A Community Land Trust is governed by a democratically elected board of directors. Most CLTs utilize a tripartite board structure, meaning a third of the board are elected leaseholders that live or work on the CLT’s land (leaseholder member), a third are community representatives in BVCLT’s service area (general member), and the last third are open representatives (public member). BVCLT utilizes a traditional tripartite board structure and a democratic election process to elect board members when their term is completed. Get to know our governing board below!
Our Staff
Ara K.
Director of real estate & Asset management
Ara (they/them) grew up in Southern California and currently lives in Koreatown. Ara is rooted in moving away from extractive systems and towards solidarity economies, creating other liberatory ways for everyone to thrive. Ara brings 10+ years of experience in affordable housing development in California, working with diverse affordable housing developers, community land trusts, community development financial institutions, foundations, and public agencies. They have managed all stages of real estate development, including site acquisition, securing necessary land use approvals, design development, financing, construction management and lease up. Through this work, they have contributed to the development of 1000+ multifamily housing units serving low-income individuals and families. Ara holds a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA and a Bachelor’s degree in History from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. In their free time, Ara likes to be outdoors around plants, reading or with their cats.
Citlalli V.
Director of Resident & Land Stewardship
Citlalli (she/they) grew up in Lincoln Heights, lives in East Hollywood, and received her BA from Georgetown University. She brings to BVCLT over 8 years of housing organizing experience, popular education, cooperative development, and language justice experience. Citlalli has supported tenants in DC through rent strikes, TOPA, cooperative conversions, and city-wide campaigns such as Reclaim Rent Control, Cancel Rent and building a city wide Tenant Union. Citlalli is devoted to building joyous and life-affirming spaces alongside her communities. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, karaoke with friends, cuddling with her cat Señor, and writing snail mail to friends and family.
haejin b.
Director of Cultural Arts & Base building
haejin (they/he/haej) was born and raised on occupied Tongva land (koreatown and central los angeles). Committed to organizing and building around racial, class, disability, and gendered justice, they bring in their own experiences of being and growing up disabled+trans, unhoused, and working class to their work at BVCLT. He has been involved with various housing and labor struggles, most notably supporting the vendors at the North Hollywood Swapmeet from being displaced in 2022. Their cultural and political work also centers listening, trans-diaspora, and body: focusing on pansori and corean folk drumming, haejin was recently a Community Artist Fellow through the California Arts Council, a Fulbright Fellow in S. Korea, and is currently serving as an Emerge Fellow at the Longmore Institute on Disability. He enjoys making art, music, and zines with their friends, tending to land/body, intentional movement, and slowing down.
[image description: pictured is a black and white image of a trans corean looking into the camera with a short mullet and wearing a casual jeogori top. the background is sparse save for a few blurred frames of art hanging on the wall.]
Kasey V.
Director of Campaigns & Strategy
Assistant Real Estate Director
Kasey (he/they) is a child of the Salvadoran diaspora with roots in LA’s South Central and Koreatown. They’ve committed their work towards organizing and building political homes, having the privilege to work on campaigns that increased public funding towards youth, rent control, and community development for almost a decade. Motivated by the belief that people have the power to create their means of dignified living, he joined BVCLT in 2021 as one of the first staff members of the land trust. In his time at BVCLT, he has co-led the acquisition of more units for the land trust, development of it’s second co-op, and runs political education for BVCLT members. Kasey holds a Bachelor’s specializing in Policy & Law from Cal State Long Beach and an Associate in the Arts from El Camino Community College. In their spare time, you can often find Kasey lip-syncing in his car, spamming his Instagram story, and attempting to put barbells over his head. Kasey also serves on the LA Co-op Lab board.
