Jobs, Entrepreneurship, and Fair Housing
So that our church may more fully grow into the needs in our community
Hey Church family,
I hope this email finds you doing well!
I wanted to highlight a change to these emails (and how we as a church think about our community work going forward). We are reworking our community page to more accurately reflect the full scope of work our church is doing in the community on three levels: Helping Individuals, Building Institutions, and Changing Systems:
Helping Individuals
Mutual Aid Work
As you know, during COVID, our church spearheaded a mutual aid effort to help those who were economically in distress with the resources that we have as a church. We know that while many aspects of our lives have gone back to normal, there are still many ways folks in our midst are still hurting from the impacts of COVID and other crises.
If you are in need or know someone in our church who is in need, please do not hesitate to reach out. Also, please do not hesitate to reach out if you have resources (a car, technology, financial resources) you can share with those in need!
Job Openings
We also wanted to take a moment to highlight some job opportunities within our church network that may be of interest to folks in our church. To see the complete list and details, check out this google document:
Azusa Pacific University - Azusa - Gift Records Coordinator
Making Housing Happen - Pasadena - Administrative Assistant
Chick Fil A - Monterey Park - Multiple Positions
If you have any questions, feel free to get in contact with me. In addition, if you know of any additional job opportunities (or people looking for work), also do not hesitate to reach out!
Building Institutions
One of the redemptive things we have seen in the wake of COVID is that we have heard many people in our church and community share a renewed vision and ideas for initiatives they can start in the community: restaurants, side hustles, programs for kids, and many more.
In response to these new ideas and visions, we are excited to re-launch a program individuals in our church helped start two years ago: Elevate Equity. Elevate Equity exists to empower non-traditional entrepreneurs to design successful and sustainable ventures that can impact our city for good.
If you currently have a small business, a non-profit program, or any idea, we want to listen to you and what resources you need to turn that idea into a reality. So we are putting together a focus group that will meet after church to give us a chance to listen to you and make sure we can best design an approach that will serve you well!
Changing Systems
One of the focuses of past emails has been looking for opportunities to advocate for policies that can help reduce the housing crisis's pressure on our neighborhood and neighbors. One of the specific ways to do that is the City of LA’s housing element, a document designed to help the City plan for the necessary building of housing that needs to happen over the next decade. If you missed it, you can go back here to read an overview and here for a little more context.
Compared to many cities in California, Los Angeles has done a relatively good job in taking its housing element seriously and seriously thinking through how to plan to make housing more affordable. That said, the plan could go farther, specifically to ensure that the most exclusive and wealthy areas of the city are also building new housing. As some housing advocates put it:
However, it’s important to note that the rezoning plan does little to encourage housing growth in many of the Westside’s most affluent and supply-constrained neighborhoods, like Sherman Oaks, Brentwood, Westwood, Venice, and Westchester. Under the current plan, these neighborhoods would only accommodate 7% of the citywide rezoning plan. This is unfair and illogical, especially given that these areas have extremely high housing costs, widespread single-family zoning, and near-zero housing growth.
The plan has a final vote today before the LA City Council at 3pm meaning there is still time to push for a more robust program. So can you please take a moment and send an email to LA City Council and planning department, arguing that affluent westside neighborhoods need to build their fair share of housing?
Thanks, everyone; I hope to have more for you soon!