Community organizations are coming together on Dec 3 at 2 p.m. at First Methodist Church of Pasadena (FUMC) to celebrate the success of recent affordable housing initiatives:
• Three cities have changed zoning to facilitate affordable housing on land belonging to religious congregations. • 70 religious congregations have expressed interest in having affordable housing on their land. • A new community land trust will greatly reduce the cost of owning a home. Making Housing and Community Happen (MHCH) is sponsoring the celebration, “Uniting for Housing Justice.” There will be music, refreshments, and inspiring stories of how the community is coming together to address the housing crisis in Pasadena and beyond through affordable housing. With the help of MHCH, Rev. Connie Tamkin, a pastor at FUMC, helped launch the San Gabriel Valley Community Land Trust. In a community land trust, homeowners own their homes, but the land is held in common by the trust, with a resale formula to keep homes permanently affordable. “I could not be happier that SGV CLT is now launched,” says Jill Shook, MHCH founding director. “My husband Anthony and I are eager to be the first to put our home into the trust”. MHCH will also honor its many partners – including LA Voice, the Pasadena Tenants Union, Foothill Unity Center, POP!, Union Station, Clergy Community Coalition – as well as its supporting religious congregations. Two of this year’s “Affordable Housing Rock Stars” include Councilmember Jess Rivas for her strong support for affordable housing and rent control, and Brendan Poon, a junior at Polytechnic High School, who has shown extraordinary commitment and leadership with Pasadena’s rent control campaign. We will also be giving out a “John Kennedy Legacy Affordable Housing Award.” The late Council member Kennedy received the MHCH Affordable Housing Rock Star Award in 2020. This year MHCH successfully advocated for rezoning religious land for affordable housing in Pasadena, Sierra Madre and Yorba Linda and is working to pass a bill to rezone religious land for affordable housing statewide. Its Congregational Land Committee (CLC) advises congregations wanting affordable housing built on their underutilized land. 70 congregations in Southern California have expressed interest in their help. The CLC advised a church in Laguna Beach planning for 84 units of affordable housing—the first affordable housing project in that city since 2005. MHCH also organized two successful One-Day Housing Justice Institutes, in Bellflower and Arcadia, training community leaders on how to advocate for affordable housing. MHCH’s safe parking pilot program has helped people living in their cars get housed through the supportive services of Foothill Unity Center. MHCH also played a key role in forming the Pasadena Affordable Housing Coalition, which consists of 15 organizations concerned with making sure that Pasadena’s Housing Element realistically plans for almost 6,000 units of affordable housing urgently needed in our city. |
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