Panel and Conversation
Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 7pm
How to house 7,000 people in Skid Row.
We’re talking about housing everyone now living on the streets of Skid Row –and more.
Join us at The Skid Row History Museum to learn together and in public how housing works and could work in LA.
We’ve invited three housing policy experts to talk with one another and tell us everything we’ve always wanted to know about how to build housing in Los Angeles. All 3 of them have worked in Skid Row and stood up for the neighborhood. You probably know one or more of them:
Molly Rysman, Housing and Homelessness Deputy, LA County;
Eric Ares, Manager of Homeless Systems Change for United Way of Greater Los Angeles;
Jerry Jones, Director of Public Policy, Inner City Law Center & Director of The Provider Alliance.
A coalition of Skid Row community members and groups have created “Skid Row Now & 2040” a plan that identifies funding sources to house people who have extremely low incomes. We’re going to look at the plan–and additional ideas for funding housing that will get people off the streets and into housing.
Speakers Bio’s:
Molly Rysman, Housing and Homelessness Deputy
Molly Rysman works to create systems change and public policy that support solutions to homelessness and expands the supply of affordable housing in the 3rd district and throughout Los Angeles County. Prior to joining Supervisor Kuehl’s office, Ms. Rysman served as the Los Angeles Director for CSH, a community development finance institution dedicated to expanding housing solutions to reduce homelessness. As the Director for CSH’s Los Angeles office, Ms. Rysman oversaw all of CSH’s training, lending, technical assistance, and systems change work throughout Los Angeles County Ms. Rysman also served as the External Affairs Director for the Skid Row Housing Trust, one of the largest permanent supportive housing developers in Los Angeles. She collaborated on efforts to serve the most vulnerable individuals experiencing chronic homelessness in Skid Row, including Project 50, the Skid Row Collaborative, and Downtown Pathway Home. Ms. Rysman has also been a stouthearted advocate for underserved communities in Los Angeles, including serving as a Legislative Deputy for Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti, working for the Liberty Hill Foundation, and serving survivors of domestic violence at Haven Hills. Molly earned a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles and is a proud alumnus of California State University Los Angeles, where she earned her bachelor’s degree.
Eric Ares, Manager of Homeless Systems Change, Home for Good, United Way of Greater LA
Eric Ares serves as the Manager of Homeless Systems Change for the Home for Good team at United Way of Greater Los Angeles. In this role, he works to improve policies and performance in key systems to end homelessness in L.A. County. Ares previously worked as a Research and Policy Analyst with the National Law Center on Homelessness in Poverty in Washington, D.C.; as a Direct Service Provider and Case Manager/Outreach Worker at LAMP Community (now known as The People Concern); as a Community Organizer and Affordable Housing Policy Advocate with the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing (SCANPH) and the Los Angeles Community Action Network. He earned his undergraduate degree from Boston College.
Jerry Jones, Director of the Provider Alliance
Jerry Jones joined the Inner City Law Center as Director of the Provider Alliance in July 2015. He is the former Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. Jerry also served on the senior staff of the Center for Community Change in various roles over a 10-year period, as well as National Director of Project Vote and Executive Director of an anti-hunger organization in Connecticut. He has extensive experience on policy issues related to housing, hunger, and poverty, including testifying at Congressional hearings and authoring numerous studies and reports. Jerry coordinates the Provider Alliance to End Homelessness, a coalition of 57 organizations in Los Angeles providing services and housing to people experiencing homelessness. He is the Board President of Housing Works, an organization serving chronically homeless individuals, and a steering committee member of the Los Angeles Coalition to End Youth Homelessness.
