JPMorgan Chase Invests $1M in EBALDC’s Staffing Infrastructure
For Immediate Release: November 30, 2022
JPMorgan Chase Invests a Transformative $1M in EBALDC’s Staffing Infrastructure to Better Serve the Community and Build a Secure Future
Oakland, CA – As the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC) heads towards its milestone 50th Anniversary in 2025, JPMorgan Chase awarded us a $1 million grant to support the continuation of our Healthy Neighborhoods Approach to Community Development by enhancing our workforce resilience and meeting management challenges in preparation for the next 50 years. The grant represents a transformative investment in EBALDC to provide deeper supportive services and strengthen our organizational leadership development as we address the growing and complex need to house and treat trauma-impacted homeless individuals.
EBALDC’s portfolio includes over 765 units with a homeless preference and over 175 units set aside for special needs populations ––all of which require greater services and support to keep them housed. Over the next three years, our construction pipeline will quadruple the number of permanent supportive housing units we provide to the formerly unhoused of the East Bay – from a current 67 homes to 281.
Dedicated wrap-around services and case management will help ensure long-term housing stability for previously homeless individuals, including the chronically homeless and other vulnerable populations. JPMorgan Chase’s $1 million grant will help strengthen EBALDC’s position as an essential community anchor by building up our organizational capacity post-pandemic and further preparing our staff to provide crucial, more in-depth resources to our community.
Tony Tolentino, Vice President, Global Philanthropy, JPMorgan Chase, highlights: “At JPMorgan Chase, we recognize that a healthy environment is only achievable when all residents are able to access stable housing and services that support well-being. We applaud EBALDC’s commitment to building healthy communities and addressing the displacement of communities of color and low-income residents. We continue to work together and support a diverse, vibrant, and thriving Oakland.”
Our BIPOC-majority workforce––which kept our doors open, our buildings running, and people housed––has been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic both at home and at work, and is continuing to face a growing demand for increasingly complex services provided to trauma-impacted populations.
This transformative investment in EBALDC’s workforce will build resilience, knowledge to mitigate critical incidents, continuity, and stability for both our staff and our residents. It will also foster safer environments for residents, as well as staff, through the expansion of supportive services. The overall capacities of EBALDC’s on-site property and resident services staff will be enhanced with increased knowledge of navigating public benefits programs that encourage residents’ health equity and financial stability.
The overall goal of these strategies is to prevent the conditions that result in emergency situations and evictions – including unattended mental health needs and loss of income.
“This investment further demonstrates JPMorgan Chase’s thoughtful and strong commitment to EBALDC’s Healthy Neighborhoods approach to community development,” says Elle Fersan, EBALDC’s Executive Vice President of Resource Development & Communications. “JPMorgan Chase is more than a funder; they are our thought partner. Together, we figure out how best we can align our visions to support the building of more affordable housing, the financial sustainability of our commercial tenants, the health of our residents, and the professional growth of EBALDC staff. They appreciate our role as a BIPOC-led community anchor and invest in the very people who will lead our work to address the housing crisis. This investment is as much a community-serving grant as it is a workforce development investment.”
###
Media Contacts:
Vicki Shu, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation: vshu@ebaldc.org; 510-606-1812
Christina Dello Buono, JPMorgan Chase: christina.dellobuono@chase.com; 201-747-7747