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A Sustainable Model in Northeast Los Angeles

Celebrating the closing at Arvia with family, residents and stakeholders. Andrés Cortes, center, with LA Más Executive Director, Helen Leung (both holding “SOLD” signs).
Photo Credit: Javier De Leon.

Each year as we pull together the articles for our annual report, a few stories stand out that really exemplify the kind of work we do at Self-Help and, most importantly, why we do it.  

Northeast Los Angeles, California, is gentrifying. Once affordable homes are changing hands, property values are increasing and those who once considered the neighborhood affordable are facing challenges to staying in place due to increases in property tax, which drive rents up and increase purchase prices. There are areas just like this across the country, where long-time residents find themselves vulnerable to displacement. But a small residential property on Arvia Street in Northeast Los Angeles, owned and managed for three generations by the Cortes family until its matriarch, Rufina Cortes, died, stands as testament to what's possible when community preservation takes priority. Cortes’s grandson, Andrés Cortes, was receiving offers from developers left and right, who seemed eager to replace what was there with something slicker, which could maximize rental income, but he had a vision of another way. In 2024, thanks to Andrés’s vision, and a partnership between Self-Help and local nonprofit LA Más, the partnership jointly acquired the property to ensure long-time residents could remain in their homes and maintain the fabric of their community.  

The Arvia project is a joint venture between Self-Help Ventures Fund (SHVF) and LA Más to co-own and preserve a rent-stabilized property in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of Northeast Los Angeles. SHVF provided low-cost capital and real estate expertise to support LA Más’ emerging community housing initiative. The project aims to prevent displacement by maintaining affordable rents for long-term tenants, helping them remain in their community despite rising housing pressures. The sale also enabled the Cortes family—longtime owners—to transfer generational wealth by selling to a mission-aligned buyer rather than a speculative investor. As part of the preservation strategy, the partners are constructing an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) to generate additional revenue that supports the acquisition and funds critical deferred maintenance. SHVF’s role is intentionally temporary, with plans for LA Más to assume full ownership once the property is stabilized.

After the closing, the Arvia team hosted a celebratory “Convivio” on the property. Photo credit: LA Más.

LA Más is a non-profit organization founded in 2012 with the scope of supporting and protecting affordable housing and neighborhood stability in Northeast Los Angeles (NELA). At Self-Help, we share the vision detailed on the LA Más website: “a NELA that has options for working-class residents to stay in the communities they love and call home.” 

As we often find in our work, process can be as important as results: Arvia residents and other community stakeholders met with project partners to ensure that the work planned for the property was in keeping with community wishes. The project's structure, with an LLC jointly owned by LA Más and Self-Help Ventures Fund, incorporates ongoing tenant engagement as a fundamental component. 

"I’m so grateful and excited that I can continue calling this place home and share in community with my neighbors. I know mis abuelos would be happy to hear that their legacy is being honored and cared for—residents here will continue to have access to affordable housing and live in peace. I look forward to the future here at Arvia,” Andrés shared, referring to his grandparents who first developed the community.

“This is a huge milestone for LA Más and our community,” says Helen Leung, Executive Director of LA Más. “This project shows that by working together, we can keep our neighbors rooted here and preserve affordable housing even in a market under intense pressure.” 

It all seems small: a small residential property against the backdrop of a giant American urban center. But while the 5 units represent a tiny minority of housing at stake in the area, the Arvia Street project can serve as a scalable, sustainable model for addressing the decline in what in the housing industry is called “naturally occurring affordable housing”. With plans to add an ADU to generate additional revenue and further enhance affordability, the project shows community-centered approaches, paired with sound, responsible financing, can preserve affordability even in hot real estate markets.

Self-Help works to develop flexible, mission-aligned partnerships—like the Arvia project—that creatively deploy capital to support community-led housing solutions. We prioritize scalable, sustainable models that address the loss of naturally occurring affordable housing and aim to catalyze broader adoption through real-world implementation.