Meet Cristobal—Tenant Protector & Eviction Prevention Expert (Story 17/40)

“My family and I were evicted just a few years after we moved to the United States. I was around 8 years old, maybe younger, and it was traumatic. You don't forget those things.

I remember finding the notice on our door. It was pink I didn't know how to read it at the time, but I remember my parents scrambling to figure out what to do, and as a kid you can put two and two together.

Even now as I write this so many years later, I get teary. I don't like to talk about it, but it stuck with me. I was doing eviction/ housing work before I got here to the City Heights CDC under an attorney back in LA. I've been doing this type of work with at-risk tenants since 2017, but it doesn't feel like work. It feels like I'm helping my younger self, that kid version of me who went through that eviction.

I feel like I'm always on a very personal mission through this work, and I love that. I think that’s why it’s easy for me to keep going, even when the work is really hard. It’s part of my story.”

This is Cristobal, our Eviction Prevention Coordinator and long-time tenant advocate. Eviction prevention work can be grueling, especially when you’re receiving as many emotionally-charged, desperate phone calls as Cristobal gets every day. With evictions on the rise post-COVID and many families concerned they may end up displaced or homeless, Cristobal works hard to keep people housed because he knows how it feels to lose home.

This isn’t just an altruistic exercise when you’ve been through it, and we are stopping for a minute to celebrate this man, his resolve to support his neighbors, and his willingness to keep going, keep answering the phone, keep grieving with people and doing whatever he can on an often limited budget to keep a roof over as many heads as possible. Thank you, Cristobal!