The Keys to Hope: Opening Doors initiative offers affordable housing, one micro unit at a time

Syd Stewart does not consider the work she does a job. It is a purpose, a calling. In her own words, “There’s nothing like being a hope broker and a blessing distributor.”

As the founder and CEO of Better Youth, Inc., Stewart is celebrating the organization’s more than 15 years of service in Los Angeles as a social impact nonprofit that builds creative confidence, closes resource gaps and prepares foster and system-impacted youth ages 17 to 24 for sustained personal growth and professional success in the creative economy.

An extension of Better Youth’s social support services for Transitional Age Youth (TAY) is housing, which is why members of the organization are standing at 280 North Oakland Avenue in Pasadena on Saturday, Nov. 22, alongside its partner organization, Community Builders Group (CBG), and 21-year-old Ayanna Lockett, who will be receiving the keys to her own micro unit courtesy of their new collaborative housing initiative, Opening Doors.

One of the obstacles for foster youth to qualify for affordable housing is the requirement of a job. This is where Better Youth and CBG can lend a helping hand. Lockett receives a monthly educational stipend from Better Youth, is graduating from Better Youth’s project management cohort, and is employed as a filmmaker.

“Lockett had a job and some help from Better Youth as well as from our group,” CBG co-founder Christian Hart said. “What we’ve been trying to do is match up people that qualify under the tax credit program, and that’s really where the magic is in terms of figuring out that the person has some level of employment and if they can get an organization to help, for instance, come up with the security deposit.”

The building at 280 N. Oakland Avenue where Lockett will be living consists of 100% affordable housing units. Hers is a micro unit, and the Opening Doors initiative is the first of its kind in the San Gabriel Valley.

“Typically, in a tax exempt or a tax credit building you don’t see young people,” Hart said. “This building is unique. We just finished it two years ago, and over the last two years we have seen a new dynamic of young people that have migrated into the building with seniors. The micro unit concept has been advantageous because we have this barbell: seniors and youth. We were taking applications of young people that didn’t have a rental history and when you looked a little bit deeper, they were in the foster program. We’ve been trying to find housing mechanisms to support that, and we started to reach out to our nonprofit partners, and that’s how we became familiar with Better Youth.”

“What we’ve been trying to do is better understand the marketplace for youth that are coming out of foster care,” he continued. “They don’t have a safety net for housing, and our mission statement is to develop affordable housing across the spectrum of affordability.”

“Many people have responsible parents or adults in their lives,” Stewart, who is also a filmmaker and television writer said. “But without that fourth wall, it leaves our young people vulnerable to navigate life without a support network, and their trajectory for success becomes very difficult.”

As a self-labeled concerned citizen and longtime social justice activist, Stewart jumped into the TAY nonprofit space 15 years ago when she moved from New York to LA. After taking a serious look at the landscape and considering the needs of the young people around her, she felt that she had to do what she could with whatever she had. “I believe in the power of one,” she emphasized. “We live in the backdrop of make believe, and it was difficult to pursue a career in the backyard where young people were suffering. I wanted to use whatever resources I had: I had relationships. I had people who could mentor. I could write a grant because I’m a writer. I worked in the entertainment industry, so I have a business acumen. My roots are planted in the community and that is what informs my work through art and film and television, and so now my voice is textured with the work that I do in the community.”

Lockett is just the first of many who will benefit from the Opening Doors initiative. After the ribbon cutting on Nov. 22, another TAY has been approved to move into an apartment.

“We have been using Airbnb as an emergency go-to,” Stewart started, “but it’s expensive and so we happened upon a very kind host and when she understood who we were and what we were doing, we bridged another partnership. Now we have two partnerships, and we hope that it increases as a community solution. We are what we’re waiting for. We are the solution that we need.”

The saying goes, entrepreneurs will work 12 hours to avoid working a typical 8-hour 9 to 5. Stewart laughed at the relevance.

“I’m privileged to get to help walk alongside young people navigating life,” she said. “That’s what I get out of it. I get the joy out of seeing a young deserving person be successful. I consider myself to be an ally and a friend and a lifeline for young people, and when they don’t need that lifeline anymore, I can say I did my job right. If they continue to need it, we still work with them until they feel stable and are able to walk independently. Mostly what happens is they become interdependent, and they come back to Better Youth; 67% of our staff are from lived experience or are alum, and they come back to pour back into the system, the sanctuary that helped them.”

For more information, visit betteryouth.org and thecbg.com.

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