HOUSING AS A HUMAN RIGHT

There are few issues as urgent as the homelessness crisis. Right now, there are nearly 70,000 unhoused people living on the streets in Los Angeles. The price of inaction is unacceptable; five of our unhoused neighbors die every single night.

No one chooses to be homeless. Housing policies that favor corporate landlords over tenants, economic policies that favor billionaires over workers, and healthcare policies that put profit over patients are all at fault. City action that protects the most vulnerable amongst us, benefit all of us.

If we lead with compassion and take bold steps, we can end homelessness and build stronger communities for all.

As an outreach worker and housing navigator, I know firsthand that services and housing solve homelessness. I will support and implement policies that recognize our unhoused neighbors with dignity and respect. We will increase outreach and access, while decriminalizing poverty, decreasing harmful enforcement, and supporting those most in need. As your City Councilmember, I will fight for:

Decriminalize Homelessness

  • Policies that criminalize homelessness only spread the responsibility of the crisis around and it does nothing to actually solve the problem. We will end the violent sweeps of encampments and end the criminalization of homelessness.

Housing for All Agenda

  • Our north star will always be to make sure real the promise of housing as a human right. We will work to expand the supply of affordable and public social housing to provide shelter to all.

Replace Cops with Care Professionals

  • We will work to replace Cops with Social Workers and Care Professionals during outreach

Mobilize to Build Permanent Supportive Housing

  • Convert vacant housing, hotels, and commercial space to provide permanent supportive housing to our unhoused neighbors

Emergency Response to Homelessness Crisis

  • Devote city resources to provide easily accessible housing, mental health resources, healthcare, substance abuse counseling, job training, and more to our unhoused neighbors

Linking Arms

  • We will work alongside our unhoused community members to guide the most effective approaches to ending homelessness

Our district is filled with working-class people, many of whom paycheck-to-paycheck. Too many of our community members are at risk of falling into homelessness. Rental increases are far and above the rate of inflation, and wages are stagnant. Our city has the power to make housing more affordable for all of us, we must reject the stigma of economic distress and poverty.

I will fight hard to put the needs of working families at the heart of our housing policies:

Expand Tenants Protections

  • Build upon the recently-passed tenant protections by passing a Tenant’s Bill of Rights that includes: the right to counsel, the right to safe and healthy living conditions, the right to affordable rent, and more.

Keep Rents Low

  • Create rent stabilization and rent control for Los Angeles across the Board

Tenant-Owned Buidings

  • Build more social housing that is owned by the tenants, not large corporations.

Lower Housing Prices

  • Pass a vacancy tax to ensure landlords aren’t keeping units empty to raise rents

Protect from Gentrification

  • As new housing is built, developers are kicking out and pricing out multi-generational families from their own communities. I will work with our residents to bring resources and housing refurbishment to existing communities without displacing them.

Tenants and working families have, until recently, rarely had a true champion in City Council. I will be proud to join in the fight for City Council to end homelessness, lead with compassion, and create a more just housing system for all.