Dorothy Madison has owned her home on Second Avenue in Park Mesa Heights for more than 50 years. She knows the neighborhood faces challenges of crime and economic decline, but she hasn't given up on the possibility of change. 

"I would love to stay here," Madison said. "I think the neighborhood could really grow." 

But the 79-year-old Madison, like more than 200 others in her neighborhood last year, faces the likelihood of losing the home she and her husband worked tirelessly to create. 

Madison has lived in the neighborhood long enough to recall the legacy of the Los Angeles Urban League in the neighborhood and speaks about the organization with enthusiasm.  "The Urban League is the most wonderful thing that ever happened to this community," said Madison. 

She made a point to call the League about her financial problems. She said she was encouraged to attend the League's next safety meeting and to "come and talk" with the representatives from the organization if she needed further assistance. Madison suffers from both high blood pressure and diabetes, and mobility is a challenge. She has yet to attend a meeting. 

In fact, even if Madison had sought out League officials, she would have been referred to non-profit advocacy programs without any direct involvement of the League or Neighborhoods@Work. It is a gap in the League's services.

The Los Angeles Urban League has adopted housing as part of its Neighborhoods@Work Initiative to keep people in their homes and to foster a new sense of ownership in the community they hope to transform.  

Up until now, the League has focused on referring those facing foreclosure to housing advocates such as Los Angeles Neighborhood Housing Services, which provides foreclosure prevention services and financial education classes throughout Los Angeles. 

But it is not known how many homes have actually been saved in the neighborhood. 

The League wants to play a more direct role in helping residents and tracking their success.   

Charles Boyd, who is leading the organization's safety and housing efforts, said the initial concept was to ensure that if the League was successful in truly improving conditions of the neighborhood, that existing residents would not be priced out. "We don't want to see residents displaced as a result of gentrification," said Boyd. 

But now, with many in the neighborhood teetering on the brink of foreclosure, helping residents remain in their homes has become the primary goal. "Our housing effort is purely focused on home ownership preservation through reduction of foreclosures," said Boyd. 

In the latter half of 2007, the housing bubble burst and the crisis hit South Los Angeles particularly hard. In 2008, UCLA's School of Public Policy conducted a study on behalf of the Los Angeles Urban League entitled "Foreclosures in Park Mesa Heights." The study found a highly disproportionate amount of foreclosures in Park Mesa Heights compared to the rest of the county. The number of foreclosures per 1,000 households in the county was 1.5, while the rate for Park Mesa Heights was 2.8.  

The foreclosure crisis was sudden and escalated rapidly. According to statistics from RAND California, 19 homes in the 90043 zip code, which comprises Park Mesa Heights, fell into foreclosure in 2006. The next year, the number rose to 86 homes. In 2008, both the reality of the economy and the consequences of subprime loans jolted the neighborhood, and the foreclosure rates increased by over 200 percent--resulting in 262 bank-owned homes. In 2009, the number dipped slightly to 209. Foreclosures have slowed, but the threat remains a reality for many in Park Mesa Heights. 

In 2008, the Urban League formed an early collaboration with Operation HOPE, a non-profit organization created immediately following the 1992 L.A. Riots to create greater financial literacy in underserved communities. 

The Urban League and Operation HOPE conducted a series of "Wealth Building" workshops that focused on financial literacy, credit management, home ownership preservation and first time homebuyer education.  

Eric S. Clay, area vice president of community lending at the HOPE Center in Los Angeles said 25 to 30 people attended the workshops and they seemed eager to learn more. "You can always tell the workshop goes well when the audience tends to hover around afterwards," said Clay. 

The collaborative workshops between the Urban League and Operation HOPE ceased in 2008.

Boyd said the last year has been focused on "relationship building" with government and private entities like Fannie Mae to develop new strategies to address the foreclosure crisis in Park Mesa Heights. He said the Urban League plans to hold financial literacy and debt management workshops at the Urban League headquarters, beginning in June, to prepare residents who are behind on their mortgage or facing default to work with lenders in adjusting their loans. 

"We want to leverage our name and high recognition in the neighborhood and get people out of their doors and a little more comfortable about discussing their issues with us prior to putting them with the lender," Boyd said. "Then we want to be here to demand that the lenders do what they can to provide necessary workouts."

Boyd said the Urban League is in discussion with lenders in the neighborhood, they have not yet confirmed which banks will be signing on. 

Pamela Bakewell, the chief neighborhood coordinator of the Neighborhoods@Work initiative, said though the League is looking to play a more direct role, their partners in the community are key to the success of the 5-year plan.  

"We're actually going to be concentrating on foreclosure rates and helping people to refinance their homes if we can. We may be the conduit for that," said Bakewell. "Our initiative is really about saving one life at a time, per household, per block, per 70 blocks."

Boyd said many residents are ambivalent about receiving any form of financial assistance because they fear being scammed or they simply do not want to reveal their financial troubles.

"There's an issue of trust and I think there's an issue of fear and embarrassment that people actually find themselves in this kind of situation," said Boyd.

Ester Cadavid, senior vice-president and chief development officer of Los Angeles Neighborhood Housing Services, specializes in foreclosure crisis management. She said housing scams have run rampant in South Los Angeles.

"If you're not aware, there is still someone out there to scam you. There's greed out there. That hasn't stopped," said Cadavid.

Many homeowners paid so-called loan experts up front to have their loan modified and never heard from them again. It is illegal to charge up front for loan modification in California. Cadavid said these scams hit minority communities particularly hard. 

Though embarrassment around financial crisis was common in the early days of the housing bust, foreclosures have become so common that much of the stigma has waned, said Cadavid. 

"I think there has been enough in the media that people are coming forward," said Cadavid. 

Madison and her husband, Charles, moved to Park Mesa Heights, from Arkansas, at a time when they were one of the few African-American couples on the block. They raised six children in the neighborhood and prided themselves on their work and the life they created.  Before retiring in 2004, Madison worked as a machinist at a manufacturing company and her husband Charles was a truck driver. 

"I was able to live a comfortable life and raise my kids in a very comfortable lifestyle," said Madison. 

But Madison's financial troubles began in 2006 after her husband, who handled the couple's finances, died of a heart attack. Madison took out a second $26,000 loan on her home. She later became a victim of identity theft. Multiple credit cards were opened in her name and more than $3,000 was drained from her checking account. 

In 2007, the interest rate on Madison's loan increased from 6 to 8 percent. Living on a fixed income and struggling to get her credit straightened out, she has fallen three months behind on her $500 monthly loan payments. 

Madison still has a "full house," and she is still providing for her family. Her 20-year-old granddaughter, who she played a hand in raising, lives with her in addition to two of her nephews, Deandre and Tony. She said she will continue fighting to straighten out her finances, but the future is uncertain. 

"I'm praying at this point," Madison said. "This house has fed and took care of many people." 

Another longtime resident Andrea Robinson is in the process of saving her home, and had not heard of any programs offered by Neighborhoods@Work aimed at helping her. She requested that her real name not be used because her case is pending in court. She has lived in the neighborhood for 34 years and is raising her two sons in the very house where she was brought up.  

Six years ago, Robinson took out a second mortgage with an adjustable loan, not realizing the gravity it would have on her future. After her introductory rate expired, her monthly house note rose to $3,000. 

In an effort to manage her expenses, Robinson sought loan modification. To qualify, her lender advised her to fall behind on her house payment. Not long after being informed that her loan modification was approved she received a notice on her door informing her that her house had been sold in an auction. 

Robinson was not aware of the Urban League's housing initiative but said residents should be better informed because there is a definite need in the community. 

"That's how a lot of the foreclosures and a lot of these things happened because people are not educated on their rights and the things that are available to them," said Robinson. 

One of the greatest challenges the Urban League faces is informing residents about available services. Many residents are simply not aware of the services available to them in the way of financial literacy and foreclosure prevention, said Boyd. 

The Urban League has received a $25,000 grant from Fannie Mae to bolster its outreach process. Boyd said he plans to increase community mailings, phone calls and door-to-door visits to connect with elderly residents like Dorothy Madison and others who may not attend community events. 

"I think people generally know we're here and serving the community. We're hoping to leverage that good will to get into homes, to get people to open their doors, to respond to our mailings," said Boyd. 

Robinson said she has witnessed far too many people in the neighborhood lose their homes. Many of those residents, she said, have lived in the neighborhood for decades and have gradually disappeared from the make-up of the community. 

Robinson has been in court for more than two years to reclaim her home. The battle has been fraught with stress and expense, but she said she is confident that the home she has known all her life will be hers again. 

"Some people can just walk away and leave their home but I just can't see it happening," said Robinson. 

***

More than 60 percent of residents within the 70-block radius of Park Mesa Heights are homeowners. Many of them have owned their homes for decades and have passed them on to their children. 

The creation of the African-American community in the Crenshaw District was largely wrapped around the notion of land. Up until 1948, Restrictive Housing Covenants in California designated that African-Americans could only own or rent homes within "South Central."

The Supreme Court Case of Shelley v. Kraemer succeeded that year in abolishing Restrictive Housing Covenants across the nation, and African-Americans began purchasing homes throughout Los Angeles and, in large part, within the Crenshaw District. 

Reginald Chapple, a UCLA doctoral candidate in anthropology, has studied and written about the evolution of the African-American community in the Crenshaw District. He said home ownership was crucial to those in the black community who withstood decades of discrimination to eventually earn the rights that allowed them to reside in and take ownership of those neighborhoods. 

"With home ownership, comes pride and community," said Chapple. 

Boyd said that the Urban League is focused on sustaining homeowners in the community to ensure that residents are vested in its success. He said the organization would also like to see a new wave of pride in the community.  

"It would be wonderful to see second generation and new residents in the neighborhood. We'd love to see kids graduate from Crenshaw High School and want to come back to this neighborhood," said Boyd.  

Denise Sherman, 57, was raised in Park Mesa Heights. When she had the opportunity to buy her first home seven years ago, she chose to return to the neighborhood. Her mother, Lee Rae lives across the street and her son, Mark, lives just a few doors down from his grandmother. To her, the block is family and its long-term residents have been the key to its success.   

"We're blessed that we have a nice neighborhood," said Sherman. 

Nearly every day after work, Sherman sits on her porch to enjoy the last bits of sunlight with a book in hand and an eye on her 4-year-old granddaughter, Paris, playing in the yard. 

Though she is certainly aware of crime in the area, Sherman says she feels safe on her block because she and her neighbors are invested in their homes and keep a close eye on each other and their environment. 

"We have people that will walk down our street versus another street because they feel safe and I just feel like that's neighborhood empowerment," said Sherman. 

Sherman said she would like to see the Urban League advocate for the neighborhood because so many people are in need of assistance during the current economic decline. But, her impression is that the organization has, in the past, worked on the "other side" of Crenshaw in areas like View Park and Baldwin Hills--two largely affluent communities in the hills just above Park Mesa Heights.

Sherman said the Urban League faces a great task both in connecting with residents and addressing the multi-faceted needs in the community: "You need to know the people. You need to know your flock. You need to know who you're helping, what you have in your neighborhood."

To read our entire package on Neighborhoods@Work, which includes an evaluation of the overall program, its results in revitalizing the neighborhood, interviews with residents and a day in the life of a student, click here. We also include video excerpts of our interview with Urban League CEO Blair Taylor.