I’m so excited to announce that Leonora Camner is Abundant Housing LA’s Managing Director! We’re getting together to celebrate on the 28th, I hope everyone can make it. I couldn’t be prouder of all of us, and of her.
First, the reasons we all have to be proud.
This time two years ago we were a small group of people working to make LA a more affordable place to live. Now we’re a real organization, with funding and full-time leadership to help us do even more. We won an unbelievable competitive grant from LA 2050, we partnered and secured support from the biggest and most well-funded pro-housing group in the country (California YIMBY), and have begun to secure our own future with a member-funding model (if you missed it last week there is still time to join as a founding member).
More importantly than getting bigger – what we’re doing is working. The projects we support get built. After we talk to people they tend to understand the crisis and how to fix it. We’ve got thirty years of bad decisions to undo, but things are definitely getting better. It’s happening far too slowly, there’s no doubt about that. But every day there are more and more reasons to be optimistic, and we’ve got a lot to do with that.
I also couldn’t be prouder of Leonora.
She started volunteering with Abundant Housing more than two years ago as our Online Director. Just like the rest of us, she didn’t really know how to do the job. But she cared so much about the cause, and she was ready to take on something new. Within a few months, our weekly email was the most reliable and best thing coming out of Abundant Housing. That was just the first time – she’s done it again and again, taking on something new, figuring out how to do it, and getting it done. She’s one of the most dedicated people I’ve ever met, and even more importantly she’s always excited to learn.
Leonora also cares incredibly deeply about the real, human impact of the housing crisis here in LA. She worked for the Eviction Defense Network last year, where she went to court every day to represent tenants who were facing eviction. It’s an incredibly hard job. One with far more heartbreak than triumph, but she did it anyway.
Taken all together, that’s why I feel sure that we’re in good hands going forward.
Organizationally, a couple of changes are happening. Leonora will be leading the organization day to day, building greater support for the growing network of AHLA volunteers. Her work will create even more space for people to take on leadership roles in their communities and across LA County in support of housing. I’m also stepping down from my position as Director. Instead I’m taking on the job of Board Chair, and working primarily on board recruitment and fundraising. If you’d like to help out with either of those, please holler, I surely could use it.
We had nearly two hundred people apply for this job. I think that interest is a real testament to the work we’ve all done and the organization we’ve built. I also think we found the best person for the job, and that’s a real testament to her. Welcome Leonora, we can’t wait to see where you take us!
Let’s welcome her in style on the evening of the 28th at Angel City – details here.
