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Housing and supportive services for low-income and homeless families, job training and transitional employment for at-risk youth, after-school arts for preteens, infant/toddler daycare and home repairs for elderly and disabled.
Why do we exist?
VCHC was founded by community activists concerned about growing poverty and homelessness in Venice, amid burgeoning affluence. The availability of affordable housing was threatened by rapid gentrification, along with the wonderful diversity that historically characterized Venice’s demography. Later, responding to gang violence, VCHC expanded its mission to provide job training and transitional employment for at-risk youth. Today, VCHC’s programs also include social support services and an infant-toddler program.
More specifically, VCHC is motivated by the facts of life for all too many in the community it serves. Venice Beach is the second-largest tourist attraction in California, bringing millions of visitors to this eclectic and diverse segment of coastline every year. It is also the site of several high-tech companies and many high-rent condominiums. But its Oakwood neighborhood, while close to this wealth on the map, remains untouched by these local dollars. Several persistent problems have compounded in recent years and keep families at a frustrating distance from long-term health and financial stability:
Intergenerational Poverty. In Los Angeles today, a single parent with two children must earn $19.65 an hour to cover basic needs – far more than standard pay for the 20% of adults in Venice’s Oakwood neighborhood who are employed in the low-wage service sector. In fact, as the national poverty rate dipped to its lowest level in 20 years this year, Oakwood’s poverty rate actually increased to 42%. There is a direct correlation between the poverty rate and the poor performance of our local elementary schools, furthering the cycle of poverty.
Childcare Crisis. As low-income parents are removed from welfare rolls without support services, they often are forced to accept childcare from babysitters who may lack crucial knowledge of child development or shuffle children between caretakers. While either of these situations is difficult for any child, it is especially so for one whose development is further compromised by chronic poverty and instability. Studies have shown that high-quality, stable childcare can vastly improve children’s academic and job performance later in life.
High Crime and Insecurity. In 1999, the Los Angeles Times reported that 90% of crime in the Pacific policing division (26 square miles) occurred in two square miles: Venice and Mar Vista. The Los Angeles Police Department have identified two active gangs in Venice’s Oakwood neighborhood alone, and area that also faces a narcotics problem. In one 1993-1994 neighborhood gang war, 17 people were killed and 55 others were injured.
Affordable Housing Shortage. The City of Los Angeles’ recent Housing Crisis Task Force Report and Recommendations claims the city needs 8,000 additional units of housing per year to keep pace with population – half of which must be affordable to low-income people. But the City of Los Angeles produced only 1,940 new housing units between 1998 and 1999. Furthermore, in Venice, the median home price is $438,000 – up 12.8% from 1999 and more than 200% higher than the average home price countywide.
Marginal Personal Resources. According to a recent VCHC needs assessment, over half of adults in our affordable housing units have not completed high school – and, of those, nearly two-thirds have not finished elementary school. And while most of their children are enrolled in state-sponsored health insurance, nearly half of parents interviewed had no health insurance at all – putting families at deep risk for medical and financial catastrophe.
VCHC’s emergent philosophy is based, in part, on criminal justice literature, which establishes that personal and community well-being – including abstention from antisocial behavior – is greatly impacted by physical surroundings; and Harvard University’s Professor Julius Wilson has found that low-income communities spawn crime, instability and prolonged poverty because of the disappearance of jobs – not vice-versa.
What have you accomplished?
In its thirteen-year history, VCHC has built a solid base of programs and services to address the persistent problems of poverty and homelessness in its community, among them:
Affordable Housing. VCHC owns eleven buildings of affordable housing, which includes a transitional living center for formerly homeless mothers with children, Shelter-Plus-Care apartments for formerly homeless individuals with mental illness and other disabilities, and small to large apartments for families. Many of the facilities are built or renovated by YouthBuild job training participants and BuildingWorks youth employees, and ClayWorks youth employees frequently beautify the buildings with original tile artwork. Supportive services, case management, referrals and advocacy services are provided to tenants through partnerships with local social service organizations. Currently 288 individuals are housed through VCHC’s Affordable Housing Program.
YouthBuild. The construction job-training program gives disenfranchised youth the tools and skills needed not only to build and renovate buildings, but also to take responsibility for their lives and to make decisions based on long-term consequences. Modeled after the HUD YouthBuild Program (and partially supported by that agency), trainees are paid the legal minimum wage for the time they spend working toward their high school diploma, acquiring computer skills, learning construction skills hands-on, practicing employment etiquette and participating in counseling and leadership development activities. Through their activities, trainees also learn to value education and community involvement.
BuildingWorks and ClayWorks. Income-generating micro-enterprises that create jobs for disenfranchised youth. BuildingWorks builds and renovates buildings for local property owners, performs graffiti removal services and, under contract with the Los Angeles Housing Department’s Handyworker program, provides minor home repairs to low-income elderly and disabled residents on the Westside of Los Angeles. ClayWorks contracts with local nonprofits, government agencies, schools and businesses to create tile murals and other ceramic artwork, beautifying neighborhood structures.
· ClayWorks for Kids. An after-school program that offers a positive alternative to early gang involvement for local boys and girls ages 6-12. By exploring art as a means for expressing themselves and for participating in neighborhood beautification, children find constructive and creative ways to participate in their community and to develop a healthy outlook. Our partner, Community Outreach for Prevention and Education (COPE), also offers tutoring and social activities for the children as well as case management and parent education for their moms and dads.
· Infant Toddler Development Center. A partnership with our neighbor organization, St. Joseph Center, the early childhood program provides enriched, nurturing daycare for very young children to give their low-income parents the opportunity to participate in educational or employment opportunities. The program supports parents’ efforts to become self-reliant and to provide stable homes for their children by providing case management; connections to other needed services and weekly parenting classes.
In one way or another, VCHC touches the lives of about 3,500 people a year. Among them is one prime example: A YouthBuild construction job training program participants, who was 19 years old and just out of prison, attended a parole hearing. He told our staff about it later: “When the judge asked me what had made the difference in my life, I said, VCHC.” Indeed, just as VCHC had made a difference in his life, he had made a difference in others’ lives. During his training, he worked on housing sites that now house low-income and formerly homeless people. These residents now have access to an array of needed programs and services. And, the housing sites, once neighborhood eyesores, are now attractive to behold.
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