Campaign for a Clean, Safe and Habitable Community

Campaña por Una Comunidad Limpia, Segura y Habitable / Campaign for a Clean, Safe and Habitable Community is a campaign to improve the quality of life for the people who live, work and play in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. This project was initiated by Union de Vecinos, a group that formed in 1996 when the City of Los Angeles threatened to demolish homes in two of the poorest housing estates in Los Angeles. Women from those housing estates formed Union de Vecinos and began mobilizing their neighbors to take control of their neighborhoods and livelihoods. As mothers, wives and workers, they have created a place where they can educate each other, build social and economic alternatives, and become empowered to combat threats to their communities.

The mission of this project is to improve the safety and living conditions for residents of Boyle Heights and to empower those residents to make positive changes in their communitites and their lives.

As a result of this campaign, Union de Vecinos accomplished the following:

- Surveyed and provided lead poisoning prevention information to 632 families
- Organized 12 neighborhood cleanup days, 20 neighborhood social events, and 9 Posadas
- Installed lighting in 7 alleys and repaved 3 major streets in Boyle Heights
- Installed a smart pedestrian crosswalk on busy street, and installed speed bumps around local park
- Registered 500 voters (467 in Boyle Heights), contacted 3,754 voters, and increased voter turnout in Boyle Heights in the 2004 elections by 21%
- Formed a tenants union in a local housing development
- Defended and won 30 eviction cases
- Prevented the owner of a 48 unit building from obtaining an exemption from rent control
- Organized an immigrant rights march in which 300 people participated