A Los Angeles-based community development nonprofit is expanding its footprint in the San Fernando Valley. New Economics for Women received a $2 million grant from Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel to contribute to a mixed-use development with affordable housing units above a commercial ground floor that will house the organization’s Women’s Business Center.
The grant, awarded in a ceremony at NEW’s Canoga Park FamilySource Center, will expand program services on entrepreneurship and further fund affordable units built specifically for Los Angeles Unified School District teachers.
NEW, the first Latina-operated community economic development nonprofit in the U.S., began moving in on Reseda this spring. The organization received a $5.5 million property-acquisition loan from the Local Initiatives Support Corp., which outlines a mixed-use space with 60 housing units above a commercial ground floor.
The corporation extended the long-term loan and allowed for a lower loan-to-value ratio, which means the nonprofit paid less up front for the mortgage to maintain liquidity for the current predevelopment phase.
According to Nicole Williams, the executive director of Local Initiatives Support Corporation LA, the two entities have worked together for more than 30 years, but this marks a shift in strategy north of Los Angeles.
“I am one who resides in the Valley, so I understand how important that area is to our economic develop work, which tends to include South L.A., East L.A.,” Williams said. “So I love that we’ve picked this up.”
NEW has become a significant affordable-housing developer in Los Angeles, with 13 apartment buildings spanning the San Fernando Valley down to San Pedro in its portfolio and four others in development.
The Reseda development will be on 303 Loma Drive, just west of NEW’s Tierra del Sol Apartments in Canoga Park. There was a unique caveat to the new development: NEW had to nullify a real estate deed from the 1920s forbidding the property’s sale to any person of African, Chinese, Japanese or Mexican descent.
The organization hopes this 4,000-square-foot property will spur economic mobility, particularly for the Latina population, through bilingual programs on small business and networking events.
On the affordable-housing front, the focus on teachers comes after Los Angeles Unified School District created three property developments over the last decade with preference for school employees earning no more than 60% of the area median income.The school board in 2021 approved a plan to study how to create more housing but has yet to announce new plans.
It has been difficult for teachers to afford housing in the area, even after the district and teachers reached an agreement for a 21% wage increase this spring.
NEW opened a charter school with the public school district in 2005, located adjacent to the Tierra Del Sol property and the FamilySource Center in Canoga Park.
As of 2021, the organization had $39.3 million assets under management, with more than $6.8 million in contributions.