Century Housing Corporation. WANTO Grant, 1998-2000

This series consists mostly of administrative files, minutes from meetings, organizational papers, court decisions, and editorials featuring the historical background and multifaceted construction process of the California I-105 Freeway. Although the Century Freeway project was envisioned in the mid 1950’s, materials mostly cover the litigation process which started in 1972, court decisions and settlements (1981), and various construction projects that began in May 1982.The Interstate 105 is 17.3 miles of freeway and light-rail transit ways between Norwalk and the eastern edge of Los Angeles’ International Airport (LAX). This freeway was to be built in compliance with a 1981 federal court consent decree signed by the California Department of Transportation requiring the maximum participation by workers consisting of minorities, women, and residents of the low-income communities that lie along the freeway's route. This series features documentation of the role and activities played by the Century Freeway Affirmative Action Committee, as a monitoring and compliance agency in ensuring the compliance of this decree, along with records of the relevant programs and projects used to recruit minorities, but more specifically women. Status reports and various correspondences thoroughly document subcontractors’ compliance with the stated employment goals (in regard to the aforementioned groups throughout the1988-1993 period). Also included in this series are the files pertaining to the Century Housing Corporation, a successor to the Century Freeway Housing Program, which absorbed the Women’s Employment Program in June 1996. Additionally, editorials, press releases, and newspapers clippings from the Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Daily Journal , the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, and the Dodge Construction News—Green Sheet feature the historical background and evolution of the construction process. As for the series arrangement, news and press releases are chronologically organized and appear at the beginning of the series while the remaining records are listed under the agency of origin or under the unit which inherited the functions of a predecessor agency. Complimentary documentation related to the Century Freeway, the CCAAC and other monitoring agencies can be found under the Academic file (see also box 19, folder3; box 20, folder 1-11).