SOUTH LOS ANGELES — Sifting through her dozens of certifications makes it clear that Velvet Victorian, a South Los Angeles native, has a passion for learning. She's taken courses in everything from entrepreneurship to helping people find housing.

"This one is from 'Dress for Success'. They taught me 'Emotional CPR,'"  Victorian said, holding up one of the certificates.  

Victorian said the one place she's frequented since she was a teenager to learn job skills is the local California Employment Development Department office. Even when she experienced homelessness and job loss, she said the EDD office is where she could go to get back on her feet. 

"A lot of times, I have had problems affording internet. I had bad landlords or a terrible area where I lived in where I didn't even feel safe in putting in a computer or any technology in my house because I thought someone would come in and steal it," she said. "So I would go to those facilities and take advantage of the services and resources that they offered."

Victorian said an EDD office offered access to computers, workshops and printers for resumes and transcripts. It helped her find work that fit her tech skills.

But she said those services in her South LA neighborhood have lacked for the past several years. Victorian said she used to frequent the EDD office located at Crenshaw Boulevard and 54th Street. According to the California EDD, that office closed on Nov. 1, 2017, due to a "lease-purchase" dispute with the previous building owners.

It's also where Connye Thomas worked for 15 years, part of a four-decade career with the agency.

"We held job recruitments right at this office where the employers came here to the community to interview," she said.

Now she's fighting to reopen the building, which Thomas points out has fallen into disrepair with graffiti on the walls and cracks in the parking lot, filled with weeds.

She said similar efforts from community leaders have gone on for years. Most recently, State Sen. Sydney Kamlager held a public web meeting in August of 2021 with EDD officials Javier Romero, a workforce and development division manager, and Jesse Cuevas, the deputy division chief.

"At this point in time, EDD has not physically entered the building. You know, as much as the anticipation and the need is to see, we haven't been there sine 2017," Cuevas said during the meeting.

Cuevas also said that the EDD doesn't have possession of the building.  

But as the U.S. Labor Department reports, California unemployment claims surged to the highest levels in two months at the end of September. Thomas said it's more vital than ever to get the reopening process started and hopes the agency doesn't forget about this particular community. "They need employment. They need services to help them to help themselves," she said.

CA EDD told Spectrum News 1 in a statement that "there is currently no plan or timeline for the reopening of the facility."

Victorian said she wants to see the office reopened because of how much it did for her and wants fellow residents to have the same access.

"I realize that so many people in my community do not know how to get and keep a job and once they lose a job, lose the house, they find themselves in a tent and they don't know how to get out," Victorian said.