Roy Payan is a Public Policy expert in Disability Rights, housing and land use issues and has been Vice President of Northeast Los Angeles - Save Our Undeveloped Lands (NELA SOUL for the last two years, where he balances preserving open land spaces and wildlife corridors while addressing housing needs.
Prior to forming NELA – SOUL, Roy Payan served as President of the Montecito Heights Improvement Association for 14 years since 2007, where he reviewed development proposals, housing construction fill-ins, oversaw the Planning and Land-use Committee for adherence to the planning and building codes. Roy was also instrumental in obtaining LA County funds to acquire open land spaces for the purpose of converting into public parks as well as implementing rain water reclamation projects and helping to write the Northeast Los Angeles Hillside Ordinance.
More recently, Roy Payan has worked on a program analysis of the county’s Los Angeles Homeless Shelter Authority to review program misuse and policy failures.
Roy earned his BA in Rehabilitation Services with a minor in Public Administration at Cal State Los Angeles and his Masters from the USC Price School of Public Policy.
Roy has won several national awards for his advocacy on behalf of persons with disabilities. He completed a Fellowship at RespectAbility.org in Public Policy where he reviewed disability policies at the federal, state, county and city levels and informed elected and civic officials on how to improve workforce and housing policies.
Roy plans to acquire the necessary skills in housing development to create Community Land Trust to build truly affordable housing for purchase by persons with disabilities to begin to close the generational wealth gap for this demographic.
After evaluating and researching the housing needs of persons with disabilities in the Disability Compendium published annually by the U.S. Census Bureau, he came to the realization that there is a shortage of affordable housing for this under represented group throughout the US. He aspires to implement these developments throughout the nation to begin to attenuate these statistics and begin to ameliorate the lives of persons with disabilities in every state. Roy Payan lives in Los Angeles.
Email: repayan4197@gmail.com