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The designation does not come with earmarked federal dollars, but officials say the zones will have a leg up in applying for existing congressional appropriations for about 25 federal programs. An undocumented Mexican immigrant who came to the United States with her mother at the age of 10, she lives with her two children and now 61-year-old mother in a $1,000-a-month studio.įederal officials say the choice was made on the merit of the plans proposed and that the city of Los Angeles was the lead applicant for its zone, which runs from tourist-heavy Hollywood to the mostly Hispanic Pico-Union area. In some ways, the Hernandez household represents the kind of low-income family that might benefit from Obama’s initiative. “You have to revitalize depressed parts of the city to help get rid of poverty but, on the other hand, getting rid of poverty has often meant getting rid of poor people, so it’s important to make sure that doesn’t happen,” said Chris Tilly, director of the University of California, Los Angeles, institute for research on labor and employment. Some urban planning experts warn that it may hike rents and displace the poor rather than create prosperous working class neighborhoods. This densely populated, multi-ethnic swath of Los Angeles is one of five areas across the country designated in January by President Barack Obama as a “promise zone”, favored for investments to create jobs and alleviate poverty.īut gentrification already taking root there may prove a test for the plan, which taps existing federal funds for job training, affordable housing and public safety.

“The houses are being fixed but the rent is going higher. “I want to move,” said Hernandez, 38, standing in the shadow of another sleek residential building, the Wilshire Vermont Station. People stand at an intersection in Koreatown, one of several neighborhoods designated by the Obama administration as a "Promise Zone" in Los Angeles, California January 22, 2014.