For NeighborWorks America's recent symposium, "Co-creating an Equitable Future at the Intersection of Health, Housing and Community Development," leaders created a series of case studies to help show how network organzitions are centering resident voice. Following is the study on Little Tokyo Service Center, based in Los Angels, centering on resident co-creation through culture, history and place.

Public health leader Natalie S.

Public health leader Natalie S.

Like much of California, the Inland Empire is facing a spiraling affordability crisis exacerbated by a shortage of affordable homes. While the region is often perceived as a haven from white-hot coastal housing markets, this is relative, as rising housing prices are still pushing homeownership out of reach for many, particularly low- and moderate-income (LMI) consumers.

In an evening seeping with inspiration and wisdom,  five resident leaders who have made a lasting impact in their communities received NeighborWorks America's Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership.

The redevelopment of the area around a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station in Oakland's Chinatown weighed heavily on the staff at East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC). The station itself had disrupted Chinatown, displacing residents when it opened in the 1970s.

NeighborWorks America's real estate convening marked the first chance that more than 160 staff from across the NeighborWorks network have had to be together in four years. In the days since, conversations started during the convening have continued and will continue throughout the year.
 

In mid-May, demolition began on the Umeya Rice Cake Factory, known for making sweet Japanese rice crackers in California's Little Tokyo. The family-owned business has been a mainstay in Los Angeles – interrupted when President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which placed Japanese families like the Hamano family in internment camps during World War II.

Marco Senghor stands with a microphone in a corner of his restaurant, Bissap Baobab. It's one of two spaces he owns in San Francisco's Mission District and embodies community with what Senghor calls the "flavor of San Francisco." That flavor includes the cuisine of immigrants like himself.