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