Our Team
Vanessa Gonzalez, Executive Director
Vanessa Gonzalez is a housing justice advocate, urban planner, and nonprofit leader dedicated to advancing community ownership and equitable development in Los Angeles. Growing up amid housing insecurity in East Los Angeles, she developed a lifelong commitment to dismantling systemic barriers to safe, affordable, stable housing.
Vanessa holds a B.A. in Chicano and Latino Studies from Cal State Long Beach and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from UC Irvine, where she also researched tenant-led housing movements in Berlin. Her career bridges grassroots organizing, real estate development, and nonprofit leadership. She began her career at East LA Community Housing, contributing to the founding of Fideicomiso Comunitario Tierra LIbre (FCTL), and later held roles at Venice Community Housing,WNC & Associates, and Mercy Housing, where she deepened her expertise in project finance, construction oversight, and community engagement.
After serving on FCTL’s Board, Vanessa joined as Co-Director in 2023 and later became the Executive Director in 2025. Vanessa continues leading efforts in affordable housing preservation and community stewardship. Regionally, Vanessa serves in the LA Community Land Trust Coalition, helping shape equitable housing and land stewardship strategies across Los Angeles County. Her diverse experience and community-rooted leadership continue to position FCTL as a model for resident-led housing transformative solutions grounded in dignity, stability, self-determination, and collective ownership.
Daisy C., Community Lands Organizer
Daisy Cruz is an organizer and planner dedicated to building community-led housing systems grounded in tenant governance, collective ownership, and cooperative principles. With over five years of experience in affordable housing advocacy, Daisy works to shift power to residents most impacted by housing inequities through co-governance and self-determination.
Before joining Fideicomiso Comunitario Tierra Libre, Daisy organized tenants and community leaders across Orange County to advance inclusionary housing, rent stabilization, and right-to-counsel policies in Santa Ana. A graduate of UC Irvine’s Master’s program in Urban and Regional Planning, Daisy has strengthened her practice through the California Community Land Trust Network, the Right to the City Alliance, and the California Center for Cooperative Development.
At FCTL Daisy supports resident leadership development, fundraising, and cooperative governance. Her work includes guiding residents at the Simmons Building and Tonalli Tenants Association in East Los Angeles to establish co-governing structures, community agreements, and long-term stewardship models. Rooted in her lived experience as the child of immigrants, Daisy’s work reflects a lifelong commitment to equity, cooperation, and housing justice built by and for the community.