LRI: Practice: Economic Development

The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) launched the Capacity Building Project to provide existing and currently forming small businesses and nonprofit organizations with training, organizational development assistance, and legal assistance. The Capacity Building Project is the core work of LAFLA's Community Economic Development (CED) Unit as it equips organizations and businesses, through a workshop series, with knowledge of how to start up, establish, and run a business or organization. The center piece of the workshop series is entitled "Building a Capable Community Organization" which covers a wide range of issues including incorporation, tax exemption, strategic planning, and financial management. Other workshops include "The Top Ten Ways to Avoid Losing Your Tax Exemption," "Fundraising Skills and Strategies," "Avoiding Employment Litigation," and more. Participants often include small businesses that are expanding out of the home, affordable housing developers, tenant associations, and home based child care providers. The workshops are held at LAFLA's office and staff members developed curriculum workbooks for the participants to accompany their workshop sessions.

Eligible organizations that have completed the workshops and fall into LAFLA's priority areas of job creation and affordable housing can receive legal assistance from LAFLA's CED attorneys. LAFLA has had a tremendous amount of success with the Capacity Building Project in preserving affordable housing and extending social services directly to LAFLA's client community. This success is exemplified by LAFLA's work assisting the residents of Comunidad Cambria as they created a tenant controlled nonprofit organization to administer and make repairs and improvements to their building. The residents of Comunidad Cambria lived in substandard housing in Los Angeles and in order to force repairs by the property owner, a number of tenants withheld their rent until the repairs were made. Instead of making the repairs, the property owner allowed the bank to foreclose on the property. LAFLA helped the residents create a tenant controlled nonprofit organization that was able to receive financing, purchase the building, and make the necessary repairs to ensure the building was safe and habitable for the tenants. The residents of Comunidad Cambria, through the nonprofit organization, now control and own the building. Another project currently supported by LAFLA involves providing assistance to a client as she seeks to create a homeless shelter that would provide services to single mothers with teenage boys. LAFLA's client has experienced homelessness and at this time she was unable to find a shelter that would allow her to stay with her teenage son. Once she stabilized her housing situation and recovered financially, she began, with LAFLA's assistance, to launch this shelter. The client completed LAFLA's workshop series, formed a nonprofit, and is in the process of fundraising and writing grants to support the shelter. LAFLA typically provides legal assistance to approximately 25 organizations at a time.

LAFLA's Capacity Building Project has received funding from the Ford Foundation and a recent article appeared in Management Information Exchange Journal detailing how LAFLA's economic development work has helped recruit funders. To learn more about this project, access the articles below as PDF documents.

Contact Information:

Nona Liegeois
Directing Attorney
Community Economic Development
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
8601 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90003
Phone: (213) 640-3970
Fax: (213) 640-3988
NLiegeois@lafla.org
www.lafla.org/clientservices/ced/index.asp

Additional Information:

Practice Areas

Overview Children Consumer Elder Law Domestic Violence Economic Development Family & Domestic Law Health Care Access Housing Human Rights Public Benefits Taxes