Kiplinger’s Personal Finance – Financial Lessons from Immigrants: Work Your Way Up

As a 14-year-old in El Salvador during its brutal civil war, José Wilfredo Flores faced a choice: Join the guerrillas or join the army.

“The guerrillas would come to our house,” says Flores. “We had to hide. You couldn’t say no because then they would think you were on the army’s side and shoot you. A few hours later, the army guys would come and say, ‘We want food. We want to take you.’ If you said no, they’d think you were with the guerrillas.”

In 1984, Flores’s mother made her own painful choice. She paid $1,400 to a smuggler, or coyote, to help guide her son to Washington, D.C., where his uncle and his 18-year-old brother lived.

To read the full article referencing LEDC’s work with immigrants who want to start small businesses, click here.

 

Univision – Factor Económico Determina la Vivienda (Spanish)

New Census figures show that many Latinos in the District have left the Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights areas over the last 10 years and relocated to areas along Georgia Avenue, including Petworth and Brightwood.

Statistics show that the overall Hispanic population fell by nearly 25 percent in Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant while it grew by nearly 50 percent in the Georgia Avenue neighborhoods.

To watch the full Univision video clip in Spanish that talks about the new figures and the role of rising housing costs in this shift, click here.

 

 

Listen to LEDC today on NPR’s Tell Me More with Michel Martin!

Airing today at 2 pm EST on NPR (88.5 FM), LEDC’s Regional Director of Homeownership Manuel Ochoa is a guest on NPR’s Tell Me More with Michel Martin!

Yesterday, Latino Decisions and impreMedia released data from a new survey focused on how the national housing crisis has impacted the Latino population. The April survey is the second of a series of six monthly tracking polls in 2011.

LEDC’s Manuel Ochoa will speak to how Latinos renters and homeowners have been impacted by the housing crisis in the Washington region.

To read more about the survey findings, click here.

To listen online to NPR’s Tell me More, click here.

 

LEDC and DC’s Small Business Resource Center

Want to start a construction business in the District of Columbia? Well, buckle up, because you’ll need as many as two different licenses and must provide up to 10 different types of documentation, including a police background check, a “clean hands” certification, and photos.

(The “clean hands” certification, by the way, has nothing to do with soap and water.)

As District officials continue their work to make doing business in the District easier, the Latino Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) is supporting this goal through its partnership with DC’s new Small Business Resource Center.

 

Wheaton Patch – LEDC Executive Director Attends Town Hall with President

Manny Hidalgo, executive director of LEDC and Wheaton resident, attended CNBC’s town hall on the economy with President Obama in downtown D.C. today, and was invited to ask the President a question.

But between Obama’s extended answers and a few questions from CNBC reporters, Hidalgo didn’t get to ask his question.

Hidalgo said he was glad he attended though, especially considering the problems he hears about most often in Montgomery County – foreclosures and small businesses struggling to survive the recession – were on the table during the town hall.

“We wanted a question that most of our clients would ask,” he said. “To make it as broad as possible.”

To read the full article, click here.

 

Updated: LEDC’s Manny Hidalgo Invited to Participate in Town Hall Event with President Barack Obama

*UPDATED* 1:12 PM.

Reports are that Manny got to shake the President’s hand, but they ran out of time for his question.  Here it is – leave a comment and let us know what you think of Manny’s question and what you think the President should do to address the challenges facing the Latino community into the future.

Good afternoon Mr. President:

My name is Manny Hidalgo and I’m the executive director of the Latino Economic Development Corporation. We’re a community-based nonprofit that champions thriving small businesses and stable housing for Latinos and other underserved communities in the Washington region.

The economic crisis has left the nation’s Latino community shaken but not defeated. An estimated 17% of Latino homeowners have lost their homes to foreclosure, the Latino unemployment rate is at 12%, and the thousands of small businesses that Latinos had launched at a rate equal to three times the national average before this crisis began are now in serious jeopardy.

What will you do in the next 12 months to help Latinos and other immigrants rescue their dreams of economic prosperity?

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LEDC Executive Director Manny Hidalgo has been given the opportunity to ask a question today at CNBC’s special Town Hall event with President Barack Obama! “Investing in America: A CNBC Town Hall Event with President Obama,” will be hosted by CNBC’s Chief Washington Correspondent John Harwood. The town hall will re-air tonight at 8 PM EST on CNBC. President Obama will discuss the economy and take questions in front of a live studio audience during the one-hour commercial-free special event.

Live feed of the Town Hall! http://www.cnbc.com/id/24596546/

 

Extreme Makeover: Small Business Edition

Thelma Barnes, a Mount Pleasant resident for almost 40 years, remembers the day she was “walking and talking” with her doctor down Mount Pleasant Road when they stepped foot into the Mount Pleasant Pharmacy for the first time. Decades later, most weeks immediately after her trip to the grocery store, she drops a bushel of bananas by the pharmacy for owners Tony and Joanie Majeed.

“I like it here,” Barnes says. “It used to be a hardware store, but when they moved in, it was great because we needed a drug store.”

The small business that has served Mount Pleasant since 1983 is undergoing a whole scale transformation to better serve its loyal customer base and expand its appeal to some of Mount Pleasant’s newest residents. Thanks to LEDC’s partnership with the DC government, the Mount Pleasant Pharmacy has reconfigured the presentation of its sales merchandise and is improving its exterior facade, positioning itself as one of Mount Pleasant’s oldest yet most striking small businesses.

 

Building Community at the DC Latino Tenant Summit

What are my basic legal rights as a tenant in DC? How can I form a successful tenant association? How do I make sure my landlord makes repairs in my apartment?

This Saturday, LEDC and area organizations are participating at the DC Latino Tenant Summit at the Carlos Rosario International Charter School in Columbia Heights to answer these questions among others that renters in DC often ask to understand their tenant rights.

For Silvia Salazar, co- president of the Norwood Tenant Association, what began with a dysfunctional laundry room and a jar of live bedbugs in the Norwood Apartments in Logan Circle transformed over time into a tenant association representing 50 units with a blog and a Twitter feed.  Salazar, who will facilitate a workshop on Saturday, says the summit represents a great opportunity to share the lessons from her building’s experience as she and her fellow tenants worked with LEDC to form a tenant association in 2006 to improve building conditions and protect their quality of life.

“I knew that I couldn’t do it on my own,” Salazar said. “So we just decided to form a small group. We didn’t think in a million years that we’d be doing what we’re now doing.”