[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 132 (Tuesday, September 16, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1423]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    RECOGNIZING THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF ESPERANZA COMMUNITY HOUSING 
                              CORPORATION

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. LUCILLE ROYBAL-ALLARD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 16, 2014

  Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate 
Esperanza Community Housing Corporation on the celebration of its 25th 
anniversary.
  Esperanza has been a South Los Angeles institution since 1989, when 
it was founded as part of a community organizing campaign to keep 
families in local affordable rental housing. Over the years, it has 
grown into a prominent social justice and community development non-
profit, serving a wide array of needs for tens of thousands of people 
in the Figueroa Corridor and throughout South L.A.
  Esperanza has been a leader in the fight to improve South L.A.'s 
housing, economic, health, cultural, and environmental conditions. No 
race, ethnicity, age, or gender is exempt from the organization's 
outreach. Esperanza has spent a quarter-century establishing 
partnerships in every corner of the community--building relationships 
with South L.A.'s residents, community leaders, and local businesses, 
and bringing them together in common cause to achieve remarkable goals.
  The fruits of Esperanza's work are visible for all to see. Esperanza 
has provided more than 400 community residents with training in 
grassroots leadership and in comprehensive community health education 
services. It has promoted local economic growth by creating more than 
200 local jobs and providing housing for almost 20 small businesses and 
non-profits. It has also fought to reduce slum housing, while at the 
same time developing safe and affordable residential properties that 
offer housing for 165 low-income families. It developed the Mercado la 
Paloma, a community meeting place and economic development incubator 
that has become a first-rate forum for cultural events and community 
non-profit activities, as well as a home for 13 small family-owned 
businesses. And on a range of other subjects--from human rights, to 
food policy, to the arts, to environmental justice--Esperanza has been 
an unwavering voice for a stronger, more sustainable, and more vibrant 
community.
  Mr. Speaker, as Esperanza Community Housing Corporation celebrates 
its 25th anniversary, I want to thank and congratulate Executive 
Director Nancy Halpern Ibrahim, all the remarkable staff, and the 
organization's visionary founder, Sister Diane Donoghue, for their 
outstanding record of grassroots service to the residents of South Los 
Angeles. I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating all that 
Esperanza has done to improve the community. Esperanza's 25 years of 
dogged and productive work have been a model for community development 
organizations and activist movements across the country, and I wish it 
many more years of success.

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