Former Caltrans Home:

La Casa de las Mariposas

El Sereno CLT is a grassroots organization led by Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC)-led across staff, board, tenants, and membership. Ours is an intentional model grounded in racial equity and self-determination.

A powerful example of our leadership in action is the acquisition of a house once slated for demolition by Caltrans for freeway expansion. This was a milestone made possible through the Reclaiming Our Homes (ROH) campaign, a grassroots movement that arose in response to a failed freeway project that had left hundreds of State-owned homes vacant for decades.

ESCLT board members Martha Escudero and Ruby Gordillo, both leaders in the ROH campaign, organized with organizations, individuals, and families to hold Caltrans accountable, advocating for the return of these homes to the community.

Their efforts led to our successful acquisition of a house on Lowell Avenue in El Sereno, now known as La Casa de las Mariposas. This was the only property Caltrans has allowed a CLT to purchase, selling hundreds to larger entities that offer no clear pathways to ownership for working-poor families.

We are now designing the rehabilitation of La Casa de las Mariposas with added density, and in partnership with Quail Springs, we are a incorporating an earthen, fire-resistant design while ensuring permanent affordability and community ownership.

More than a housing solution, La Casa de las Mariposas represents a transformative model that moves beyond traditional, top-down CLT structures and toward co-design, shared governance, and inter-generational stewardship.

In 2018, Caltrans lost a decades-long battle against residents and environmental groups to finish the final five miles of the 710 freeway, a project set to demolish dozens of homes and commercial buildings in El Sereno, and whose gap would cut Pasadena and South Pasadena each down the middle.

Although Caltrans eventually lost the battle to expand the 710 freeway, the project stil managed to displace thousands of residents over six decades and demolish over a thousand homes.

For those tenants who remained undisplaced inside the gap, Caltrans became a landlord of buildings it eventually planned to demolish, leaving tenants neglected and other homes and businesses falling into disrepair, even years after having lost the battle in 2018.

In March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic’s shelter-in-place policies, more than a dozen unhoused families and families at risk of losing housing reclaimed several of the vacant, publicly owned Caltrans houses in El Sereno to take shelter.

Under the banner of Reclaiming Our Homes, the “Reclaimers” also called on state and local governments to use all publicly owned vacant homes, libraries, recreation centers and other properties to house people immediately.

After a years-long battle, the collective action of the Reclaimers forced Caltrans to release the abandoned houses in El Sereno and sell them to local housing organizations at the original purchase price.

From the first round of releases in 2023, the El Sereno Community Land Trust purchased a vacant, boarded-up house at 2990 Lowell Ave for $14,000.00.

The acquisition has helped remove land from the speculative real estate market and has put permanent affordable housing into the hands of the tenants to help build generational communal wealth.

With a rehabilitation estimate that promises to reach upwards of $500,000.00, the El Sereno Community Land Trust is working with La Casa de las Mariposas in El Sereno and Quail Springs in the Cuyama Valley so that the site’s future tenants can take part in designing their homes as an earthen build.

Lowell’s tenants will learn to build and maintain their own homes using affordable, durable, time-tested ancestral techniques, while weaving community between city and countryside.

We hope the future Lowell house can serve as a model for housing throughout Tovaangar/Los Angeles in the context of climate change, earthquakes, and fire where it will be through community itself how we will best shelter through these storms.

The Lowell Avenue Project aligns with the mission of the El Sereno Community Land Trust to decommodify and care for the land and provide housing that is decent, affordable, and held in stewardship for generations to come.

For an opportunity to take part of this vital, collective effort for a Tovaangar/Los Angeles of today and tomorrow and of many tomorrows, we welcome your donation and appreciate you getting in touch.

In 2018, Caltrans lost a decades-long battle against residents and environmental groups to finish the final five miles of the 710 freeway, a project set to demolish dozens of homes and commercial buildings in El Sereno, and whose gap would cut Pasadena and South Pasadena each down the middle.

Although Caltrans eventually lost the battle to expand the 710 freeway, the project stil managed to displace thousands of residents over six decades and demolish over a thousand homes.

For those tenants who remained undisplaced inside the gap, Caltrans became a landlord of buildings it eventually planned to demolish, leaving tenants neglected and other homes and businesses falling into disrepair, even years after having lost the battle in 2018.

In March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic’s shelter-in-place policies, more than a dozen unhoused families and families at risk of losing housing reclaimed several of the vacant, publicly owned Caltrans houses in El Sereno to take shelter.

Under the banner of Reclaiming Our Homes, the “Reclaimers” also called on state and local governments to use all publicly owned vacant homes, libraries, recreation centers and other properties to house people immediately.

After a years-long battle, the collective action of the Reclaimers forced Caltrans to release the abandoned houses in El Sereno and sell them to local housing organizations at the original purchase price.

From the first round of releases in 2023, the El Sereno Community Land Trust purchased a vacant, boarded-up house at 2990 Lowell Ave for $14,000.00.

The acquisition has helped remove land from the speculative real estate market and has put permanent affordable housing into the hands of the tenants to help build generational communal wealth.

With a rehabilitation estimate that promises to reach upwards of $500,000.00, the El Sereno Community Land Trust is working with La Casa de las Mariposas in El Sereno and Quail Springs in the Cuyama Valley so that the site’s future tenants can take part in designing their homes as an earthen build.

Lowell’s tenants will learn to build and maintain their own homes using affordable, durable, time-tested ancestral techniques, while weaving community between city and countryside.

We hope the future Lowell house can serve as a model for housing throughout Tovaangar/Los Angeles in the context of climate change, earthquakes, and fire where it will be through community itself how we will best shelter through these storms.

The Lowell Avenue Project aligns with the mission of the El Sereno Community Land Trust to decommodify and care for the land and provide housing that is decent, affordable, and held in stewardship for generations to come.

For an opportunity to take part of this vital, collective effort for a Tovaangar/Los Angeles of today and tomorrow and of many tomorrows, we welcome your donation and connecting together.

Further reading:

Curbed LA - March 19, 2020 - Caltrans owns 163 empty homes around Pasadena. Homeless families want to live in them.