Community of Pomona

Pomona, the largest city in eastern Los Angeles County, is one of the poorest cities in the United States in per capita income. According to the US Census Bureau, median income for families in 1999 was $40,021. Pomona's per capita income was $13,336, almost half the state average. 21.6% of Pomona's population is living below the poverty level. Only 57% own or are purchasing their own home. Crimes against people (murder, rape, robberies, and assault) are double the national average. Retail sales per capita are half the state average at $4,445. Roughly 50% of Pomona's students are classified as having Limited English Proficiency. Only 12% of adults have college degrees while twice that number have less than a 9th grade education. Though the high school dropout rate may officially be 9.8%, the "drop-off" rate of students who enter our high schools but do not graduate from them is 50%.

Taken together, these statistics paint a bleak and desperate picture. However, we choose to respond in hope and see Pomona as a place of tremendous opportunity. The people of Pomona represent the future of California and perhaps by extension, the United States. Ethnically, Pomona's population represents California's rich cultural identity and its increasingly diverse future. Pomona's Hispanic population is twice the state average at 64.5%. Pomona is 9.6% African-American, 7.2% Asian, and 41.8% White. Exemplifying our nation's immigrant culture, over a third of Pomona's population is foreign born. Pomona is also a young city with over a third of its population under the age of 18.

Pomona Hope Community Center

The Pomona Hope Community Center specifically targets the neighborhood between Holt and Mission and bounded by Garey and Towne Avenues. In this area, the portrait of Pomona described above is intensified. 73% rent while only 28% own or are purchasing their home. 80% of the people in this area are Latino. 48% are below 21 years of age while another 32% are between 22 and 29. Only 27% of adults in this neighborhood have a high school education. Only 66% are citizens of the United States. 52% of households live at or below the poverty level ($18,100), while an additional 19% make less than $34,999. The majorities of those who are employed are hourly-rate and mostly non-union workers in industry (42%) or are in service jobs (22%). These statistics, while leaving out the human element, nevertheless describe an extremely poor community with families ill-equipped to compete in the American economy and political system.

The need that the Pomona Hope Community Center will seek to meet is the powerlessness of the poor in Pomona - especially those who live in the target area (Pomona's poorest neighborhood). The PHCC will do that in two ways. First, it will seek to organize the people of the community to identify and address their most pressing issues, building relational power together to confront and/or negotiate with the governmental, educational, social and business institutions of Pomona for a more equal "share of the pie". Second, the PHCC will provide training, education and relationship building that will equip the people with the ability and capacity they need in order to organize successfully. This training will include tutoring, ESL, computer laboratory, job training and placement and relationship building for social action.