Dear LACCLT Community,

We hope you are taking care. As 2025 comes to an end, we want to share some highlights from our annual membership meeting and the last year. We are so grateful for the opportunities we’ve had this year to engage and learn from you all and look forward to continuing to work together to preserve affordable housing in Chinatown.

729 Yale 🏘️ - What We’ve Been Up To

In March 2025, 729 Yale tenants and the community (led by CCED) organized to successfully defeat an eviction attempt initiated in 2024. The CLT continued to meet with tenants who shared their interest in community ownership. Some tenants remain interested in CLT ownership of their building but want to ensure the price is fair for the CLT.

During this past year, the CLT has met with many different partners who have provided high-level technical assistance and feedback on this acquisition. We have mapped major predevelopment tasks and have drafted an operating model to size likely costs. However, these are early scoping efforts and we still need specialized technical assistance to build a realistic budget and financial forecast for the property, interpret third-party reports, and translate findings into an actionable stewardship plan.

As we enter 2026, the LACCLT Board and Yale team will continue sharing our findings with the community and determine the best path forward for the CLT’s first potential acquisition.

Strategic Planning

Another project the CLT focused on this past year was our strategic plan. Through a grant from the Roy + Patricia Disney Family Foundation, we were able to partner with Joyce Chiao from Abundance Strategies to develop our strategic plan for the next 3 years. This process was truly a community effort, involving over 70 community members through surveys, focus groups, visioning sessions, and town halls. Through each step, we listened to what the community values and what they want to see in the community, synthesizing it into our strategic plan and implementation plan. We welcome you to read through our first Strategic Plan.

Fundraising and Finance Health

2025 has been our most successful fundraising year yet. Run entirely by volunteers, LACCLT has raised over $400,000 in the last year largely through our partnership with the Los Angeles chapter of Resource Generation—a dramatic leap from the ~$70,000 raised between 2021 and 2024. Resource Generation is a network of young people with wealth and/or class privilege committed to redistributing wealth, land, and power to social movements.

We’ve also been awarded $125,000 in grants which we hope to dedicate to hiring staff in 2026. While we work towards hiring our first full time staff, we partnered with LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) LA to hire an Americorp Fellow, Kaelyn Ong.

Community Outreach Took Off in 2025 🚀

Through the leadership of our LISC Americorp Fellow, Kaelyn Ong, we ramped up our community outreach in the last few months. Kaelyn has organized and led community outreach events with volunteers across the community including at CicLAvia, Alpine Park's Halloween Festival, CD1/CD14's Alternative Housing event, and the All Chinatown Tenants Union (ACTU). She has been a tremendous support this year and has truly taken our community outreach to the next level. Thank you, Kaelyn!

Here are some photos from community outreach events this last year.

Recap of our Annual Membership Meeting

Community members braved the rain to join us at our annual membership meeting held at the LA Chinatown Library Branch. At this meeting, we provided members and community members updates on the work of last year and our financial health. Members also voted to update our bylaws to allow for virtual unanimous votes which will allow the board to be more nimble in responding to quick decisions. Six people signed up to become members, bringing our total membership to 52 individuals. Lastly, members voted in 5 new board members and selected new officers.

⭐ Welcome to our 2025-2026 Board of Directors! ⭐
Lessee Representatives

Monica Chen (newly elected)
Elise Dang (Board President) (newly elected)
Karen Law (Board Secretary)

Community Representatives

Jen Fong (newly elected)
Eugene Moy
Audrey Jang

General Representatives

Andy Chan (Board Treasurer) (newly elected)
Winnie Fong
Michelle Wang (newly elected)

Thank you to our outgoing Board Members Amy Zhou, Eileen Ung, Joseph Amaral, and Tim Mok. Thank you for all you have contributed to the development of this organization, especially to Amy and Tim who have been involved since the organization’s beginnings in 2020.

2025 End of Year Newsletter

2025 Annual Membership Meeting Notice