization, I was
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: the director. So I went from program assistant.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: Through all that went all the way up in four years.
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: That's great and four years so I became director at
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: the age of twenty three and.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: Then when do you when? Why do you leave?
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: So I left because the organization started changing, not necessarily SEOC,
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: but leadership shifted. There was more of a focus around
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: advocacy and things of that nature. It was less focus
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: on kind of the work I wanted to do. And
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: then I had an opportunity to do more economic development work.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: So that's when I went over to Dunbar Economic Development
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: Corporation on historic South Central Avenue.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: And then for people that don't understand what economic development
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: work means, can you break that down?
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: So economic development work to me is a combination or
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: community economic development work. So work that's driven by the
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: community to build business, to look at ways to channel
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: financial and other resources in the community. That helps with
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: home ownership, helps with business own ownership, helps with job
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: creation and create engines around the community where that confess
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: your best and so that's what I wanted to do,
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: as well as continue to do youth development work.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah, so you go to this new organization, I
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: would assume that you enter in at director or higher level.
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: I went in as the director of Community to Development.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: So that was a pretty big deal for me because
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: it allowed me to work with or alongside the director
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: of urban Development, which did a lot of the real
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: estate development work for the organization.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: And this is your twenty three, this is your pacing
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: very well for us, daddy.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and my daughter, I'm still raising her, you know,
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: dealing with a little bit of or a lot of
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: bit of baby mama drama.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: That you did you end up marrying your.
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: I did not. I did not.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: You know, guys did the co parenting thing.
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: We did the co parenting thing, We did the co
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: courting thing, lock of meaning lots of going to court
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: because I didn't want to just pay child support. Didn't
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: mind it. But I think, quite frankly, it was abused
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: on me because I wasn't dead, that wasn't taking care
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: of my daughter.
• 49:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was there.
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: It wasn't like I was the guy you had to
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: go find or things that I hate today where people say,
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: well I got to go watch my child.
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: How do you watch your child? Is your child, you're
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: going to be with your child? Well, I paid chilse
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: what I bought diapers.
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: The kid need diapers, I mean, so it was more
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: than that for me. You know, it wasn't just you know,
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: so I just felt like it was an unfair kind
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: of thing to me. But I understand so as a
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: young man you don't get it as much as you
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: would as an adult. I wouldn't probably deal with some
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: of the things that I dealt with then.
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: So we did our co parenting as you call it.
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: But she spent a lot of time with me, to
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: a point, probably too much, some people would say.
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: But I thought it was cool because.
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: I figured, you know, if I'm going to go on
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: the date, you want to go on a date with me,
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: then you got to go with me and my daughter.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: That I just became. And I still don't know how
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: to navigate that, I.
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: Said.
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: My navigation was quite frankly and giving shouts out to
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: my auntie, to my mom, to my sister. I had support,
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: you know, and I know that's tough because a lot
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: of folks don't have that support and I have to support.
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: So when I.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: Needed to go to work, I had someone that would
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: watch my daughter. If I wanted to go out for
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: the weekend, I had someone that would watch my daughter.
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: She was very good baby.
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: People used to call me to ask skin they watch her,
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: and so I had that support.
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: But I didn't want financial support.
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: I needed the moral and support needed to help me
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: do that.
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: And that's a big thing.
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: More. Oh yeah, no, I caregiver.
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: Oh man that they liked, oh she loved and it
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: was it was it was a win win.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: Got to make yourself one.
• 51:59
  Speaker 3: Okay, here do you I'm gonna get you out the
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: way on this one.
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: So you're a young guy moving in all the right directions.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: Uh huh, you're at You're at.
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: The dunbar economic development.
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: Economic development. I'm not trying to give them too much shine.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: So how long are you there? Before you? Before you?
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: I want to get closer to CR.
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: So I'm there about four and a half years.
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: The organization at the time was going through some financial
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: challenges and a lot of us voice our opinions, not
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: to the liking of the leadership at the time, and so.
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: A few of the key people was let go, including myself.
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: And so.
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: What happened was there was a vacuum in the community
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: because there wasn't a lot of groups providing those services
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: in the neighborhood for young people, right, So there was
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: a vacuum. So we left, and now you have, you know,
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: no services offered to young people.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: So when you left, the company didn't shut down, they
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: just stop providing the services.
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because we were gone.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: And how many people did they lose?
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: So they lost me and the director of urban development,
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: and then the director of youth development left as well.
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: So those are three key positions. Yeah, trying not to
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: do this the way I do it at home.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: So it looks very very pretty, by the.
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: Way, very impressed with So just forgive me.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: I'm very impressed. Look at this, guys.
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: So look at that.
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: So you know, we left, and a group of us,
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: about five of us because they end up leaving or
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: getting fired to left.
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: And you know, we started meeting right. I called it.
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: We went in the laboratory right away and said that
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: you know, we all could have gotten jobs. I wouldn't
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: say anywhere, but let's say we were sought after people. Yeah, yeah,
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: you know, because people saw our passion and what we
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: did for that organization in a very short time because
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: they were just known for doing kind of historic and
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: other development at the time, maybe some projects here and there,
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: but when we all got together, it turned into something
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: much more beautiful in the community. I think, working with
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: small businesses, doing home ownership stuff, looking at other real
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: estate possibilities, a rehabit of historic landmarks, and youth leadership development.
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: We took you to like two or three different countries.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: Oh, this is prior to you guys leaving, prior to us. Now,
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: you guys, so this is the So this is just
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: so everyone knows. This is the rumor mill. You know
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: when you hear little bits of people. This is the
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: part of your story that excited me the most for
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: any little bit of tidbits on the street that I heard.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: So now I can finally find out the truth, like
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: from the horse's mouth. So this is a very interesting place.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: So just to recap a group of you guys, some
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: of you guys got let oh some of you guys left.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: You guys instead of going, hey, let's pitch our jobs
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: to different places. That definitely desire us. We're gonna get
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: together and meet tell me about I know this is
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: where a CRCD starts to convert. So walk me through
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: the whole play on like everything's going down, including your
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: emotions at the time.
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: So you know, of course, we were all pissed off
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: because of the void that was in the neighborhood. Primarily
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: we were all thinking about the people really not ourselves
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: at the time. You know, I'm a young man at
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: this time, I'm probably twenty six, twenty seven, and so
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: we're pissed and we you know, the truth is, we
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: have I thought about something like this happening because of
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: the way that the organization was moving, and you know,
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: things that were happening, iris showing up to the office,
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: things like that that you normally don't see. And we
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: got together at one of the co founders, Miami Sodo's house.
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: She's lived in City Terrace.
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: At the time, which is near cal State Los Angeles.
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: Lived in this hill where you got to climb up
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: like eighty steps or it felt like two hundred, and
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: we would go there every day after we were let
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: go and talk about our vision for the community, sort
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: of like a reimagining a group that popped up in
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: the community. What would it be? We went through, we
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: went through what would it be, what should it be?
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: What should it be doing?
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: Keep men with the co founder of the comedy that
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: Let you Guys Go.
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: That's an interesting Yes, it was a co founder. We
• 56:54
  Speaker 3: all worked at Dunbar, you know, all of us.
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: But did she still work there?
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: Nobody also got let Go and she was the one
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: that was running the youth programming at the time, and
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: so she opened up her home, her living room. When
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: we met at her dining room table circle table, and
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: we were meeting around there with some butcher paper and
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: markers every day talking about or reimagining what would an
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: organization be.
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: And we talked about that we should be providing jobs
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: or workforce development.
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: We talked about economic development, working with small businesses, real
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: estate development, doing affordable housing.
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: We wanted to do social entrepreneurship.
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: So that's when we put on their social enterprise because
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: before I left Dumbar, I was trying to convince them
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: to do social enterprise.
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: Work never got off the ground. And we wanted to
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: do education.
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: We wanted to figure out a way to have a
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: school that focused on the art to serve young people,
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: and we came up with different names, but what we
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: landed with was Coalition for a Responsible Community Development.
• 58:10
  Speaker 3: And the story goes, we used to go to a bar.
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: Called four ten Boards in downtown Los Angeles on a
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: street called Boyd and the address was fourteen, So creatively,
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: I guess they created four ten Boyd and we would
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: meet there.
• 58:26
  Speaker 3: After we left her house and met up.
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: With other people that necessarily didn't work at the Dumbar
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: but used to be founders of the Dunbar, bankers of
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: the Dumbar.
• 58:36
  Speaker 3: That kind of stuff.
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: But they liked us and they loved this concept, like,
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: you guys are gonna do what? So we literally took
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: a napkin and it was a designer there, and we said, well,
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: we wanted to be called like Callition four, but we
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: have to have responsible in there.
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: And I love that part.
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it has to be responsible and it
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: has to be community in it.
• 59:01
  Speaker 3: And then that's when cr City was birth.
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: On that napkin the name and then the designer at
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: the time, her name was Selda Harris.
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: She designed our logo right on napkin. She said, what
• 59:15
  Speaker 3: do you want?
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: I said, it should be like some colors and some
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: boxes or something like that. That's all I got and
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: the group agreed, and that's when she came up with
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: our logo.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: So there's a group, how do you become the lead
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: of the group.
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: So I didn't want they thought I should be the
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: executive director.
• 59:33
  Speaker 3: Mind you, we had nothing, no budget, no nothing.
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: And I said, well, I'll do it, but you guys
• 59:39
  Speaker 2: got to vote for it to happen, so it can
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: be your official first action.
• 59:44
  Speaker 3: And if you don't want it, that's fine. I play
• 59:47
  Speaker 3: my part. And they all voted and said, oh, you're
• 59:51
  Speaker 3: doing it.
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: And that's how I became the executive director twenty years ago.
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: Wow yeah wow. And then the funders that you would
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: meet up with ended up funding and helping getting it
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: off the ground.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 3: Helping us.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: There was a contract that Dunbar was running at the time,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: or you know called and you may be familiar with
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: this graffiti removal.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: Yes, and so they still do graffiti removal, we do, yeah,
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: well you guys do.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: Un No, it went out of business and so we
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: because they were having challenges running that contract, we had
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: an opportunity and was asked, do we want to take
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: on the contract and of course I'm like, yeah, we
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: can do that.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 3: The High Eyes.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: Closed had a good brother named Bruce Tito who was
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: running the Los Angeles Conservation Corps at the time, that said,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: we'll step up. If you guys get the contract, we'll
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: manage it for you while you get set up.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 3: That was a wonderful thing. Council Warman jam Perry at
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: the time. You know.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: At council Woman jam Perry at the time. Oh, I'm
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: trying to clean up. So one of the things, sorry,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: I sweat over when I'm cooking. Yeah, but also one
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: of the things I do when i'm cooking is I
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: like to clean up.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: I apologize. So council Woman jam Parry was also instrumental.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: So Bruce, I told council Woman Jampari were instrumental and
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: cr CD getting started.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: If it wasn't for them.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: Providing political support and organizational support and just being a cheerleader.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 3: For us, it wouldn't have happened.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: So we were a brand new group with a four
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars contract.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 3: Wow, to start.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: And what was it in your first project was the graffiti.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: Remove was graffiti abatement. We wasn't doing real estate. We
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: wasn't doing anything. Everything started at cr CD because of
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: graffiti removal.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: And at this point, are you when you take on
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: these contracts, are you taking a pay cut too?
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Of course.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: And are your parents still around? Are they saying he's
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: like my first crash.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 3: Yep, yep, So took a pay cut. That was okay.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: At the time, I was living on my own take
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: care of my daughter. It was enough to help me
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: take care of my folks.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 3: And you know, that was enough for me. You know.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: Then later in life I was able to move in
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: with someone and you know, and you know that's with
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: the story.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 3: We started our youth program, and we started our twenty
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 3: years ago, twenty years ago, twenty years ago.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: Have you guys celebrated your twenty year anniversary.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 3: We'll be celebrating it next year. So they're working on
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 3: it this year.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: I want to call it. I'm gonna call them Ason.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: You gotta do what you shoo. Yeah, that's a huge accomplishment.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: Now do you ever look back and just like, oh, snap.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: Up sometime every day like I can't believe that we
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: was able to pull it off because it wasn't nothing small.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 3: And I asked a couple of people. I said, you
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: think we can do that today? And the answer is
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 3: always like no, no.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: No way, because the right the stars have to align
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: themselves right, the right people had to be there, the
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: right supporters needed to be there, the right circumstances need
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: to be there. So, like with any entrepreneur, it's like,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: here's the moment where I got to jump.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 3: I got to jump off.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: This bridge and hope that that blue thing is water,
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: you know, And that's what we did.
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 3: It was just everything was at the right time.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: And then, you know, I was twenty seven years old,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: you know at the time when we started, and you know,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 2: I'm thinking, okay, from twenty seven year old in today's climate,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: would we get that same kind of support.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 3: Probably not.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: Why do you think that? So what's different between then
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: and now?
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 2: I think the circumstances then technology then, the way that
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: people access services then is very different now. Social media,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: I think, could have come in and created all types
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: of other narratives. We were able to create our own
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: narrative because there was no social media then, so we
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: were able to go to meetings, we were able to
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 2: debunk any lies that were told about us from our
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: previous employer. We were able to do that face to
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: face phone call. A phone call wasn't no.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 3: Social media, we think.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: I think if social media was around, people could have
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: created a false narrative.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 3: Like a press release exactly exactly. And I don't think
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 3: in today's time that would have helped us. It would
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 3: make this thing. I'm trying to be fancy here.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: I'm busy. These tacos look good. Turn off the stoves,
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: sit down. You done told your whole life.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: Story almost almost hopefully bore you, far from boring.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, so we are back dishes plated. This looks like
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: the best taco I've ever had in l A.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 3: Well, we shall see, we shall see.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, put the sauces on it. Do you need any
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: extra sauces?
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 3: No?
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, I like this from the cheese. Is this the
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: right size taco?
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 3: Show a little smaller? I don't know.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: I actually do the shopping for the show.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 3: It works, people like them smaller. Okay, yeah, I ain't
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 3: did it. That's up.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: I'm good. The first second you're gonna grill the onions,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: but they're perfect.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 3: Just they are. Okay, I'm gonna.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: Take your second bite.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 3: Guys, go for it.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: M take up.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 3: Very good.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: Okay for all your all listeners. Not only gonna you
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: build an empire, hign cook it broke this.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 3: I'm glad you liked you, budget.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: Friendly, delicious, You added salsa, I'm gonna add more.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: Very good. Now.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: Do you also think that a part of why you
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: possibly couldn't do what you did today is because I
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: think and I have this opinion, but I'm curious to
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: see what you say. You were twenty seven when you
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: did a lot of these things, and sometimes I feel
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: like life, I don't know if you want some of this.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: Life beats you up along the way where you stop
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: to doubt things. Do you think that you, being young,
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: kind of had that knowing what you know now? Do
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: you think that if you knew what you knew now,
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: you would have had the gun hole to do what
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: you did?
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 3: Not?
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: No one probably helped kind of motivate it more. You know,
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: the unknown was exciting to me, The possibility was exciting
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: to me. So not knowing actually actually helped, and just
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: being open to learning and being, you know, having good
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 2: mentors that was willing to mentor me.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 3: They will say they did mentor me, but they did.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: They opened up their offices they opened up their back offices,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: and as much as I wanted to learn, they wanted
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 2: to teach and expose me. Because I didn't want to
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 2: be told. I wanted to be showed. And so in
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: running any nonprofit, nonprofit is really the misnomers that it
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: was nonprofit or selling cookies. You're doing the good for
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: the community, and then everything around you somehow is discounting
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: and that's absolutely false. A nonprofit is nothing but a
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: tax code five oh one C three. You still have
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: to operate and maintain a business. If you don't pay
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: your taxes, Uncle Sam will show up to your business,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: yeah and shut you down if you don't. And so
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 2: everything that any for profit has to do, a nonprofit
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: has to do, but even more because we have to
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 2: report on every dollar that we receive, public and non public,
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: and a lot of for profits don't. And so we
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 2: have to go through that rigor of understanding that we're
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: a business. And so I had mentors to show me
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: the business side, the appropriate business side of running a nonprofit.
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 2: Why you want to be mission oriented. So I started
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: off with the pursuit of approaching this as an entrepreneur,
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: not as someone that is a social service worker or
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: anything like that. My drive in my heart was community,
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: young people making change, making the difference. But as far
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 2: as building an organization, it was very much from an
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: entrepreneurial landscape.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: Now, some of the partners that you partner or with
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: are impressive in their own right Prime store who from today?
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: Were there ever any partners that you partnered with where
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: you were like, please gotta let this happen, and oh
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: my god, I can't believe they did this.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: You know, I think one of the when you say that,
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: I go to Little Tokyo Service Center, which is based
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: in Little Tokyo primarily focused around supporting and helping the
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: Agent Pacific Island their community. But they were my boys
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 2: and my girls, my sisters and brothers. We used to
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: hang out at the same bar.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 3: This bar come up.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 2: A lot by the way, four ten boys. It's not
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 2: there in the fourteen.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 3: Boy but but the bar is there. Yeah, asking detail
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 3: is something like that.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna look it up.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's from It's still there, but it's not called
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: fourteen Boyds. So that was there after work hangout because
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 2: they was right around the corner and it was our
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: after work hangout, and so we built this relationship in
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: bond and so when CRCD was formed and wanted to
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: get into real estate, a lot of doors were shut.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 2: You know, went to a lot of African American partners
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 2: and they didn't necessarily want to make that step at
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 2: the time, but Little Tokyo did. And what I mean
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 2: by step that means they're putting their money on the line,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 2: their reputations online, their balance sheet on the line, all
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 2: of that on the line, and they're signing for you
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 2: as a guaranteur for your real estate deal. And these
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: were Asian Japanese brothers and sisters that said, you know
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 2: what I like and support your mission.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 3: It aligns with what we want to do. Let's do it.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 3: And we did.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 2: First partnership, Oh my first partnership that turned into many
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: other projects since you know, that ten unit project that
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: they decided to help us invest in and help us
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: develop and teach us how to be good developers has
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 2: manifested into over sixteen hundred units now today and we've
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 2: done three three now doing another one now, so four
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: projects with Little Tokyo Service Center since.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: And you went home that day after that partnership like,
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: were you like, oh, I.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 3: Was so excited.
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 2: I mean, just like what you said, like holy shit,
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 2: like this is real, this is like because I knew
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: what that would do for the organization, But I think
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: it was more real to me for this community to
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 2: believe in me because all I had was a vision
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 2: and passion that we didn't have any resources, we didn't
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 2: have any guaranteurs.
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was just you guys have.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 2: We had good credibility, you know, and we had good
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 2: relationship and we had good political relationships that I think
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 2: they felt could be beneficial to them as well. But
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 2: they but still when when paying his paper, they took
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 2: a leap of faith. And that leap of faiths has
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 2: helped us to be where we are today. So I
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: owe a lot of credit and give a lot of
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: props to my brothers and sisters over at Little Tokyo
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: Service Center.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: Shout out to them because without that, they were your
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: first partner.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: Now, I started my first business when I was twenty one,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: and I remember I got an investor. He invested sixteen
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars to a twenty one year old that it
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: took me a whole year to make like sixteen thousand
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: dollars to get it and seeing in one check. It
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: was like getting like an equivalent of getting you had
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: to me a million dollar check for something I believe
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: in when they signed that deal or I'm going to
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: take it back to me. When I got that check,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh my goodness, what did I do?
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: Why would this person believe in me? Oh my god,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: I don't want to lose this person money. Now, all
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, it becomes real, like did I am
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: I a fake? Am I a fraud? Am I going
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: to be able to do? All these crazy emotions hit
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: home when you're hearing I hear you say they guarantee,
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: they signed a check. Were any of those emotions of
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: doubt creeping in at all? Like, oh my god, this
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: is no doubt.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 2: It just was a It was more motivation to what
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 2: you said around. Now you have an added responsibility because
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 2: you're now responsible for their relationship, for their credibility, for
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: their guarantees, and for the money that they're putting into
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 2: this project, because these projects.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 3: Are not cheap.
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 2: It was a ten unit, you know, building, but it's
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 2: it was still like ten million dollars.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 3: Oh my god. Yeah.
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: So every day I would you know, when the staff
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: and like I said, it's we have nothing more valuable
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 2: than people's faith in people's trust. If that moves, this
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: organization doesn't exist because of those two things that motivated
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 2: me to do that more it was almost like I
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 2: became a protector of that, like we were not going
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: to do anything to put them in a bad situation
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 2: no matter what.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: So your your integrity at the end of the day
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: is the staple of the organizer. That's that integrity there, absolutely, yeah,
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: because I would have been on the phone like, oh,
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: what did I get it? If someone hands me any
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: level of responsibility, I go into a deep dive of
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: can I complete whatever I said? I can't complete? You know,
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: But that's that's that's cool to hear that you you
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: knew that. The strength of it was the faith in
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: the trust of the.
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 3: Relationship, the faith in the trust.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: And I think the motive aiding factor goes back to
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 2: my parents, particularly my mom. She's a go get her,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 2: as a country will say, a whipper snapper, and she
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 2: doesn't you know turn you know, everything is not no.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 4: No means maybe or not right now or not right now,
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 4: maybe later, maybe later, Yeah, but it's never no.
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 2: And I think that motivating fact yeah, and she's like
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 2: that to the day. It really motivated me because I
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 2: was excited to have the partnership. And you know how
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 2: you you know, in an entrepreneurial facing place, you know,
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 2: you get told a lot no, A lot of people
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 2: tell you no or not right now or maybe, and
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 2: it drags and drags and drags, and then you get
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 2: to a point where somebody says yes, and you don't
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 2: want to let that yes go and you want that
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 2: yes to continue to turn into yeses and yeses and yeses,
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 2: and and that's what happened because they believed in what
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 2: we did.
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: Now, now trying to get into your business kool aid.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: But you have the non profit side, yes, then you
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: have the for profit side. Can you explain when the
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: for profit side came in and why you felt the
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: need to add the for profit c RCD Enterprises side.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 3: So the founders five of us.
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, there's five founders, five founders.
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 3: So is myself knowing me so to?
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: I was going to ask about her. She's still here.
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: Yep, she's not with c r c D, but she's
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 2: still doing good work in the community. You go or
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 2: tease Fernando Miranda, I have a crush on him, and
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: roof Tie I'll let him.
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: Whenever he would come around him, I would look over
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: that skept seeker just so you know. I how long
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: do you think you guys would have never suspected it?
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 2: Huh oh, well, you know he has charming ways with them,
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 2: but very very cool.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: Tax someone showed up.
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 3: He definitely helps us to close some deals.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: Listen, yeah, you know personality. Yeah, so he's a founder.
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 2: He's a founder. Hugo ortis an ami solo myself and
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: roof Teago Tea so roof.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 3: Tig was co founder, and roof Tiak was actually.
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 2: My former fiance and she passed at the early age
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 2: of forty six. And she was one of the original
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 2: funders or financers of our projects because she worked for
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: a group called Corporation for Support of Housing and she
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 2: ushered in financing projects for young people, for affordable housing projects.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 2: And she was the you know, pretty much the captain
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: or pushing groups like ours and others that she's not
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 2: financing you if they're not archite, actually pleasing, if they
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 2: don't have the same amenities that you and I would like.
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 2: So our buildings have air conditions because some people feel
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: like people don't need air condition they need fans, they
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 2: need to have community space, they need good lighting, you know,
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 2: it needs to be pleasing to the eye.
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 3: They need walkable space. So all of these things was
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 3: the priority.
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 2: But she was in a position of leadership where we
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 2: were able to access grants and acquisition financing to support
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 2: our projects. And she went on to help finance a
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 2: lot of projects for Little Tokyo Service Center and many
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 2: other groups in Los Angeles that supported housing people that
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 2: were un housed.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, now, and that's what.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: That's my roothplace, correct, Okay, Now I got to get
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: into this part. So she was, Yes, she sounds like
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: an incredible person. She played a huge in the community,
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: and her vision of making sure the playing field was
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: fair and comfortable is really beautiful. With that being said,
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: she was your fiance while your company is growing, how
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: did you deal with the grief of her. This sounds
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: like an early passing.
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 2: It was an early pass So this year will be
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 2: fifteen years or nearly sixteen years ago, and so it
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 2: was the early passing into the life cycle of CRCD.
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're still young at this point.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 3: I'm still young.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: So this is five years in so you're probably thirty two.
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 2: I'm thirty two, a third round thirty two, thirty three.
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know.
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: Shed than how are you? It was unsuspected?
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 2: It was it was unsuspected because she was diagnosed with cancer.
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 3: She had been fighting it for a while. So when
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 3: she got war.
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 2: Ill, that's when it became unexpected because I just never
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 2: thought that it would happen. I never, you know, live
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 2: with or had a family member, and definitely not live
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 2: with someone that you know, had that terrible disease. And
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 2: so for me, it was highly unexpected and it was
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 2: like bam, you know, how did.
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: You deal with the grief? At the same time, like
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: how did you not trying to get in there? But
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: how do you get to that next milestone? Does your
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: partners say fall back? Do you take a break? I
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: don't know how.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 2: How So for me again, you know, another shift in
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 2: my life. I had family support, and then I had
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 2: boards support, other community partners support, and of course people
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 2: thought I would fall back and just take a break.
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 2: You know, I think I took like two weeks off
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 2: and I got right in and just started working. The
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 2: best thing that worked for me was to work and
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 2: continue what she and I helped to start, and there
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 2: were a lot of things that she wanted to see
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 2: continue to happen, and so there was no one else
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 2: that was going to be able to do that but me.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 2: One of them was the creation of CRCD Enterprises. That
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 2: was a big piece of what she wanted to see happened,
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 2: because to sustain an organization or to do be as
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 2: creative as possible, you needed to have a social enterprise,
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 2: an entity that had the flexibility outside of a nonprofit
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 2: kind of structure because you're restricted by the brands that
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 2: you have, or you're restricted by any funders priorities. But
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 2: as a business, you can not necessarily do what you want,
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 2: but you can.
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 3: Prioritize what's needed for the community.
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 2: And so creating CRCD Enterprises and her being able to
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 2: see us obtain our contractor's license was the pathway that
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 2: she supported particularly.
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: Able to see it. So their motivation was really to
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: fulfill that that dream. So it was that's a that's
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: a beautiful, beautiful story. So when you're dealing with a nonprofit,
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: is it that the need of the social enterprises was?
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: When you're dealing with the nonprofit, you have more restricted
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: dollars than dollars than unrestricted unrestricted.
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 2: You know a lot of nonprofits, you know, we fight
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 2: hard to obtain dollars that are unrestricted, whereas with the
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 2: social enterprise, we're able to generate and come through fee
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 2: for service contracts that are not like construction, that are
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 2: not restricted. I mean, we have to deliver, but they're
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 2: not restricted. When the income passes over as profit and overhead,
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 2: we're able to use those dollars.
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 3: In more flexible ways.
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 2: We're able to keep programs open on the lights on,
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 2: if you may say, when they're funding restrictions that would
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 2: have prohibited.
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 3: Us from doing that.
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 2: So a lot of the construction training programs like MC three,
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: we now have a wonderful partnership with LA County to
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 2: do lead remediation. We call it the Letterbatement program. There's
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 2: an excellent program. Both programs are excellent because they're pathways
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 2: into the painters union, pathways into the labor and local
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 2: local LAOC you know and Local three hundred and with Latderbatemen,
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 2: and a lot of these pathways, folks are prevailing wages.
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: And that's that was gonna be my next question. A
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: lot of the trades that I see you training these
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: jobs when people exit the program, they're not minimum wage jobs.
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: These are what would you say the average like.
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 2: So for US, if we have for letterbatement, we'll start
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 2: with that program.
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 3: When they're doing lad remediation in.
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 2: The training program, which is roughly about seven hundred to
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 2: twelve hundred hours of training. So when they leave, they
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 2: leave US as an APPRINT level two or three, which
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 2: is a big deal on your paycheck. So while they're
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 2: in the program, they're earning anywhere between thirty and fifty.
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 3: Dollars an hour.
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: That's great, you know, with benefits, with benef with benefits, wow.
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 2: And that's while in the training. So when they graduate
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 2: from US and they move on to the Painters Union
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 2: and now they're at apprintice level three, let's say, you know,
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 2: they're at fifty five bucks an hour and above when
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 2: they're working on a prevailing wage project.
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 2: And most of the most, if not all, of the
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 2: affordable housing projects that are funded by state bond money
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 2: has a project labor agreement or community agreement in place
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 2: where contractors have to pay those wages.
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 3: Wow. Yeah, that's wow.
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: Impressive, very impressive. And then my last question I have
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: in my head is does CRCD Enterprises end up doing,
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: if not all, majority of the build development projects for
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: you that so.
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 2: That's the goal, that's always been the goal, that we're
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 2: the go to general contractor for the development team. We're
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 2: you know, a little ways away from doing a ground
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 2: up project of that size because yeah, and because you
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 2: have to get bonding and you know you and bonding
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 2: requires everything, including your kids and you know, I mean
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 2: they go real deep in.
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 3: It's just not a credit score.
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 2: They want to know everything and they want even more guarantees.
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 2: And so we're getting to where we can bond to
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 2: build a twenty five thirty million dollars construction project.
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 3: We're doing a lot of rehab now.
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 2: We do come in as a sub to do a
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 2: lot of the interior exterior decorative painting or professional painting.
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 2: So our guys and girls are earning prevailing wages. But
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 2: we're close to doing ground up. We are general contractors
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 2: on the last two projects that they're doing. They're all
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 2: you know, rehab projects right now, and so you know,
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 2: the team.
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 3: Is moving forward. It's a it's a slow grind.
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, our team wants to get at it now,
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 2: but that's not quite how it works and how it's
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 2: set up.
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: I love it. I love it all. So where can
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: people find out more information? Did we cover everything or
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: is there a future projects or anything we need to
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: know about.
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 3: I mean there's just ongoing on going construction projects.
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, we do have our Business Source Center that's
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 2: contracted with the City of Los Angeles, whereas working with
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 2: businesses to get them tapped into resources and entrepreneurs helping
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 2: other entrepreneurs. I will say, what's new is that we
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 2: created the CRCD Community Loan Fund where we will become
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 2: a lender in the community separate entity of course for
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 2: a proper so that we can work with banks and
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 2: larger community development financial institutions to get money into the
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 2: hands of entrepreneurs and small businesses to help them thrive.
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 2: And so that's new on the horizon that we're working on.
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 2: But we have it set up. We are down licensed,
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 2: went to State of California to do lending and we
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 2: did receive a technical assistance grant, went to Treasury Department
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 2: to get our Community Development Financial Institution certification.
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 3: Going that's a lot. That's a lot.
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: So where can everybody keep up with Coalition for Responsible
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: Community Development?
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 3: So One easy way is our website. It's kind of
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 3: loan is www dot coalition are.
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 2: Its www dot Coalition RCD dot org. And that's the
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 2: same social media handle for Instagram and.
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 3: Meta and all that Coalition r c D. You can see,
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 3: I don't use it that much.
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And then for the enterprises side, where would they
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: find out more?
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 2: So more information for the mprise side is www dot
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 2: c r c.
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 3: D, E n T dot com dot com.
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 2: And for partners you have cr W www dot c
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 2: r c D Partners dot com.
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, Now, if someone wants to go to one of
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: the sites their links to link them all together to
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: some you'll.
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 2: Still be able to get to each of the sites,
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 2: but you can learn more about each of those companies
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 2: and who's leading those companies and so forth.
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, cool, Well, thank you so much for feeding me.
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: I'm going to finish the mail the second we rep
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: and thank you so much for your time. I really
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: appreciate hearing your story from the horse's mouth directly. No
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: more rumors on how and when. Thank you so much
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: for your time. We really are thankful for what you
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: do for the community and for are you.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 3: Thank you very much for having me.
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in. Peace Out for more. Eating while
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: Broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, Visit the iHeartRadio app,
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.