WHAT WE DO

Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors

Under the umbrella of a strategy called Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors (BNSN), SAJE organizes community members, supports tenants rights and builds healthy homes in the Figueroa Corridor. This is also where our work in environmental justice, lead poisoning abatement, and asthma prevention is conducted.

The Displacement Free Zone also operates under BNSN, and its organizers are supported by, and work closely with, SAJE's team of five community organizers.

Slum Housing Campaigns: Because slum housing and displacement is occurring at such a rapid pace in the Figueroa Corridor, SAJE redesigned our careful door-to-door, block-by-block strategy in favor of one that will yield the most impact in the shortest amount of time.

This strategy is to target major and high-profile owners, combining our grassroots tenant organizing with an analysis of their entire business operation. Our high-profile slum housing campaign against the owners of the Morrison Hotel demonstrated how much impact such a strategy can have.

Community Jobs

Figueroa Corridor Community Jobs Program ensures that residents from the Figueroa Corridor are prepared for the jobs that will be generated by investment in the Figueroa Corridor -- especialliy the 2,750 jobs generated by the LA Live development and guaranteed by the Staples Agreement.

In 2004, SAJE kicked off the pilot of the Figueroa Corridor Community Jobs Program, a pipeline program that provides low-income community residents with job training in the hospitality industry and building trades.

Since 2004, we have served more than 600 local residents and currently teach about 80 workers through five classes including our signature Economic Survival class, ESL, and computer literacy. We work with organizations like PV Jobs, Abram Friedman Vocational Center, Los Angeles Trade Technical College, and the WorkSource Center to provide our participants with training and support that will have the most benefit to their particular situation, and will increase their local employment options.  >> read more

People's Planning

The political and economic landscape of the Figueroa Corridor in 2007 continues to pose tough questions that impact urban communities throughout California, and the nation.

That question remains: How can we preserve and improve our existing communities in areas where 90% of the residents are tenants, and therefore not considered as important a stakeholder as a property owner is, where slumlords are exploiting thousands of families without fear of redress, and where gentrification and displacement are spreading like wildfire through our communities?

At the same time that slumlords are poised to cash out and sell their properties to developers, the University of Southern California is engaging in a master-planning process, which will have a deep, and long-term impact in our community. While USC conducts their process, the Los Angeles Planning Department is redrawing their South and SouthEast Community Plans.

These three documents, when combined, affect approximately 200,000 people, many of them low income. They pose a grave threat to sweeping displacement if the values, vision, and the voices of the existing residents are not heard.

In response, SAJE and the Figueroa Corridor Coaltion for Economic Justice are undertaking a high impact community participation and civic engagement strategy to create a 'People's Plan', to ensure that our voices are part of the long term vision for our community.  >> read more

Displacement Free Zone

The same investment that is producing thousands of jobs in the Figueroa Corridor has also contributed to skyrocketing real estate values in the area, gentrification, and displacement.

Shortly after the ink was dry on our Staples Agreement and a new redevelopment plan was adopted by the City Council, SAJE organizers found that local residents were less concerned about slum housing conditions and more about simply keeping a roof over their heads. As unscrupulous landlords tried to cash in on the combination of rising real estate values, a severe housing shortage, and an underserved market of USC students who can pay up to four times the amount in rent as a working class family, the threat of eviction had become an ugly, daily reality.

In response, 10 community leaders and organizers established L.A.'s first Displacement Free Zone. The Zone encompases the ten-block area north of USC and works to hold the line against displacement through weekly tenants rights workshops, legal assistance, tenant organizing, and campaigns for protective policies, such as No Net Loss.

Right To The City

All across the U.S., working class neighborhoods and Black, Latino and Asian people are being displaced from our cities at a scale not seen since the abuses of urban renewal in the 1960s. Sky-rocketing rents, mass evictions, low-wage jobs have eroded vibrant historic communities that are being replaced with luxury condominiums, shopping centers, and tourist attractions.

Right to the City (RTTC) is a newly formed alliance of base building organizations from cities across the country as well as researchers, academics, lawyers, and other allies.  We came together in January of 2007 to build a united response to gentrification and the drastic changes imposed on our cities. We stand together under the notion of a Right to the City for all.

SAJE is a founding organization and active member of Right To The City.