A Community of Friends Newsletter August 2015

IN THIS ISSUE: Tenant Success
Story • Cedar Springs • Meet the Board • Call for Volunteers • HOME Fund Crisis • Gala Wrap Up
Changing The Trajectory
By Jasmine Roman Throughout my life, I have always been in motion – from place to place, from apartment to apartment, from shelter to shelter, to finally a decent home where I currently live. In order for me to survive, I had to get used to letting go of the past and adapting to the “now.”
The situation was all the more challenging because my mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was suffering from it. That explains why we didn’t understand her erratic behavior. Because of this, my brothers and I grew up raising ourselves. My mother was never there to guide us, to tell us right from wrong. It was hard for me because I felt like a lost duckling who was neglected by her. However, I know deep down that she did the best she could do for us. This is why everything I had to endure — all the hardships – makes me want to go to college. I want to be the unique one in my family. I want to break that “norm” that college isn’t traditional in my family. Among my older siblings, I will be the first one to attend college and that truly fills
me up with glee knowing I can make a significant difference within my family.
Despite all of
my challenges, I
was determined
to persevere. I
had an epiphany
because I figured
that to achieve
greatness, you
must keep going
on no matter how hard it gets. At times, I have to remind myself to stay optimistic about everything. Now, my studies are all that matter to me. I can’t give up even if I wanted too. I won’t let myself. I want to change the trajectory of my family’s future, and I’m confident that I will soon. ( Jasmine is an ACOF tenant. You can read more about her story on our website: www.acof.org)
Cedar Springs is Building Up
By Tara Barauskas, Director of Housing
A Community of Friends (ACOF) has a 36-unit project under construction in the City of La Verne called “Cedar Springs.” It’s on the campus of David & Margaret Youth and Family Services, a service organization that was founded over 100 years ago as an orphanage. The main 17-acre campus will be the site for Cedar Springs’ four (4) residential buildings and one (1) stand alone retail building. Cedar Springs will have such amenities such as a
community room with a computer lab, an outdoor picnic area and garden, and a neighborhood low- cost food and sundry shop that will be operated by David & Margaret. In addition, the project will be highly energy efficient with a goal of Net Zero energy, meaning that all consumed energy will be offset by energy generated from solar panels.
Another component of Cedar Springs will be ACOF’s first greywater reuse system: water will be captured from sinks and showers and then treated and reused to irrigate the landscape areas and flush toilets. It will save up to 900,000 gallons of water per year, in addition to saving other operating expenses. The project is being managed by Jose Torres, who is ecstatic to be leading this development, and is eager to respond to anyone who has questions about the project’s progress. Cedar Springs’ construction is set to be completed around April 2016, with continual updates posted to ACOF’s website and social media channels.
August 2015 • Issue #1
Inside:
Meet the Board:
ACOF Board welcomes the talents and passion of two new members ... Page 2
Volunteers:
Share your skills and express your commitment to ending homelessness by becoming an ACOF volunteer ... Page 2
HOME Fund Crisis:
Proposed cuts to HOME Funds will decimate affordable housing development ... Page 3
Gala Snapshot:
Generosity of ACOF donors an all-time high at Beyond Perceptions Gala ... Page 4
By the Numbers:
The 2015 Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) Homeless Count has released its findings and they are startling:
• There’s been a 16% increase in homelessness over the last two years
• Chronic homelessness has risen 54% since 2013
• On any given night in Los Angeles, 44,359 people are homeless
• Los Angeles spends about $87 million a year on policing the homeless
• Los Angeles is the third most homeless city in the world – beating both Mumbai and Mexico City
• There has been an 85% increase in homeless encampments


2 | ACOF AUGUST 2015
Thuong Luong
Gary Lee Moore
Welcome New Board Members
We are pleased to announce the addition of two new members to ACOF’s Board of Directors, elected at the Board’s Annual Meeting in late June. Both demonstrate dedication and passion for ACOF’s cause.
Thuong Luong currently serves as Vice President of Portfolio Management at Laurus Corporation, a real estate investment firm. She is responsible for various aspects of acquisition, disposition, financing and restructuring of the firm’s real estate investments. Ms. Luong has experience working on buy-side equity investments, sell-side advisory on debt raising, private placement, IPOs, and leveraged buyouts in the financial services industry. Ms. Luong’s philanthropic activities include co-founding Vital Corporate Advisors, a non-profit organization that focuses on providing financial advisory services to microfinance institutions in South East Asia and serving as an independent board member for an Asian microfinance institution. She received her Bachelor of Science in Finance & International Business from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business with honors. Ms. Luong has also worked with a New York based alternative investment subsidiary of Credit Suisse Group that focuses on investing in both traditional and alternative asset managers. At U.S. based Deutsche Bank Securities Group, she assisted in asset management sector coverage and was involved
Calling All Volunteers!
in multi-billion dollar capital raising and M&A advisory services transactions.
Gary Lee Moore is the City Engineer for the City of Los Angeles. As the general manager of the Bureau of Engineering, he is responsible for the City’s vast network of public infrastructure, which includes the planning, design, and construction of all public facilities, management of billions of dollars of voter- approved public bond funds, and the delivery of cross-sector local government programs that serve millions of residents and businesses in diverse neighborhoods and industries. Mr. Moore oversees 802 employees and is responsible for an annual operating budget of $149 million with 409 active projects totaling $3.1 billion. Mr. Moore graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering and completed the UCLA Anderson School of Management’s Executive Organizational Leadership Program. He is a registered Professional Civil and Mechanical Engineer in California, has authored and co-authored many research papers and has presented his work at a wide variety of professional conferences.
ACOF’s Board and staff look forward to their participation, guidance and support in the advancement of ACOF’s mission.
fffTTfffffTffffffACOF is growing its volunteer base and we
need your help! We are looking for skilled
volunteers who can lead classes for our tenants
on money management, healthy eating &
nutrition, parenting tips and many more topics.
Assisting adults and children with literacy,
homework and study skills, leading exercise
classes and computer skills are also gaps we need
to fill. With 39 buildings and counting in Los
Angeles and Orange Counties and expansion
into the Inland Empire, we know we have a location near you! If you are interested in exploring a volunteer partnership with us, please contact Deidre Strohm, Director of Fund Development, at 213-480-0809 x 262 or [email protected] for an application.
TffTfffBoard of Directors
Helena L. Jubany, Chair Sean L. Leonard, Vice Chair Allen Freeman, Treasurer Mitchell B. Menzer, Secretary Marc Binenfeld Norma Dominguez
Jill Dominguez Suzanne E. Fitzmorris Philip N. Feder* Elizabeth Garcia Michael S. Linsk* Thuong Luong
Gary Lee Moore
Jeff Ong-Siong
James Preis
Bridget Tucker Elizabeth Vaughn
* Former Board Chair


HOME Fund Crisis Looms
By Dora Leong Gallo, CEO At ACOF ground-breakings and grand openings, I often talk about how complicated it is to develop permanent supportive housing – afordable homes that include onsite supportive services - due to the complexities of piecing together inancing for construction, social services and rental subsidies. Cobbling a patchwork of funding needed to bring these apartment buildings into fruition takes on average ive years, if not longer.
means we already know that the City of Los Angeles will go from receiving $18 million to $1.3 million next year; Los Angeles County will be reduced from $5.8 million to $427,000; Fullerton from $356,000 to $26,000; and Orange County from $666,000 to $49,000, and so on.
his is shocking! he Senate’s proposal is a 93% cut in the program. Seemingly every week, we are alerted to more and more studies that conirm the lack of afordable homes in
communities all over the country, including right here in Southern California. Los Angeles has been designated the most unafordable rental housing market in the country, where renters on average pay more than 47% of their income for housing. If we truly want to see an end to homelessness, especially for those with disabilities, we must
continue to build afordable homes that have long term afordability restrictions, in addition to other actions. his crisis cannot be solved without the commitment and dedication of all three sectors: public, private and nonproit. While the State of California now has some resources for afordable housing development, the slashing of HOME funds will eliminate the one source of funds that local governments rely on to match or leverage State funding. Without HOME funds, it will be extremely diicult for communities to access State resources to build afordable homes.
What can we do? Contact our federal representatives to let them know that afordable homes are needed now more than ever. Contact your Representative in Congress (call or email) as well as our two California Senators, Barbara Boxer (213-894-5000) and Dianne Feinstein (310-914-7300), and urge them to restore funding to the HOME program. And join the HOME Coalition at https://www.ncsha.org/resource/home- coalition-advocacy-materials to access more information.
HOME Fund
Decrease Since Inception with Proposed 93% Cut
his summer, our elected oicials in Congress and the Senate have signaled an intent to make it even harder. he HOME program, the only federal housing program focused exclusively on providing states and local governments with resources to build afordable housing, is about to be decimated. Over the past 20 years, the HOME program has helped build and preserve more than 1.1 million afordable homes to hundreds of thousands of low- income families, including formerly homeless individuals and families living with mental illness or other disabilities. At ACOF, we have competed successfully for HOME funds for over a dozen of our buildings, enabling us to leverage millions of other dollars for construction of afordable homes.
In spite of the program’s successful track record, the allocation of HOME funds has steadily decreased in the past decade, from $3 billion to $1.8 billion to $1 billion and last year, $900 million. For next year, Congress has proposed allocating $767 million and the U.S. Senate has gone even further – recommending an allocation of only $66 million nationally! Since funds are distributed by formula, this
Please act now! Contact your representative and join the HOME Coalition!
ACOF AUGUST 2015 | 3
ACOF Assets
Brian Hunt joined ACOF in July, managing sites in the San Fernando Valley and Central Los Angeles. Brian studied Business with an emphasis in Finance at Purdue University and is a former Marine. Brian loves to travel. Hong Kong, China, and the Philippines have been his favorite places to visit because he likes both “the bright lights and the relaxing calm of the beach.”
F. Brian Hunt
Mary Jackson started with ACOF in August and comes to us with several years of asset and regulatory compliance experience. Previously, she managed a national portfolio of 9,800 units overseeing the tenant eligibility process. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business with an emphasis on Finance and a Master’s degree in Public Administration at the University of La Verne. Mary is an avid reader and loves romance novels because “everything always works out.”
Mary Jackson


4 | ACOF AUGUST 2015
2015 Gala Beyond Perceptions
With the help and support of so many members of our community, we were able raise over $230,000 in support of ACOF’s tenant services! Thank you to our honorees, The Honorable Jackie Lacey, William A. Witte, SCANPH and Victoria Juarez for providing moving acceptance speeches. Thank you to our host for the evening, KCET’s Val Zavala, for keeping our momentum up. We also had tremendous assistance from amazing community volunteers including Wells Fargo staff and interns and the famous Disney VoluntEARs!
Dates to Look Forward to:
• November – Beverly Terrace Ground Breaking!
• November 21 – HomeWalk 2015 – Plan to join
Team ACOF!
• December 1 – Giving Tuesday
Call or look for more info on our website and social media channels:
• www.acof.org
• facebook.com/ ACommunityofFriends
• twitter.com/AComofFriends
• www.linkedin.com/company/ a-community-of-friends
• 213.480.0809
Pictured from left to right: Bill Witte, Alan Greenlee, Victoria Juarez,
Pictured from left to right: Bill Witte, Alan Greenlee, Victoria Juarez,
The Honorable Jackie Lacey, Dora Leong Gallo
The Honorable Jackie Lacey, Dora Leong Gallo
3701 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 700 Los Angeles, CA 90010