Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors
Our immediate objective is to fund the full Preservation of a “Batch” of 10 properties – treating the “Deal” as a Systems Event - with a goal to demonstrate what’s possible today while catalyzing shifts in the enabling environment to make future deals easier.
Capital Absorption Framework
Monthly Updates
Shared Priorities
RLA SCIA Cohort Convening (March 19 & 20) - The Cohort came together in-person for two days of deep working sessions, hosting in partnership with the Center for Community Investment (CCI). We refined our shared priority to read:
“We believe everyone should have access to affordable, secure, healthy housing. Through Retrofit LA, we seek to Preserve LA’s existing affordable housing stock while protecting affordability, controlling utility expenses, reducing GHGs, improving habitability, enhancing the health and well-being of LA’s most vulnerable communities, and ensuring the stability of the local affordable housing industry itself. To do so, we will retrofit 1,000 units across East LA, South LA, and Little Tokyo, strengthen organizational capacity, resident engagement, and share the data we generate to influence the enabling environment."
Community Education & Outreach - Kicked off implementation of the TECH Clean California grant, launching heat pump technology education across Boyle Heights, Little Tokyo, and South LA, including training for Esperanza's Promotoras to incorporate decarbonization into their community health engagement work
Fostering Relationships – Broadened and deepened relationships with industry leaders, including Enterprise Community Partners, the Milken Institute, SCANPH, UCLA Ziman Center’s Housing as Healthcare Initiative, and the ULI Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate
Pipeline
Crafting the Deal - Advanced financial modeling of the initial 10-property batch and began mapping out funding pathways based on ULA Awards, upcoming LACAHSA applications, and potential LITHC applications
Building Shared Infrastructure – Finalized build-out of the Project Intake Planning & Execution (PIPE) Tool to manage our project pipeline and support funder / lender engagement
Benchmarking & Impact Measurement - Implemented Measurabl impact measurement platform to build the data layer needed for funder engagement and enabling environment work
Enabling Environment
Policy Advocacy - The Cohort aligned around a focused near-term advocacy agenda, and began building its strategy
Health Co-Benefits – Advanced work with Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and National Lab of the Rockies (formerly NREL) to translate data on thermal comfort and indoor air quality co-benefits into investable metrics that enable capital formation & deployment
Launched Research Collaboration with National Lab of the Rockies -"Enabling Catalytic Investments At The Intersection Of Housing And Health"
The system is working as designed – and it’s not delivering the results we want. It’s nobody’s fault – but the responsibility falls to all of us to change it.
