Claremont Lincoln University recently led a conversation on the housing crisis with local leaders from the San Gabriel Valley, including Claremont City Council member Jed Leano, Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval, El Monte Council member Vicky Martinez, and Tri-City Mental Health Chief Clinical Officer Elizabeth Renteria, among others, at the Sheraton Fairplex in Pomona.

The June 8 event was “a unique opportunity for these leaders to come together and work to crack the code on solving the housing crisis that our communities are facing,” said CLU President and CEO Lynn Priddy. “By setting the stage for really in-depth, in-person discussions, we are helping steward the kind of resilient and engaged leadership necessary for positive change in our communities.”

The event also included round table sessions with others, including John Farner, executive director of the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy; Shane Phillips, housing initiative project manager at the UCLA Lewis Regional Center; Derenda Schubert, executive director at Bridge Meadows; and Anne K. Turner, executive director and dean of novel programs at CLU.

“One of the panelists this morning said something that really stuck with me, that systems, and sometimes even government are designed in a way that excludes certain people. And that requires each one of us to step in and do our part,” said recent CLU graduate Angela Scott. “It reminded me of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address speech: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’”