Rebecca Morley is the executive director of the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH),where she leads a multi‐disciplinary staff in creating healthy and safe housing for children. Ms.Morley spearheaded NCHH’s work in the Gulf Coast region following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She has authored numerous articles and publications on housing‐related health hazards. Before joining NCHH in 2002, Ms. Morley was a senior associate with ICF Consulting in Washington, D.C., where she advised clients, including federal agencies, on the development of lead poisoning prevention. Ms.
Behind the construction projects surrounding the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, affordable housing is hard to come by. There were three apartment buildings in the block just north of the stadium, between Georgia and Figueroa Streets, but in the last year, tenants from two of the buildings were forced to move when the buildings were condemned. Which appears to be just fine by owner, Frank McHugh.
The National Health Journalism Fellows will take a tour of the varied landscapes of Downtown Los Angeles this afternoon. Their guides, Sandra McNeill, Executive Director of the Figueroa Corridor Community Land Trust, and Roberto Bustillo, a tenant organizer for Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), say that the much lauded revitalization projects are exacerbating problems faced by long-time tenants in the area.
