HOUSING

When Unidos South OC increases residents’ access to resources, it builds trust that leads to Community Building.

Then, with that social fabric strengthened, more residents want to get involved to work together, looking upstream from the challenges they face to seek long-term solutions. 

In 2021, Unidos resident leaders began to ask their community the question: If we could work together on one big issue, what is our priority?

Through interviews, questionairres, forums and a vote, the community collectively said, “We face many issues, but at the root of most of them is the high cost of housing.”

From that moment, Unidos received our directive: Housing Affordability is residents’ priority.

2-pronged approach to housing:

advocacy and direct intervention

Unidos’ response to residents is twofold: We supported residents’ right to use their voice by launching the Community Leader Coalition of the Capistrano Villas (CLC). Residents are building capacity for leadership, using their voice and they’ve already won a policy change at the city level regarding their goal of affordable housing!

Unidos also asked, how can we directly impact housing affordability for our neighbors? Our direct intervention has included a pilot project on Lease Mediation, a research project on Investment Strategies, gathering data through a door-to-door Housing Survey, supporting representational leadership at the local level, and pursuing funding sources for other innovative solutions.

  • Nobody is too young to advocate for what their community needs.

  • St Joseph community partnership fund has been essential to our work 2022-2024

Item 1 of 17

Timeline

  • Resident leaders came out of the woodwork when the pandemic put everyone in crisis. 85 residents led weekly food distribution programs, ultimately distributing 1.9 million pounds of food. Residents said, “No one has ever trusted me with leadership before.” During the worst of the pandemic, they led with passion and expertise, keeping their community alive.

    In October, we began a 3 year relationship with St Joseph Community Building Initiative, focused on building resident capacity to make upstream changes toward collective wellbeing.

  • Resident leaders conducted 80 1-1 interviews, received 116 questionairre responses and hosted 3 forums, revealing 3 main areas of concern among residents. In June 2021, 76.7% of votes said that housing affordability is the systems-change issue they want to address.

    So we got started learning about HOUSING!

    We promoted the city’s survey on the Housing Element and 55% of city-wide responses came from our advocacy. We hosted a Spanish-language Housing Element Forum with 55 in attendance.

    In the Fall, the advocacy work got its own name: The Community Leader Coalition (CLC). The separate branding on advocacy work demonstrates Unidos’ belief that resident voices are valuable on their own, not because a non-profit said so. The CLC speaks for residents, not an organization. And Unidos happily cheers them on!

    Residents made more than a dozen public comments to City Council and Planning Commission regarding rezoning for affordable housing.

  • Unidos advocated for increased access to the civic process. For the first time a City Notice on the Housing Element was mailed to residences, and not only property owners. Notices became bilingual for the first time.

    Unidos Resident Leaders were the majority of participants in community engagement events regarding redistricting.

    In February, City Council voted to formalize a policy, requiring all future affordable housing to be prioritized for people who live or work in SJC. The CLC’s FIRST POLICY WIN!

    Unidos worked with the city to offer an 8-hour Spanish-language leadership workshop for the first time. 30 residents learned about city processes.

    In October, Unidos and the South OC For All [equity] collaborative won a $468K grant enabling us to begin planning our investment strategy to stabilize housing.

  • We analyzed Broker Data to understand the real estate landscape, gathering valuable data.

    Then we went door to door with a robust Housing Survey. Reaching 15% of households, this data revealed the severity of the problem. You can read it here.

    The CLC continued to build leadership by interviewing over a dozen local decision-makers, including city council members and housing experts.

    In September we successfully completed a 12 month Lease Mediation Pilot to protect tenant rights and increase their housing stability.

    Resident leaders used their skills in new areas including school-site programs, the SJC Parks Commission, school district commitees, and other non-profits.

  • Unidos is committed to representational leadership and is supporting residents with HOA problems and issues with housing conditions.

    We are working with an Urban Planner and resident focus groups to dream for neighborhood improvements.

    We are working with Land Acquisition consultants on our investment strategy to own rentals, increase owner-occupancy and stabilize housing cost for low-income residents.

  • "How many people have lived with this level of frustration for so long? The minute you introduce the possibility of change, you realize people were just waiting for it."

    Ester Ocampo, resident

Item 1 of 10