Meet Local Hero Nominee: Larry Gross

Title: Executive Director

Organization: Coalition For Economic Survival

Website: http://www.cesinaction.org/

“Larry Gross earned my respect when I realized how much he does in the community to advocate for poor people. He is sometimes the only person that stands between families and the street. He serves where he best can effect change: at all levels of government and has done so consistently since 1973. He deserves to be recognized.” - Dan McCrory, Nominator

Highlights:

• Larry Gross has been working at the Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) for 45 years, since its inception in 1973. CES is a grassroots, multi-ethnic tenants’ rights organization serving low- and moderate-income renters throughout the greater Los Angeles area, committed to organizing tenants to fight to ensure tenants’ rights and preserve affordable housing.
• Active in the implementation of the rent control laws of Los Angeles and West Hollywood, and instrumental in the incorporation of the City of West Hollywood.
• Currently President of the Los Angeles Board of Animal Services Commissioners (appointed to Commission by Mayor Eric Garcetti in February 2014) and Board Member of California Public Utilities Commission Low Income Oversight Board.
• Region 12 Director of the California Democratic Party. First appointed CA State Convention Delegate for 46th Assembly District in 2013 by CA Assembly Member Adrin Nazarian; elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2017 as a delegate for two-year terms.
• Serves on the Board of the statue tenants’ rights organization, Tenants Together, and the Healthy Homes Collaborative, an association of community based organizations committed to eliminating environmental health threats in homes and communities.
• Selected to serve on many City housing task forces and committees over the years including L.A. City Housing Crisis Task Force and served as the chair of its State of Existing Affordable Housing Sub-Committee; ACLU/Southern California; Slum Housing Task Force; Advisory Committee for the Study of Economic Impact of Major Rehabilitation Evictions; and one of seven members of the tenant-landlord Oversight Committee of the “Economic Study of the Rent Stabilization Ordinance and Los Angeles Housing Market.”
• Awards include the Durfee Foundation Sabbatical Award as an outstanding nonprofit leader in Los Angeles.

More about Larry Gross and CES:

KCRW: Larry Gross